Thoughts on the Sacrament
My mission President used to say, “If we truly understood the meaning and importance of the sacrament we would crawl through broken glass to partake of it each week.”
Sounds like hyperbole right? I don’t think so.
At a mission President seminar in 2019 President Nelson got up to speak and began with this, “A thought has occurred to me that my making a covenant today is a lot more important than the message that I have prepared. I made a covenant as I partook of the sacrament that I would be willing to take upon me the name of Jesus Christ and that I am willing to obey His commandments. Often, I hear the expression that we partake of the sacrament to renew covenants made at baptism. While that’s true, it’s much more than that. I’ve made a new covenant. You have made new covenants. . . . Now in return for which He makes the statement that we will always have His Spirit to be with us. What a blessing!”
He said two important things there. First, his making a covenant that day by partaking of the sacrament was a lot more important than the message he was about to give. Second, we are not just renewing our covenants each time we partake of the sacrament, we are making a covenant!
99% of the time partaking of the the bread and water, that has been blessed and sanctified to the souls of all those who partake of it, each Sunday will be the most important thing we do that week. Covenanting with God that we are willing to take upon ourselves the name of his Son, and always remember Him, and to keep His commandments, while in return He promises that His Spirit will always be with us (Sacrament Prayers).
Elder David A. Bednar has stated, “The ordinance of the sacrament is a holy and repeated invitation to repent sincerely and to be renewed spiritually... As we prepare conscientiously and participate in this holy ordinance with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then the promise is that we may always have the Spirit of the Lord to be with us. And by the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost as our constant companion, we can always retain a remission of our sins.”
In D&C 59:9 the Lord commanded “And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day.”
After Jesus instituted the sacrament for the first time among the Nephites, he commanded them to always do these things, and then said, “if ye shall always do these things blessed are ye, for ye are built upon my rock. But whoso among you shall do more or less than these are not built upon my rock, but are built upon a sandy foundation; and when the rain descends, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon them, they shall fall, and the gates of hell are ready open to receive them.”
It matters that we do whatever we can to be at church every week and with broken hearts and contrite spirits participate in and partake of the sacrament. We need the reminder of the Saviors body that was “bruised, broken, and torn” and his blood that was freely shed for us (hymn 181). We need the covenant promise we make with the Lord during the sacrament every week to keep ourselves unspotted from the world and our foundations built upon the rock of Christ. I testify of these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.