Medicine for Both Body and Soul The life-giving power of the Body and Blood of the Saviour

Medicine for Both Body and Soul
The life-giving power of the Body and Blood of the Saviour

Eternity is an everlasting banquet (the Divine Liturgy) that takes place in the heavenly realm. Every time we participate in the Divine Liturgy we are transported into a place where there is neither time nor space, and participate in that very banquet. As we receive the Holy Mysteries (Christ's very Body and Blood), we receive the healing medicine for that which ails us. Our brokenness in both body and soul are given the healing medicine that we so very much need.

God is everywhere present and fills all things. There is nowhere He is not. Hell fire is none other than the Fire of God, burning those who are unloving and unresponsive to His invitation to commune with Him. God does not send anyone to hell, for we sentence ourselves. Eternity with God necessitates a transformation of our souls, that we be purified in order to be engulfed by God's uncreated light. Without transformation the fire of God burns us, not because He desires we be burned, but because our fallen nature can not withstand the presence of God without having been purified.

The Eucharist is the very medicine that God designed for this transformation. Our response should be one of humble submission to this invitation to commune with the very God Who created us. Holy Communion is meant to be the very agent that changes us, making us whole. The Holy Mysteries give us life. Frequent confession and communion are the means we have for change.

The Eucharist is both mystical and symbolic and is understood to be the genuine Body and Blood of Christ, precisely because bread and wine are the mysteries and symbols of God's true and genuine presence and His manifestation to us in Christ.

The Holy Eucharist defies analysis and explanation in purely rational and logical terms precisely because it is a mystery. The Eucharist, as is Christ himself, is a mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven which, as Jesus has told us, is "not of this world." The Eucharist, because it belongs to God's Kingdom, is truly free from the earth-born "logic" of fallen humanity.

Saint John of Damascus says,  "If you enquire how this happens, it is enough for you to learn that it is through the Holy Spirit ... we know nothing more than this, that the word of God is true, active, and omnipotent, but in its manner of operation unsearchable".

During this pandemic there are a small number of people who fear receiving the Holy Mysteries from the same spoon as those who have gone before them in the communion line. These people are thus depriving themselves of the Live-Giving Body and Blood of Christ, for fear of getting the virus. To them I would say, it is important to remember that the Eucharist brings about healing of BOTH body and soul.

As a priest, following the reception of the Body and Blood by the faithful, I place the holy spoon into my own mouth, lest any particles of the precious Gifts fall off the spoon. I, like all priests, have done this since the day my archbishop ordained me into the sacred priesthood. I have NEVER come down with a virus of any sort for doing so, and I never will. It would be impossible, given that which I am taking into my mouth.

It is from the Powers of Darkness that such fear is generated, as the Evil One would have us fear receiving the very life-giving grace that comes from the reception of the Holy Mysteries. The Evil One knows of the life-giving power of the Body and Blood of the Saviour, and it is the devil who would strike fear in believers, so we avoid receiving the Medicine needed for our souls. Let us, collectively as believers, stand firm in our faith, and tell the devil to go to hell.

Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon