This is the familiar hymn that we sing throughout the Liturgy in Commemoration of our Lord’s institution of the Holy Eucharist:

Of Thy Mystical Supper, O Son of God, accept me today as a communicant; for I will not speak of Thy Mystery to Thine enemies, neither will I give Thee a kiss like Judas;  but like the thief will I confess Thee:  Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom.

Let us take this hymn phrase by phrase and learn from it.

“Of Thy Mystical Supper, O Son of God, accept me today as a communicant ...”

This Supper of course is no ordinary meal.  It is a meal for sure – bread and wine.  Nothing could be more basic than that.  But it is also Christ Himself who is given in the Body and the Blood.  This is a meal in which the Host gives us Himself to eat and drink.  Listen to our Lord in the Gospel of St. John:

53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  (John 6:53-56)

This is why it is called the Mystical Supper.  It is a meal in which Christ our God comes to us and dwells within us - healing, forgiving, delivering, sanctifying, glorifying – just as he did in his earthly ministry.

Notice also in this first part how we pray to be accepted today as a communicant; not yesterday or tomorrow, right here and now.  Praying that Christ will accept us implies that there is a possibility that He won’t.  How can this be?  Does not Jesus accept everyone who comes to Him?  Why, of course, yes!  But sometimes we can come to the Eucharist with unrepented actions and behaviours that are a direct violation of love.  Again, St. John, this time from his first epistle:

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

If, therefore, we come to the Liturgy expecting to receive Christ who is the Love of God then we had better make sure that only Love rules our hearts.  It need not be that our Love is yet perfect but it is necessary that it is growing and deepening.  Like calls to like.

To the second part:

“ … for I will not speak of Thy Mystery to Thine enemies, neither will I give Thee a kiss like Judas; … ” 

There are two virtues required here for a worthy partaking of the Holy Mysteries: discretion and loyalty.  Discretion is necessary, for the ungodless must be kept away from these holy things.  Does the priest not say in the Divine Liturgy: “the Holy Things are for the Holy”?  Jesus Himself taught us that we should take care when dealing with sacred things:

6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.  (Matthew 7:6)

Entitlement is a commonplace attitude in our culture but this has no place here.  The gift of Christ of Himself is unmerited and unforced.  We honour the Gift by treating it with discretion and acknowledging that we may only receive by His grace and loving acceptance.

Loyalty is also necessary so that we do not become like Judas at the Last Supper, supping with Christ but leaving immediately and for ulterior motives betraying him to the godless.  We cannot approach the chalice and be double minded.  Christ only must we serve.

Finally the prayer says:

“ … but like the thief will I confess Thee:  Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom.”

It might surprise you to hear that our proper place is alongside the penitent thief who hung on his own cross after a life of petty crime.  We do not, if we are honest, tend to see ourselves in this light if we are Christians, yet this is what the prayer says we should do and particularly when we approach the chalice.  In the face of every sin known to Man and God we should say with utter sincerity: “There but for the grace of God go I.”  We have no grounds then for boasting except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only assurance of Paradise.  As St. Paul wrote in Galatians:

14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)

If this is your attitude when you come to the Liturgy then you should receive and receive regularly this medicine for sinners.  In the Body and the Blood, in the Mystical Supper, He gives Himself for our cure.  Let us then yield ourselves to Him and His healing art.