“..The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these...” (Mark 12:28-31)
When asked, “..Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus Christ echoed the words of the Torah--in the Jewish peoples most important and defining prayer, the Shema, as well as the ideal found throughout the old testament, to treat thy neighbor as thyself, and to love the stranger, "..for you were a stranger in the land of Egypt." (Exodus 22:21)
When we partake in the Eucharist, we affirm the words of Christ--the idea that we must love God, and our neighbor.
The bread and wine we consume is said to be that of Jesus Christ--his body, soul, and divinity. this is a very strange concept to any outsider, and there are even those who have taken communion many times, without knowing the theology behind it.
If we literally eat the body and blood of Christ Jesus, we are literally a part of God--we are all part of the body of Christ, as the new testament says so many times, and we are all truly one, as echoed in Exodus, Adonai echad, "..hear Israel I am God, I am ONE."
Partaking in communion makes us all a part of an incredible oneness. We become one body, one people, we are truly, the body of Christ. We are then called, after mass, to go out to the world and share the gift we have been given. If you love thy neighbor as thyself, you are loving God, and if you love God, you love thy neighbor. We would never harm our own body, so why, would we ever harm another person?
Christians often-times forget that Christ's message was one of love and forgiveness, kindness, and gentleness, not just towards those in your family and close circle of friends, but towards your enemies. Next time you leave church, remember to see the face of Christ in all people, and in all of Gods creation!
This is the message of the gospel--the revolutionary message of Jesus Christ.
God bless.
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