know why you do what you do.

I know I have already blogged about communion before, but today we read a couple of questions and answers from the Heidelberg Catechism that I think are worthy of sharing.

Question 75: How does the Lord's supper remind you and assure you that you share in Christ's one sacrifice on the cross and in all his gifts?

Answer: In this way: Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat this broken bread and to drink this cup. With this command he gave this promise: First, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread broken for me and the cup given to me, so surely his body was offered and broken for me and his blood poured out for me on the corss. Second, as surely as I receive from the hand of the one who serves, and taste with my mouth the bread and cup, given me as sure signs of Christ's body and blood, so surely he nourishes and refreshes my soul for eternal life.

Question 76: What does your eating the bread and drinking the cup of the Lord's supper mean?

Answer: It means that I accept with a believing heart the entire suffering and death of Christ and, by believing, receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
But it means more.
Through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us, we are united to Christ as a body is united to its head. And so, although he is in heaven and we are on earth, we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone; and we forever live on and are governed by one Spirit, as members of our body are by one soul.