Models of the Eucharist

I was re-reading Chris Tessone’s post “Does the Eucharist Endanger Privilege” and its comments this morning and was struck by the idea of “models of the Eucharist”.

Our perception of the meaning and efficacy of the Eucharist is a distinctive element of our OC/IC identity. During the Reformation this was a contentious issue between the Roman Church, the emerging Lutherans, and the Calvinists. Their respective models and theologies became distinctive characteristics of each group. I have noticed over the past few months in various forums the various “models of the Eucharist” expressed by my co-religionists. In previous posts (Sifting & Filtering) I have talked about my belief in the necessity of a process of sifting in the OC/IC/ISM miasma. Perhaps exploring “eucharistic models” is one way this might be accomplished – just as it was amongst the Protestants during the Reformation?

In any event, I have noticed a characteristic about existing mentions of people’s working models of the Eucharist that raises a flag of alarm for me; and that is the “use” of the Eucharist in conjunction with a political or social ideology. It seems to me that we have a widespread problem in the OC/IC community of replacing theology with political and social ideology. We need not look far to see how many OC/IC communities define themselves not in theology and spirituality – but in political and social ideology: women’s ordination, abortion, ordination of gays, minority issues, even the ideologies of an idealised past (which never existed) as is often represented in the more “conservative” and “traditionalist” OC/IC groups.

Assume for a moment that my observation is correct (I’m not 100% certain it is myself). We can now look at the highly fractious nature of the wider community and understand why there are 100s of “synods” rather than say a couple dozen. Political ideologies are visceral, emotive, and fractious. A political bloc may shake hands one day, and poison one another the next. Throughout my many years of active service in the community I have seen this exact model replicate itself over and over again. Bishop X is pro-women, pro-gays, but priest Y has decided that Bishop X is wrong, and so “arranges” to be consecrated and lo yet another “synod” is born.

Where is the theology?

Returning to the point of origin, I recently witnessed a conversation that drew in the participants’ working models of the Eucharist. Each side began lobbing their model at the other, “using” the symbol of Eucharist as a weapon to justify their position. What struck me in these exchanges was the complete lack of theological development and argument – theology was replaced with political ideology; and once again division, rather than understanding held sway amongst our ranks.

The sacraments are not weapons in our arsenal they are complex symbols that affect and describe our identity as sacramental Christians. What are the core theological elements that compose the symbol we call ‘eucharist’? In order to develop this in our OC/IC context it is necessary to first explore the meaning of the incarnation (the two are inexorably interlinked with one another), not a political ideology; moreover the incarnational theology of the Eucharist, lends itself well to the next contributing factor – the theology of community. Again it is “theology”, the voice and conscience of faithful Christian communities, and not politics or social agenda that describe this component.

Only after we have developed a model of the Eucharist grounded in theology – our theology – should we then venture to pronounce on important social issues. Too often in our community we see the reverse happening – I think that this is very limiting – it creates a model of Eucharist which, due to the narrow range of interest of political ideologies, restricts the development of the person receiving. The sacraments are timeless, and unlimited in the way that they inspire our discernment, theology, and action as sacramental believers, political ideologies on the other hand, are fickle and can be easily swept away, sometimes with a decision by a single person!

The Eucharist stands at the heart of our sacramental faith. From the communal celebration of the Eucharist springs all the other activities of the church – the living embodiment of Christ in the World. Developing a well grounded theological model of the Eucharist is I think one of the best ways that we can distinguish ourselves as a community of faith with a conscious self identity.