Editorial January 8, 1949 Issue

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND SACRAMENT

John Randall Dunn

Newcomers to Christian Science frequently ask if this church does not commemorate the sacrament of the last supper. It does, twice yearly, when the subject of the Lesson-Sermon is "Sacrament"; but the Church of Christ, Scientist, goes further in this commemoration. Not only do the Lesson-Sermons on Sacrament in the Christian Science Quarterly memorialize the Master's supper with his disciples before his crucifixion, but they commemorate the Master's joyous meal with his followers after his resurrection.

In this church the material symbols of bread and wine are not used. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 35) Mary Baker Eddy has written: "Our Eucharist is spiritual communion with the one God. Our bread, 'which cometh down from heaven,' is Truth. Our cup is the cross. Our wine the inspiration of Love, the draught our Master drank and commended to his followers."

Now while the sacrament is spiritually commemorated twice yearly in the Church of Christ, Scientist, the Scientist awakens to the fact that communing with the Father-Mother God, the divine Principle, Love, can become a daily, yes, even an hourly practice. To the Christian Scientist, therefore, the celebration of the Eucharist, the partaking of the bread of Truth and the wine of Love, must be a continuing blessing and privilege. The same may be said about the sacrament of baptism.

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