Coming to the Lord's Table - The communion Rite -- #3

In the Lord's Prayer we, the assembly, prepare for our daily and (according to Saint Cyril of Jerusalem) super-substantial bread. This bread is hearty food. This cup is robust drink. The baptized, by reason of their birth in water and in spirit, have a right and a responsibility to eat the Eucharistic bread and drink the Eucharistic cup. If we were to forego these gifts, we would become spiritually enervated. As baptized members of the body of Christ, the church, we enjoy an intimacy with the triune God. We call God 'Abba' and we dine at God's royal banquet table. The Lord's Prayer asks God for daily, super-substantial bread.

The Lord's Prayer concludes with sentiments about our final destiny. This new prayer then expands and draws out the meaning of the last petition: "deliver us from evil." The presider prays: "Deliver us, Lord, from every evil and grant us peace in our days. In your mercy free us from sin and grant us peace in our days. In your mercy free us from sin and save us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ." Then all confirm and seal the presider's prayer, saying "for the kingdom, and power, and the glory are yours now and forever"

What does the prayer mean? What are we asking to be delivered from? We want to be delivered from the ultimate evil. We do not want to give up faith and hope at the end of our earthly sojourn. This prayer points us towards the end-time, our final destiny and final state after death. The Eucharist nourishes us on the journey through life. The Eucharist protects us from giving up, from despair, from a practical apostasy. In addition, the Eucharist brings peace on a personal and corporate level. Peace here is not only an inner tranquility. It is also harmony with others and with nature, prosperity for our families, our land, and our crops, a time without war, carnage, and bellicosity. God's loving-kindness and heart-felt mercy free the members of this assembly from sin and from all anxiety. This anxiety is not psychological anxiety, fear, or worry; instead, it is anxiety about final state and our final destiny. Christians need not fret about our final destiny because we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Waiting is joy-filled because the Lord will come to bring us home to verdant pastures, to abundant table, and to a cup that is overflowing.

In theological terms, this prayer highlights a dimension of the Eucharist that we rarely talk about. The Eucharist has an eschatological dimension. In other words, the Eucharist not only makes memory of the Passion of Jesus in the past and the present ritual enactment of the Lord's glorious Passover; it also has a future reference. Every time we eat and drink, we proclaim his death until he comes again in glory. When the Christ comes again, he will set us free because he is the savior of the world. Therefore, the assembly is confident that the Eucharist is a pledge of a joy-filled life to come. In fact, our authentic destiny is eternal beatitude. Seeing God face is the goal of a life personally well lived. In addition, the goal of human history is a recreated humanity and a restored cosmos.