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456 - Communion |
Communion
The broken bread, the sacramental wine,
Though but a drop of unfermented juice,
Become for us more than a meagre sign
When we remember who prescribed their use.That is his body, this his very blood,
Broken and spilled for us in grain and grape
Since and before Noah escaped the Flood
And saw the shimmering rainbow taking shape.God made the world, made it our food and drink,
And spelled it out in Christ upon the Cross;
Then set him as a rainbow on the brink
Of that abyss that seems life's utter loss.In God we live, and by these elements
Are joined to God through Christ in conscious trust:
Here is the hope, and here the evidence
That we, who're made of dust, are more than dust.Thanksgiving for this gift, here on bent knee,
Remembering Jesus Christ, we offer up,
And welcome his divine humanity
Into our lives, in sharing the loaf and cup.
Harold McCurdy is Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Poetry is his retirement avocation, and he has published six volumes of poems, some of which have appeared in THEOLOGY TODAY.