Table of Contents | Cover Page  |  Editors  |  Contributors  |  Introduction  |  Web Version

Seen by the Christian Church as Christ's formal institution of the Eucharist (or the Holy Communion, Mass, Divine Liturgy, or Lord's Supper), the central symbolic practice of the Christian faith. The two "commands" given on the occasion were unusually specific and clearly intended as paradigmatic: to wash one another's feet and to bless and share bread and wine in "remembrance" of (to re-"present") himself. However, just as it has been "repeated" ever since, beginning with the breaking of the bread on the evening of Easter day on the road to Emmaus, so it is seen as being "anticipated," in the Feeding of the Four and Five Thousands, in the gift of Manna in the Wilderness—and in all human nourishment.

—Edward I. Bailey

Reference

St. Paul, First Letter to the Corinthians, 11:17-34 (c. 43 C.E.)

Hartford Institute for Religion Research   hirr@hartsem.edu
Hartford Seminary, 77 Sherman Street, Hartford, CT 06105  860-509-9500