Words of Institution

The words which Jesus has commanded the Church to use in the Eucharist, “This is my Body, This is my Blood”, are called the Words of Institution and they are recited at the Consecration of the Bread and Wine.  When the priest, acting as Our Lord’s own representative, says these words, then the forms of Bread and Wine on the altar, and Our Lord’s Risen and Ascended Body and Blood in Heaven, become one.  The consecrated Bread and Wine which hide Our Lord’s Body and Blood, we call the Blessed Sacrament.

At the Eucharist, therefore, we actually offer to God Christ himself, Crucified, Risen and present in our midst in his Ascended Body in the Blessed Sacrament, and God welcomes us with him.

Communion

And when we make our Communion, that is, kneel at the altar and receive the Blessed Sacrament, then Jesus himself comes into the very centre of our souls, so that we become part of him and he part of us, as he gave his word he would: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them” (NRSV, John 6:56).

So, just as in Palestine you could find Jesus in his earthly Body in Bethlehem, so now we can always find him in his heavenly Body in the Blessed Sacrament, that same Body which was born of Mary, was nailed to the Cross, was raised from the dead on Easter Day, ascended into Heaven, and is now for ever glorified.

As the Prayer Book Catechism puts it:

“Question. What is the inward part, or thing signified (in the Lord’s Supper, that is, the Eucharist)?

Answer. The Body and Blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord’s Supper”. (2)