Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Rom. 6:3-4, RSV)

The drama of baptism, which in the early church was usually on Easter morning after a fast and an all-night vigil, culminated with the new Christian donning white garments, a symbol of purity and new birth that is echoed in the white baptismal gowns of babies even today.

The next part of the initiations confirmation originally an anointing with consecrated oil, the "Christing" of the believer, for Christos meant "anointed one," like a king. In this act the believer becomes like Christ and at this moment receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Spirit descended on Jesus in the shape of a dove after he came up out of the Jordan, so the oil of anointing represents the descent of the Spirit on the Christian. The rite of confirmation is still practiced immediately after baptism in Eastern Orthodox churches; Roman Catholics and most Protestants perform it at a time when the person has reached an age of understanding. In churches where ecstatic experience is the goal, for example the Pentecostal, the gift of the Holy Spirit has again come into prominence as the mark of the true Christian, although it is not usually considered a ritual of confirmation.

After baptism and (usually) confirmation, the convert comes for the first time to the Eucharist, literally the thanksgiving service, the meal celebrated on Sunday mornings in honor of the Lord’s Day by full members of the church. In the early church, candidates were excluded from this part entirely, even as observers; they could attend services only to the point where selections from the Bible were read and a sermon was preached. Their first communion after baptism therefore would have been a special event: At last they were part of the inner circle, the intimate community of the church. In the early decades this was indeed a small group, a dedicated band meeting quietly to avoid detection in times of persecution. Their meals, at which they ritually remembered Jesus and reenacted his last meeting with his disciples, would have been charged with tension, excitement, and joyous fellowship. Yet the meaning of the Eucharist did not depend on the feelings of the believers present; even when baptism and confirmation became less dramatic, the Eucharist remained powerful and mysterious. It continued as the heart of Christian worship for centuries.

We can develop some sense of the meaning of the Eucharist by looking at the way it was most likely practiced in the churches of the first hundred years of Christianity. The rite began with a greeting from the bishop to the people: "Peace be with you." They responded, "And with your spirit." The congregation exchanged the kiss of peace, men to mean and women to women. The laypeople brought their offerings, a small loaf of bread and a little wine in a flask. The deacons received them and laid the month altar, pouring the wines into larger flasks. The bishop and the presbyters (elders, primarily church administrators) rinsed their hands and then laid hands on the offerings. The bishop recited the Eucharistic prayer of thanks to God. The deacons or bishop broke the loaves, they partook, and then the bishop himself distributed it to the people, saying, "The Bread of heaven." Presbyters and deacons then distributed the wine, and also water, to the people, who came up in a row to receive three sip from each cup., At each sip the one who held the cup said, "In God the Father Almighty," "And in the Lord Jesus Christ," and then "And in the Holy Spirit in the Holy Church," with the recipient responding, "Amen." After this the vessels were washed and the communicants dismissed.

The ritual had three prominent dimensions, each of them important to the new Christian. The Eucharist was a joyous communal feast; it was a sacrifice; and it communicated great spiritual power. The communal nature would have been evident from the beginning, with the exchange of greetings and the kiss of peace; here was the goodwill and intimacy of a group of people who felt almost like a family. Moreover, each person had his or her role in an organic and interdependent society: The layperson brought an offering, the deacon presented and distributed the offerings, the bishop consecrated the ordinary bread and wine to be spiritual food. The community ate together, solemnly, affirming their unity, becoming more truly one in Christ. And as at a wedding, the community overcomes its differences and becomes one in rejoicing with bride and groom.

Second, the Eucharist was a sacrifice, with each member bringing something, a gift of his or her own substance in the form of bread or wine, to become part of the sacrifice. The form is reminiscent of the practice of sacrifice in many societies: The person who has sinned or who desires a spiritual benefit brings an animal or some loaves or fruit as offerings of the divine source of live. In giving over a part of oneself, one participates in a vital exchange with the deity. In Christianity, this fundamental structure is amplified. The offering one brings becomes transformed into the body of Christ, who is God, who has sacrificed himself for the benefit of all. The food offered becomes divine through the cosmic miracle of Jesus’ suffering and death; one eats not bread and wine but the body and blood of Christ.

In this miracle, the sacrifice releases great spiritual power, an infusion of spiritual nourishment for the Christian. For this reason some Christians have wished to partake of it often. The development of the "low mass," which requires only one other person to be present besides the priest, came from the wish of priests to commune daily for their spiritual nourishment. At the same time, the extreme holiness of the rite, the sense that it held enormous power, kept some away. About the fifth century the laity stopped communing each Sunday because they felt too impure to approach the altar; it also became the practice that only the priests would drink the wine, and the laypeople would take only the bread. Nevertheless, the meal remained the "bread of heaven" and the body of Christ. As Theodotus of Egypt (c. 160) wrote, "The bread is hallowed by the power of the name of God. It is transformed into spiritual power."

Because of the enormous power associated with the Eucharist, the awesomeness of the idea of God’s sacrifice, and the sense of unity it generated in the church, Christians throughout the ages have entered into the ritual with humility, awe, and gratitude. The taking of holy food has been the spiritual nourishment of the church continually, week to week, in the celebration of the Lord’s Day. As the culmination of the initiation of a new believer, the Eucharist has been a most powerful ritual; the seeker of salvation becomes a part of a holy community.




Copyright © 1985 by Sandra Sizer

From Religious Traditions of the World, edited by H. Byron Earhart (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993). Used by arrangement with HarperSanFrancisco, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.