Lord’s Supper Meditation – Where is the Trinity in the Eucharist?
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Old Testament Trinity, Simon Ushakov, Icon painting, 1671
A Twilight Musing
In our observance of the Lord’s Supper, we don’t usually think about or explicitly refer to the Holy Spirit, the Third Member of the Trinity. That is perhaps understandable in one way, since what is being remembered is the submission of the Incarnate Son to His Father’s plan of redemption. But it must also be remembered that Jesus had the Holy Spirit “in full measure” (see Jn. 3:34), and that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us up in the Last Day (I Cor. 6:14; Eph 1:19). By the same token, our partaking of the Lord’s Supper, though it focuses on the sacrificed Son, also directs us to be aware of the Father who sent Him and of the Spirit Who is sent by the Father at the Son’s request (Jn. 14:15-18).
Moreover, Jesus tells His disciples that “it is to your advantage that I go away” (Jn. 16:7), because that will trigger the sending of the Holy Spirit (the “Helper”) to them, Who will “guide you into all the truth” (Jn. 16:13). Morerover, the Spirit “will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn. 16:13).
We are thus enriched by the whole Godhead as we partake of the bread and the wine. By the words of Jesus, we understand that the whole being and nature of the Son relates back to the Father, and that the Holy Spirit emanates from both the Father and the Son and acts in accordance with their unified will, being God’s Power dwelling in those who believe in Christ. We rejoice in being reminded that the death and resurrection of Jesus sums up both the loving will of the Father and the powerful Good News articulated to us by the Holy Spirit, whose dwelling in us is the hope of glory implanted in our hearts. It naturally follows that “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:11). In communing with Christ, our attention is directed by the Spirit to what the Father has done in and through the Son, to our eternal benefit.
Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.
