Day 18
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.
1 Corinthians 11:27-29 (From the Epistle of the Vesperal Liturgy Holy Thursday Morning)
Yesterday's reflection talked about the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, of the Orthodox Church. We talked about how every time we receive Holy Communion we touch the Divine God and the Divine God touches us. Assuming for a moment that each and every one of us believes that (I certainly do!), we then have to look at how we prepare, how we get ready to touch the Divine God.
There are a lot of analogies that we could use when we start talking about preparing. A person does not decide one morning to run a marathon. Instead, they prepare. They start running each day, and eventually they become ready to run that marathon. A person does not just walk into a class on its last day and take the final exam. Instead, they attend class, study and then take that final. Holy Communion is the same. We should not just "get up" on Sunday morning and decide we are going to receive it that day. These analogies fail though, because if we do not prepare for the race or the test, we will most likely fail. However, if we do not prepare for Holy Communion, much more is at stake. As we see from the words of St. Paul, we risk profaning (treat with disrespect) Holy Communion and we risk bringing judgment upon ourselves.
Fr. Stavros talks about what we need to prepare to receive, to touch the Divine God. First and foremost, we must believe, we must have faith. The Orthodox Church has a set of beliefs and teachings that it follows. In order to receive Holy Communion we must believe those things. The next two things we must do to prepare is to pray and fast. We pray the prayers prior to Holy Communion found in our prayer books, and we abstain from food and drink that day until after we receive Holy Communion. The other thing we must do to prepare is to live a moral life. And this brings us of course to Confession.
Fr. Stavros outlines beautifully what Confession is and what it is not. I would like to repeat some of his thoughts here:
- Confession is a cry for help. This may be the most misunderstood aspect or Confession. So often we lament the Lenten season because "we have to go to Confession". Instead, we should rejoice in the opportunity to cry to God for help.
- Confession is a recommitment to God. As we said yesterday, repentance is "changing ones mind"
- We can rid ourselves of guilt. Confession allows us to lay our sins at the feet of Christ and have them wiped away.
- Confession is an opportunity for guidance. In our time, the idea of a relationship between a spiritual Father and spiritual child is all but lost. The ability to have someone (the priest) help us in our spiritual struggle is invaluable.
- Lastly, we have the chance to "wipe out" our sins. Confession is often called a "baptism of tears". When we truly repent and confess, our tears of sorrow over our sinfulness washes away the stains that sin have placed on the bright white baptismal robe that we are mystically clothed with at baptism,
We can see from the above the importance of Confession. It is a at the same time a tool to grow closer to God and a gift that leads us to salvation. As Fr. Stavros says, Holy Communion "...should not be treated casually, but with reverence. Part of our reverence is preparation. Part of our preparation is examination, and an important part of examination is confession."
Prepare yourself for the Lord today!
In Christ
Fr. David