Dear Administrator and brothers and sisters:

I have read the many postings to this board and understand the reasons for the Church refusing open communion as it is practiced by many Protestant churches.

Maybe I am off the wall, but I think that what the original question sought to uncover is along somewhat different lines.

I have been wondering about the Eucharist in this fashion for a long time and wonder if it resounds with anyone else.

At some profound level, when any one of us approaches the Lord in the Liturgy to receive His Most Holy Body and Life-Giving Precious Blood, we are immediately and simultaneously present with Him at the Last Supper, at the Crucifixion on Golgotha, at the empty Tomb with Mary when we encounter Him with her, at the Ascension with the Apostles, and somehow--by anticipation?--already participating in welcoming Him back as part of His Glorious Second Coming. For me the sharing of the Eucharist is so profound and intense that sometimes I find myself all but overwhelmed. I believe that we are drawn into the eternal life of grace life right here and now taht we hope to live forever--we have one foot in this life and one foot already in eternity, if you will permit me that, when we commune.

Now the Holy Trinity cannot be divided. I believe that we can all agree on that. I have come to a point where I see somewhat in a fuzzy fashion that all believers and their communities that have maintained the Apostolic succession, have preserved the faith that they have received, and live that faith out within the Liturgy as they have received it have somehow entered that same life of grace that I have.

I don't know and don't pretend to know how the many divisions we have, whether administrative or theological, enter here. But somehow, have faced this rather profound understanding that at some level that God alone can unravel and fully explain there is a communion--a common union--that we share simply because Christ cannot be divided as we sadly have been. I also understand that this does not paper over anything that has been discussed in this forum by the believers who care enough to wrestle with this painful area of Christian life.

But somehow, again God knows the how, the why, and the wherefore, when I participate in Christ and His Holy Body and Blood, each of the Orthodox and Catholic Christians, whether Eastern or Western, who have lived, live now, or ever will live, is united to me in Christ because His Mystery, that we participate in liturgically, is greater than all our expressions or experiences of it put together.

Please don't misunderstand this as religious indifferentism. I'm about as tough an opponent of that type of thinking as anyone else. This is an attempt to understand this mystery at a level deeper than we as human beings often get.

Do I make some sense here?

BOB

Dear Bob,

Beautifully put!

The Divine Liturgy itself celebrates the Second Coming of Christ as if it has already occurred.

And it is God who judges who among the myriad believers in Christ, belonging to various traditions and Churches, really is a member of His Body.

We are united with the millions of these, the Church on earth, with the Church in heaven, and the Church of those who have reposed - along with the Holy Trinity.

Mysterium tremendum . . .

Alex

Billions!

Alex:

May I fine-tune your reply without offending?

". . . as if it has already occurred"

Eternity is a constant, intense, permanent now. Our future when the Lord comes as St. Paul has it in 1 Thessalonians 4 is already occurring before the Face of Our Father.

Perhaps " as it is occurring": The Divine Liturgy celebrates the Second Coming of Christ as it is occurring. I believe that the Lord will come as St. Paul outlines it, but the He is already coming to us as He promised liturgically. The reason we may not see this is that His Coming liturgically is similar to His coming at His Incarnation: the Chosen People thought he'd come riding in on a white horse and put the Romans to flight. We miss it, perhaps, because we're still looking up at the sky like the Apostles at the Ascension.

BOB

Bob,

Your thoughts have been put to music through Carl Schalk's setting of this poem by Jaroslav Vajda. It is one of the few truly great contemporary hymns:

Now the silence
Now the peace
Now the empty hands uplifted
Now the kneeling
Now the plea
Now the Father's arms in welcome
Now the hearing
Now the power
Now the vessel brimmed for pouring
Now the body
Now the blood
Now the joyful celebration
Now the wedding
Now the songs
Now the heart forgiven leaping
Now the Spirit's visitation
Now the Son's epiphany
Now the Father's blessing
Now
Now
Now

How can their be unity of Christians if The Eucharist is inclusive?

Jupiter - How do you define "Christians?" In a real sense there is already unity among Christians.