By: Archpriest David Petras, SEOD  What the priest says When the priest distributes holy Communion to the faithful, he says a formula for each person: "The servant of God, (Name), partakes of the precious, most holy, and most pure body and blood of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ for the remission of (his-her) sins and for life everlasting. Amen." None of the sacramental mysteries are ministered without words. That they involve actions shows that they go beyond words, the action here being the sharing of the banquet of the body and blood of Christ, but they are also "logical," that is, expressed in human speech. They have meaning which is enunciated in the highest of the human faculties, speech. Jesus, the Son of God, was therefore called by St. John in his Gospel, the "Word of God." This formula, then, expresses our faith in what is happening. We are united to God through the flesh and blood of Our Lord by way of the outward form of bread and wine. We profess this faith before receiving Communion, "O Lord, I also believe and profess that this which I am about to receive, is truly your most precious body and your life-giving blood." For holy Communion to be truly a union with God and through him a sharing with all other communicants requires that the gifts received are truly in essence the body and blood of Jesus. The most precious gift This is certainly the most important gift we receive in life. Therefore, it is "precious" beyond our power to understand. Since partaking in the body and blood of Christ brings us into union with God, it is also "most holy," for God is unapproachable and good, who now allows us to draw near. Because in God there is no sin, he is "most pure," and as pure burns sin from us through the power of the Spirit, who appeared to the disciples in the form of tongues of fire (Acts 2:1-13). Indeed, we sing after Communion, "We have received the heavenly Spirit …" This is why the priest says that we receive Communion for "the forgiveness of sins." It is not possible to be in union with God and with sin at the same time. Communion brings with it both a healing of spirit and of body. In the story of the Paralytic Man that was brought into Jesus’ presence through the roof (Mk 2:1-12), he first forgives the man’s sins, then heals him bodily. Likewise, through holy Communion, our soul is healed of its sinfulness and our body receives everlasting life. For life everlasting The formula for holy Communion, in fact, announces that "the servant of God partakes … for life everlasting. Amen." Jesus taught, "I am the bread of life … this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day … Whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life … I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world" (Jn 6:35,40,47-48,51). We proclaim this faith in our prayer before Communion, "O Lord, I also believe and profess that this which I am about to receive, is truly your most precious body and your life-giving blood. … for life everlasting. Amen." This is why the Eucharist must be real, for it physically begins the process of everlasting life in our whole being, body and soul. Everlasting life begins in this world and in this time. In the beginning, Adam and Eve were cursed with death because of their sin. With the forgiveness of Christ in holy Communion, the sin is wiped out and we are restored to life, even though we must still die in our weakness, but now with the certain hope of resurrection. We have often seen that holy Communion is a community action. As a people of God, we are joined together in the body and blood of Christ. Communion is not a private reward for our faithfulness, but the way in which we form the family of God, a church called together to do God’s work. At the end of the Divine Liturgy, having received forgiveness and life, we are sent out "in the name of the Lord." Though we become members of the body of Christ, our own identity is not taken away. For this reason, when the priest gives each of us a share in the Bread of Life, he calls us by name. The name used for Communion is properly the name we received when we were christened, for each Communion is a renewal of the life in Christ that we received in baptism. In the church, we do not usually use family names, because we are now a part of God’s family, and so we call each other by our Christian names. Becoming a partaker of the body of Christ, therefore, does not erase our identity but brings us in our fulfillment as deified members of the body of Christ. "Servant" of God As the priest says our name, he also calls us a "servant of God." We approach God as his faithful, imitating Christ, who did not come to be served, but to serve (Mk 10:45). As in the Gospel of St. Luke, in the end we say, "We are unprofitable servants, we have done what we were obliged to do" (Lk 17:10). We must approach God in humility, but God raises us up. He did not accept his prodigal son back in servitude, but as his beloved son. We are children of God. In the last discourse, Jesus tells his disciples, "I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father" (Jn 15:15). The Greek word used for "servant" is "doulos," which can be translated either as "servant" or even "slave." The Slavonic word is "rab." The same word is used for both men and women. Our earlier translation chose the terms "servant" for men, and "handmaid" for women. However, "handmaid" does not mean exactly the same thing, but more a "lady-in-waiting" to an important woman. The new translation corrects this and calls both men and women "servants." Perhaps there had been a little bit of ideology here, that men and women are not the same. The point, however, is that in Communion we are truly the same. John Chrysostom made it clear more than once in his sermons that in Communion all the partakers are equal and one. We are all "slaves" of God who become his friends and even his children by being united in his body and blood.