Lord's Supper in the 1928 BCP Catechism

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Lord's Supper in the 1928 BCP Catechism is the instruction on Holy Communion in the Catechism of the American 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Following its account of Baptism, the Catechism asks why the Supper was instituted, what is received, what benefit follows, and how communicants should prepare. It names Baptism and the Supper as the two sacraments generally necessary to salvation and describes a sacrament as a Christ-ordained sign, means, and pledge of grace.[1]

Remembrance of Christ's sacrifice

Asked why the Lord's Supper was ordained, the Catechism answers:

For the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and of the benefits which we receive thereby.

[2]

The remembrance is both of Christ's death and of the benefits flowing from it. In 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 Paul recounts the Lord's commands over bread and cup and says that eating and drinking proclaim his death until he comes. The Prayer of Consecration similarly gives thanks for Christ's one offering and calls for a perpetual memory until his coming again.[3]

Writing before the 1928 revision, Bishop Manton Eastburn explained this remembrance and then described the Supper's nourishing purpose:

One principal aspect in which the Holy Communion stands before us, is that of a commemorative institution. It was enjoined, for the purpose of calling to mind, through all the generations of the Christian church, the Redeemer's dying love.

[4]

Eastburn goes on to call the Supper a means of spiritual nourishment as well as a commemoration. His interpretation makes clear why the Catechism proceeds from remembrance to questions about reception and benefit; it is a nineteenth-century explanation, not an additional answer in the 1928 text.[5]

Sign, gift, and benefit

The Catechism identifies the outward part or sign as:

Bread and Wine, which the Lord hath commanded to be received.

[6]

It then distinguishes this from the inward part, or thing signified:

The Body and Blood of Christ, which are spiritually taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper.

[7]

The following answer describes the benefit of this reception:

The strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the Body and Blood of Christ, as our bodies are by the Bread and Wine.

[8]

The bodily nourishment provided by bread and wine serves as an analogy for the strengthening of souls. In 1 Corinthians 10:16–17, Paul describes the cup and the bread as communion in Christ's blood and body, and the one bread as related to the one body of those who partake. The Catechism's account therefore joins Christ's gift and the life of his people.[9]

Morgan Dix, an American priest lecturing in 1892, drew attention to the order of these catechetical distinctions:

Three terms are to be considered: the sign, signum; the thing signified, res; the benefit received, beneficia, or virtus.

[10]

Dix uses the distinction to develop a high-church account of Christ's objective presence; that further argument belongs to his own interpretation. Eastburn, by contrast, emphasizes spiritual nourishment of the faithful recipient. Both help locate the Catechism's concise answers in a history of Anglican eucharistic reflection without making either writer's full position the text of the 1928 Catechism.[11]

Preparation and the Communion rite

The Catechism's final answer on the Supper asks those who come to examine themselves:

To examine themselves, whether they repent them truly of their former sins, stedfastly purposing to lead a new life; have a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ, with a thankful remembrance of his death; and be in charity with all men.

[12]

Repentance entails a purpose of amendment; faith looks to God's mercy through Christ; thanksgiving remembers his death; and charity reaches the neighbor. Paul's instruction to examine oneself and then eat and drink, in 1 Corinthians 11:27–29, supplies the scriptural connection. The answer directs preparation toward participation and a life of reconciliation.[13]

The Communion office puts the same themes on the lips of the minister when the bread is delivered:

The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving.

[14]

The words bring together Christ's gift, remembrance, faith, and thanksgiving. After Communion, the prayer of thanksgiving also speaks of the faithful as members of Christ's mystical body and asks grace to continue in fellowship and good works. The teaching is thus ordered toward worship and a shared Christian life, not merely a definition to be memorized.[15]

The Articles of Religion printed in the Prayer Book likewise describe faithful reception in Article XXVIII and say that the Body of Christ is received and eaten in a heavenly and spiritual manner, by faith. Article XXIX warns against reception without lively faith; Article XXX calls for both bread and cup to be administered to the laity.[16]

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), A Catechism, questions on the number and nature of sacraments, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
  2. ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), A Catechism, purpose of the Lord's Supper, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
  3. ↑ The Holy Bible, King James Version, 1 Corinthians 11:23–26, Bible Gateway; The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Order for Holy Communion, Prayer of Consecration, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
  4. ↑ Manton Eastburn, A Brief View of the Nature of the Holy Communion; and of Certain Erroneous Conceptions of Its Character (New York: Protestant Episcopal Society for the Promotion of Evangelical Knowledge, 1857), p. 4, Project Canterbury transcription.
  5. ↑ Eastburn, A Brief View (1857), pp. 5–7, Project Canterbury transcription.
  6. ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), A Catechism, outward part of the Lord's Supper, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
  7. ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), A Catechism, inward part of the Lord's Supper, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
  8. ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), A Catechism, benefits of the Lord's Supper, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
  9. ↑ The Holy Bible, King James Version, 1 Corinthians 10:16–17, Bible Gateway.
  10. ↑ Morgan Dix, The Sacramental System Considered as the Extension of the Incarnation: The Bishop Paddock Lectures, 1892 (New York: Longmans, 1893), lecture V, “Holy Communion,” Project Canterbury transcription.
  11. ↑ Dix, The Sacramental System (1893), lecture V, Project Canterbury transcription; Eastburn, A Brief View (1857), pp. 5–6, Project Canterbury transcription.
  12. ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), A Catechism, preparation for the Lord's Supper, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
  13. ↑ The Holy Bible, King James Version, 1 Corinthians 11:27–29, Bible Gateway.
  14. ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Order for Holy Communion, words at delivery of the bread, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
  15. ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Order for Holy Communion, post-Communion thanksgiving, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
  16. ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Articles of Religion, Articles XXVIII–XXX, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
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