IN coming to Communion you come to receive the Bread of Life, and a moment’s thought will show you that at least some preparation is needed for so great an act. We might say it is needed whether we think of God’s honour or our own good, and we will give a thought to the former first.

You will perhaps remember our Lord’s story about the King who made a wedding feast for his son, and who, when he came in to see his guests, found among them a man who had not on a wedding garment. The point is that he could have had one if he had liked, but he did not think enough of the King’s invitation to trouble about it. He thought he would “do as he was.” So disrespectful was this towards the King; that he had to be turned out. Here on earth God invites us to a feast on Heavenly Food (there is a still grander feast in Heaven), and the wedding garment which he requires is holiness. It is part of the respect and honour we owe to him that we should put on that garment as we avail ourselves of his invitation.

Then for ourselves. Perhaps you have not stopped to think that, even for receiving ordinary food for the body, a preparation is needed, but it is so. What is that preparation? We might put it in one word, “Health.” If you are ill you don’t [1/2] generally want your dinner; the food may be excellent, but your body is not in a fit state to take it in and use it; and, on the other, a good appetite is one of the usual signs of health.

So with the soul. In order to make good use of its food, the soul must be in a state of health; and what sickness is to the body, sin is to the soul, and that is why, in coming to Communion, we look into ourselves, or make what is called a “self-examination,” in order to see if we are in a state of spiritual health, or whether we have got unrepented sins on our conscience.

Suppose we put it in another way. If a friend, whom you greatly honoured and respected, asked you to a meal or to stay in the house, “and you remembered with a pang that you had committed, a mean, treacherous act against that friend, you would hardly feel comfortable in partaking of the hospitality and friendship until you had apologised and made what amends you could.

Now, Christ invites us to a Banquet provided for his friends, a sacred Banquet of which he is the giver, and in which he is the Food, and naturally we are not happy in making use of his invitation unless we are really his friends, or unless, in other words, we have got a quiet “conscience.”

And then there is another reason for our wanting to be as fit as we can when we come to the altar. We come not only to receive, but to give. We come to bring before the Father the Sacrifice of the death of Christ, and in union with the offering of Christ we offer ourselves. “Here we [2/3] offer unto thee ourselves, our souls and bodies,” we say in one of the prayers. And we do long to make ourselves as worthy an offering of ourselves as we can. Think of the joy of giving something really nice to someone you are fond of; and you have probably often wished to make a more worthy offering than was possible. And then think of the joy and honour of giving a worthy offering to God! And so see sin again as the only thing which makes our offering unworthy, and see another reason for looking into ourselves and making a good repentance.

Now, repentance means being sorry for sin, and saying so, and meaning to do better for the future. We repent, and God forgives-. We can’t forgive ourselves, which is what Pontius Pilate tried to do when, by washing his hands before the people, he tried to wash off his responsibility. God alone can forgive, and he gives us a way by which we can know he has forgiven us. Our first “washing,” or forgiveness, came in Baptism, and if we had kept in perfect health of soul ever since, nothing more would be required. But, knowing the weakness of human nature, our Lord left his Church power to forgive sins after Baptism (see St. John xx. 23), and this is generally called the Sacrament of Penance. Just as once the priest said, “I baptise thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” so now he can say, “I absolve thee from all thy sins in the name of the Father,” etc., and we confess our sins to God in his presence because that is the only way the priest can know we are sorry. When then, after [3/4] confessing our sins with real sorrow, we have received this forgiveness, or Absolution, we can say, not simply “I think” or “I hope,” but “I know that I am forgiven.”

But someone might say, “Do you mean that every time I do anything at all wrong I must receive forgiveness in this way in order to make a good Communion?” No. It would be very trying, to say the least of it, if we had to make a formal confession every time we were, say, a little impatient, or selfish, or lay in bed ten minutes too long in the morning. These lesser sins, generally done -without deliberate intention, do not really break our friendship with God any more than a passing thought of irritability, for instance,’ breaks our friendship with a friend.. These lesser sins are forgiven through prayer. “Forgive us our trespasses,” we pray; and many of them we don’t know. It is the more serious arid deliberate sins which call for the more deliberate making-up, and such sins, are usually called “mortal,” because, like a mortal wound which is calculated to bring about the death of the body, they would, if unforgiven, lead to the “death” of the soul by cutting it off from God’s friendship.

Now we have been talking all this time of the soul, because that matters most, but don’t forget we have bodies too. And the body shares in the Sacramental gift, because God gives himself in such a way that he comes to the soul through the body, so that the whole self, body and soul, [4/5] may be refreshed and restored. He “preserves our body and soul to everlasting life.” And so naturally the body shares in the preparation, and one chief way of this is by making the Blessed Sacrament the first food to pass the lips in the day—that is, since the midnight before. This custom of “Fasting Communion” is so ancient and widespread that we can only ascribe its adoption to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We think of ourselves; then, as prepared in soul-and body, for what? For a great act-—the greatest act we could perform on earth.

We are coming to give glory to God; to bring before the Father the Sacrifice of the death of Christ, who is present with us by the power of the Holy Ghost. We are coming to make a solemn act of thanksgiving; and we may fitly bear in mind any special cause for thanksgiving we may have.

We are coming to perform a solemn act of intercession on behalf of all Christian people, living and departed, and we may fitly think of’ any people or causes for which we more especially wish to pray.

We are coming to offer ourselves to God for his service and to receive the Body and Blood of Christ for the strengthening and refreshing of our souls.

If ever we must be real and sincere it is now. We must resolutely mean to use the strength given to us—that is, we must mean to do our part in fighting against temptation (especially our own besetting one) and to do our duty to God and to [5/6] other people. We must “steadfastly purpose to lead a new life,” and there will always be more ways in which our life might well be “new.” And if we really try and come in this sort of spirit to each Communion, we shall go away not simply with the thought of having performed a religious duty to God, and a solemn act on behalf of others, but with the humble assurance of new things being made possible for ourselves and of fresh strength received for the battle and journey of life. “I will go forth in the strength of the Lord God.”