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The Rite of Communion We Now Move to the Third Section of the Liturgy Of 1 The Rite of Communion We now move to the third section of the Liturgy of the Eucharist: the Communion Rite. In this part of the Liturgy, the faithful who are properly disposed receive the Body & Blood of Christ. In the preceding section, the Eucharistic Prayer, the bread & wine offered by the people became the Body & Blood of Christ. Now the congregation is nourished with that spiritual food. The Lord’s Prayer The Communion Rite begins with the celebrant inviting the congregation to prayer. This invitation is responded to by the congregation, joined by the celebrant, who recite the Lord’s Prayer. The final petition of the Lord’s Prayer is expanded in an addition known as the Embolism which begs deliverance from the power of evil for the entire community of the faithful. To this the congregation concludes with yet another doxology. Let’s examine each of these in more detail. The Invitation The Invitation which had four forms in the previous version of the Roman Missal, in the current Missal has only one form: “At the Saviour’s command & formed by divine teaching, we dare to say:” The Saviour’s command may derive from the request of the disciples to Jesus in Lk 11:2 – “When you pray, say…” Jesus formed us by a new prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, presented in the Biblical text in two forms: Lk 11:2-4 & Mt 6:9-15. The Matthean form of the Lord’s Prayer is used in the liturgy. Through this command & formation we are able to pray, or better, we dare to pray. Again the echoes of Paul: “God sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts crying out ‘Abba’, that is, Father” (Gal 4:6). The words of the Lord’s Prayer have not been changed in the new translation. The Lord’s Prayer The structure of the Lord’s Prayer as we find it in the liturgy is simple. It begins with an address to God as Father, Our Father. That is followed by three petitions addressed to God & three petitions concerning our own situation. The opening address of the Lord’s Prayer is to the Father, not “my Father” but “Our Father” to show that we are all children of a common Father, brothers & sisters in Christ. The more personal address of Lk, simply “Father” or as some see it “Abba”, is formalised in the Matthean version who adds “the one who is in the heavens”, more commonly translated “who art in heaven.” This emphasises the 2 distance between us & the Father. A good Jew would never think of addressing God in an extremely personal way & so Mt formalises the address in this way. That distance is further articulated in the first petition of the prayer: “Hallowed be thy name.” The verb “hallow” in early English, has the meaning of “make holy”. In the Jewish understanding, “name” signifies the person. In fact, in later Judaism one of the ways a good Jew avoided pronouncing the divine name was to use the term “name” in place of the divine name. Thus God was known as “the name” (hashim). So the petition really means “you are holy”, “may you be holy.” “Holiness” was “to be set apart”. Thus we pray: “may you be set apart & treated with the highest of honour.” The second petition stresses one of the strongest expectations of Jesus’ day: the coming of the Messiah to establish the Kingdom or dominion of God. Jesus is that Messiah who establishes that Kingdom but it is not fully established. Hence this prayer is to bring about that final definitive establishment of the Kingdom which is to occur in the end times. The wish of this petition is expressed in the ancient prayer of the early Church – Marana-tha – “Lord, come.” The thought of both of these petitions is also found in the great Jewish prayer of the day – the Kaddish – “magnified & sanctified be his great name in the world which he created according to his will. May he establish his Kingdom in your lifetime & in your days & in the lifetime of the whole household of Israel, speedily & at a near time.” The third petition expresses the essence of all prayer i.e. that God’s will be done. Prayer is not to meet our needs, fulfil our desires, or solve our problems. Prayer is that the accomplishment of God’s will, will be first & foremost in our lives here on earth, as it is in heaven. This can be a rather shocking petition when we realise what we’re actually saying. It’s a total placing of ourselves in God’s hands, knowing that as a Father he knows what is best for us. If we truly believe in the Father, as we said in the Creed, then we must also trust that the Father in his love for us will grant us what is best for us, not necessarily what we might want at any given moment. The fourth petition switches the focus from God to us. We ask that God “give us our daily bread this day.” Bread here is a symbol of all of our needs, physical & spiritual. So we pray that God provide us with what is necessary, to make it physically & spiritually through the day. There is a problem with the word translated “daily.” In Greek it is έπιουσίος which is a very unusual Greek word. In fact the Lord’s Prayer in the Scriptures & in citations of the Lord’s Prayer in the Church Fathers, are the only places in all 3 Greek literature where we find this word. What does it mean? Έπι (epi) means “on” or “over”. Ουσία (ousia) as we’ve seen, is a technical term referring to “essence” or “substance.” That leaves us with “over substance bread”. Some have chosen to change that to “super-substantial bread”. What does that mean? Many take it as a reference to the Book of Exodus & the manna in particular. Only enough manna was given for a particular day. Thus the sense would be to rely on God that He would provide the necessary provision for this day. On the day before the Sabbath, however, a double portion of manna fell. That double portion was seen as “super-substantial”. Hence a translation could be: “give us today the bread for tomorrow.” & of course when we are in the realm of bread, there is obviously a link & foreshadowing of the bread of the Eucharist, our spiritual sustenance. The fifth petition reminds us that we are sinners & our need for forgiveness. Sin is a debt we owe to God, a debt that is impossible for us to pay on our own. Hence God chose to become one of us in order to make repayment of that debt possible. In the fifth petition, we ask God to cancel our debt or forgive our sins. But there’s a catch. We ask God’s forgiveness as we forgive those who trespass or sin against us. Again we may be shocked at what we’re saying. We’re telling God to forgive our wrongs, our sins, in exactly the same manner in which we forgive others. Put another way, for God to forgive us we must forgive others. The sentiment is common in ancient Judaism e.g.: “Forgive your neighbour the wrong he has done & then your sins will be pardoned when you pray” (Sirach 28:2). The final petition of the Lord’s Prayer is that we not be exposed to the final test. Again we have a Greek word with a double sense; πειρασμος (peirasmos) can mean “temptation” or “test”. We know that God does not tempt us, but he does test us to see how strong we are. This is akin to the testing of metals for their purity. On the other hand, temptation does come from the Evil One or Satan. So this could be a petition to keep us free from the wiles or temptations of the devil, translated “deliver us from the evil one.” The noun which ends the Lord’s Prayer can refer either to a thing, neuter, “evil”; or a person, masculine, “the evil one.” Jesus ends the Lord’s Prayer teaching us that we need to rely on God, not only for our physical sustenance, but also for moral triumph & spiritual victory. As we prepare to approach the table of the Lord in communion, we praise God, demonstrate our reliance on God to do his will, accept his sustenance & ask that he provide us with victory over evil. It is a very neat summary of the Christian life. The Embolism The Embolism that follows is essentially an expansion of the final petition of the Lord’s Prayer. “Embolism” seems a rather strange term to use for a part in the 4 liturgy, but when we look at its origin it makes perfect sense. It is made up of two Greek words: εν (en) or εμ (em) which is the preposition “in” or “on”, & βαλισμός (balismos) which comes from the Greek verb βαλειν (balein) meaning “to throw” – or more genteelly “to put” or “to place”. So the Embolism is something that has been put on to or added on to the Lord’s Prayer. Jungmann notes that “in all forms of the Roman Liturgy there was a petition inserted into the Lord’s Prayer.” In the current ritual that petition expands the final petition of the prayer itself: “Deliver us from evil.” The Embolism begins “Deliver us, O Lord, from every evil.” This prayer then expands the prayer to deliver us from evil to encompass every type of evil.
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