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The different Christian understandings of what happens during the sacrament of communion (or the Lord's Supper, or the eucharist) can be arranged on a continuum. On the one end (transubstantiation) the bread and the wine are believed to become the body and blood of Christ. On the other end, the bread and the wine (or -- more likely -- grape juice) are taken to remind believers of the body and blood of Christ. You can liken these understandings of the relationship between the elements (bread & wine/juice) and the Christ's body & blood to an understanding of the relationship between a form of currency (money) and something of value, such as gold. One the one end, the currency is the gold. Under a Gold Standard, there's not such a close identification, but still there is some real gold somewhere which upholds the value of the currency. The writing of a check doesn't require any literal connection to gold, but there is still genuine value being communicated; the check and the gold both point to and evoke the same thing. Monopoly money has no value in itself, but serves only to remind us of something else which does have value.
Transubstantiation (traditional Roman Catholicism) - Think of a gold coin ! ! ! Consubstantiation (or Real Presence - Luther) - Think of the Gold Standard ! ! ! Mystical Presence (Calvin) - Think of a Check which can be cashed ! ! ! Sign / Memorial (Zwingli) - Think of Monopoly money, used to act something out
Typically, the closer a church is to the Roman Catholic end of this continuum, the more often it will celebrate communion. Many devout Catholics take communion every day. Many Zwinglians have communion a few times a year. Here's some of what the Belgic Confession says about the Lord's Supper: Now it is certain that Jesus Christ did not prescribe his sacraments for us in vain, since he works in us all he represents by these holy signs, although the manner in which he does it goes beyond our understanding and is uncomprehensible to us, just as the operation of God's Spirit is hidden and incomprehensible. Yet we do not go wrong when we say that what is eaten is Christ's own natural body and what is drunk is his own blood -- but the manner in which we eat it is not by the mouth but by the Spirit through faith. In that way Jesus Christ remains always seated at the right hand of God the Father in heaven -- but he never refrains on that account to communicate himself to us through faith. This banquet is a spiritual table at which Christ communicates himself to us with all his benefits. At that table he makes us enjoy himself as much as the merits of his suffering and death, as he nourishes, strengthens, and comforts our poor, desolate souls by the eating of his flesh, and relieves and renews them by the drinking of his blood. Moreover, though the sacraments and thing signified are joined together, not all receive both of them. The wicked person certainly takes the sacrament, to his condemnation, but does not receive the truth of the sacrament, just as Judas and Simon the Sorcerer both indeed received the sacrament, but not Christ, who was signified by it. He is communicated only to believers. [Article 35]
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 Nancy Zylstra |