On the night before his crucifixion Christ Jesus dined with his disciples. At the conclusion of the meal he broke bread and distributed the fragments among them, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." Then, passing them a cup of wine, he remarked, "Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood." ^{Matt. 26:26—28;}

What is the spiritual significance of this? Is Jesus' command to be taken literally? Does the actual partaking of material bread and wine in the Eucharist impart spiritual strength? To many it does seem a tangible point of contact with the divine, but Christian Science can unfold to any earnest seeker for Truth a higher and even more satisfying interpretation of Jesus' command.

This Science teaches that communion with Christ is a wholly spiritual experience. It is to understand, love, and live the Truth that Jesus came to prove. He said, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." ^{John 4:24;} And the Bible implies that because Spirit is all-pervading He is with us at all times and under all circumstances. No symbols or ceremonies are necessary to communicate with Him, because, as Paul puts it, "in him we live, and move, and have our being." ^{Acts 17:28;}

We realize God's presence in the depths of purified thought—the spiritual communion that reveals the elements of the Eucharist present with us wherever we are. Referring to Jesus' real spiritual identity, and what the understanding of it can mean to us, Mary Baker Eddy tells us in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "His true flesh and blood were his Life; and they truly eat his flesh and drink his blood, who partake of that divine Life." ^{Science and Health, p. 25;}

Jesus was human, but he became known as Christ Jesus, or Jesus the Christ, because he was imbued with the Christ, the true idea of God. The understanding of this spiritual fact endowed him with infinite power, and was the basis of his mighty healing work.

Without symbol or ceremony, he himself communed directly with God, Truth, recognizing the unity of his true identity with the divine Life. And he recommended an understanding of this oneness to his followers.

In its true, spiritual sense, eating his flesh and drinking his blood means being sustained by the bread of Life, uplifted by the wine, the inspiration of divine Love. This is the way we abide in Christ, or Truth, and feel the harmony and strength of the divine nature. This is the efficacious communion that leads to healing. We learn in Christian Science that it involves a consistent effort to purify thought through the study of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings, and then practice what we learn in the detail of our lives.

Spiritual Eucharist demands that we progressively relinquish a personal, material concept of ourselves so that the mental darkness imposed by self-will and egotism may go. It demands that we more vividly realize the all-power and all-presence of God and yield to their influence. In other words, we find our life in God not through intellectual development, important as that is, but through blending with the divine nature in the quality of our thoughts and acts.

We communicate with Truth more clearly, become more conscious of our scientific unity with the one Mind, by becoming more Godlike through Christly living. Speaking of Jesus, Mrs. Eddy writes, "Obeying his precious precepts,—following his demonstration so far as we apprehend it,—we drink of his cup, partake of his bread, are baptized with his purity; and at last we shall rest, sit down with him, in a full understanding of the divine Principle which triumphs over death." ^{p. 31;}

There is much work to do before we reach the zenith of scientific demonstration. Then we will prove in its fullness the truth that our identity is spiritual and at one with God. We must be willing to eat the bread of Life and drink the cup of unselfish effort if we are to reach that point in our understanding of Mind when material limitations drop away.

Just as Jesus did, we will need to provide practical proof of the genuineness of our communion with God by healing the sick and uplifting the sinner. He said to his disciples, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." ^{Matt. 10:8;}

We need to "come boldly unto the throne of grace." ^{Heb. 4:16;} Let us claim and then prove that nothing has ever, can ever, or shall ever separate us from the embrace of divine Love. Speaking directly to us all, Mrs. Eddy states, "You have simply to preserve a scientific, positive sense of unity with your divine source, and daily demonstrate this." ^{Pulpit and Press, p. 4.}

Alan A. Aylwin