Quick – name three key elements of what Christians mean when they say “Communion.”
Regardless of your faith background – religious or non-religious, Christian or not – chances are you probably thought of at least “bread” and “wine.” You might have also heard of the phrases “body of Christ” and “blood of Christ” in connection with Communion.
If you’ve been to some kind of mass or church service that involved communion, you’ve probably experienced it as a rather somber affair. Even upbeat contemporary evangelical services tend to play somber hymns during their once-a-month communion services.
I remember when I first encountered Communion when I was probably about twelve years old. It was in a small town in deeply Islamic Yemen, at a Christmas Eve mass conducted by the Sisters of Light, the Mother Teresa group. I was a young Hindu boy then, but my mother had a deep friendship with several of the Mother Teresa sisters, since many of them were from the same part of India as my mother. So, we attended this service at the house where the sisters lived.