Holy Communion
“Do this in remembrance of me.” (see Luke 22)
“Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable human need from infancy and before to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacle of human greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of wheat; for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for an old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination or for Columbus setting out to discover America; for the famine of whole provinces or for the soul of a dead lover; in thankfulness because my father did not die of pneumonia; for a village [witch doctor] much tempted to return to [idolatry] because the yams had failed; because the Turk[s were] at the gate of Vienna; for the repentance of Margaret; for the settlement of a strike; for the son of a barren woman; for Captain so-and-so, wounded and a prisoner of war; while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheater; on the beach at Dunkirk; while the hiss of [blades] in the thick June grass came faintly through the windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an old bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp [in Siberia]; gorgeously, for the canonization of [a saint]—one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this, and not tell a hundredth part of them. And the best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the [people of God] have done this.”
~Gregory Dix
“Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable human need from infancy and before to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacle of human greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of wheat; for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for an old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination or for Columbus setting out to discover America; for the famine of whole provinces or for the soul of a dead lover; in thankfulness because my father did not die of pneumonia; for a village [witch doctor] much tempted to return to [idolatry] because the yams had failed; because the Turk[s were] at the gate of Vienna; for the repentance of Margaret; for the settlement of a strike; for the son of a barren woman; for Captain so-and-so, wounded and a prisoner of war; while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheater; on the beach at Dunkirk; while the hiss of [blades] in the thick June grass came faintly through the windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an old bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp [in Siberia]; gorgeously, for the canonization of [a saint]—one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this, and not tell a hundredth part of them. And the best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the [people of God] have done this.”
~Gregory Dix
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