The Meal That Heals

The Meal That Heals

In a Roman Catholic Church, people usually attend Mass and partake of Communion once a week. I have heard this practice criticized as being done too often, thus potentially causing a person to take it for granted. Using this reasoning, why should we pray every day or go to church once a week? After all, couldn’t too much of this spiritual activity also make a person unappreciative of God’s blessings? How often did the early church participate in the Lord’s Supper? Once a week? Once a month? Once a year? The Bible does not tell us how often we should receive Communion; it simply says, “As oft as you do this.” In later centuries, it was accepted that the early church partook of the sacrament once a week. Yet, consider the following. The bread from heaven fell every morning with the exception of the Sabbath, yet Israel ate the manna on the Sabbath by collecting double the day before (Exodus 16:5). Jesus said He was the bread come down from heaven and by sharing His body, we would receive life: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:51 Jesus is the manna from heaven. If Israel partook of the Manna every day to receive nourishment and strength, would it be wrong for us each day to receive the bread and the fruit of the vine that represents Christ? Note also that the believers in the early church went from house to house breaking bread and fellowshipping with one another: “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.” Acts 2:46 “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples

39