I have grown up having eucharist almost every week of my life. In my tradition, the celebration of the eucharist is noted as the chief act of worship; it is that which unifies the church and gives clarity to our identity as God’s people. What is more, the eucharist is missional, we are changed by having met Jesus in bread and wine. We are therefore sent from the altar to be witnesses of that change in the world around us.
Such eucharistic reflections are easy to write, but I must admit, I don’t always live out this reality. Sometimes I treat the eucharist as something to get through at the end of long Sunday morning. It is just another act of religiosity before I get to claim my Sunday for myself. At other times, I treat the eucharist as nothing more than a rite of nostalgia, something beautiful and moving, but ultimately an act that references an event long past.
The good news is that the power of the eucharist lies not in the appropriate theological reflections, but in the presence of Jesus. Even in moments when I am rushed or distracted, the Eucharist is a time of communion with Jesus. In bread and wine, whether I realize it or not, I take the presence of Jesus more deeply in my life. The eucharistic challenge is not to solely think of Jesus as I receive the elements, but to see my life following the eucharistic celebration as one of constant companionship with Jesus.
Standing before the Sanhedrin, Peter and John are recognized by the rulers and elders as men “companions with Jesus” (Acts 4:13 NRSV). What is being described is much more than a simple description of past association. The rulers aren’t simply remembering with which itinerant Rabbi the two men used to spend their time. Companionship with Jesus is not a past reference, but a present reality being lived out. It wasn’t just that they had been with Jesus, they were with Jesus even to that day.
The fact is that the Sanhedrin rulers reacted to a present and active relationship enjoyed by Peter and John. Jesus was seen. Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, the life and teaching of Jesus was as real for the two disciples as when they walked with him along the shores of Galilee. The elders and rulers recognized that Peter and John’s manner of life was different than others. This is what it means to be a companion of Jesus.
Etymologically, the word for companion is derived from the Latin com, meaning “with” or “together”, and panis, meaning “bread”. Literally speaking, a companion is someone who shares bread with another. To be a companion of Jesus is to be someone who shares in Christ’s lifegiving bread. Is this not why Jesus said explicitly, “do this in memory of me”? Much more than a liturgical exhortation, the call to eating bread with Jesus is the call to an ongoing eucharist, or in other words, and ongoing companionship.
Companionship with Jesus changed Peter and John’s way of life, to such a degree that Jesus’s Jesus was recognizable to the rulers and elders of the Sanhedrin. They, and the rest of the apostles, lived with an unshakable belief that Jesus was met in the bread and the wine. The saw their lives lived in the power of the risen Lord. Companionship with Jesus mean they lived with a spirit of listening, daring to believe that they could hear Jesus’s voice. They lived with a sense of zeal, believing that Jesus could direct their steps and guide their days. They lived with faithful boldness believing that Jesus’s power could heal, transform, liberate and forgive. When the apostles stepped into the world, they saw the people and events around them as teeming with kingdom possibilities.
Could I live in the same way? Could I step out of the way of my own fears, insecurities, and sins, and dare to believe that I am Jesus’s companion? Could I believe that Jesus might have something to say about how I live, where I go, or what I do? And might I live with the audacious belief that Jesus’s power is tangible all around me, and that I might be called at any moment to participate in his work? And in those times when my own humanity looms large, and I begin to doubt these truths, could I return to the sacred meal of bread and wine, and commune with Jesus once again?
