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As our reading today would suggest, Queen Margaret of Scotland, wife to Malcolm III, made famous from Shakespeare’s Scottish Play, was a pious woman who took her Faith seriously. There were many reforms she brought to the church there in the late 11th Century, including beginning the observance of Lent on Ash Wednesday and emphasizing Sunday as a Sabbath and day of prayer.
One of the reforms she worked on that speaks to me personally is making sure pious believers received Holy Communion regularly.
I suspect many in Margaret’s day had the concerns that many have still stemming from 1 Corinthians 11:27-29. There Paul says that we should examine ourselves before Communion, least we be judged. There is truth in those words that we should not forget. We should also not forget why Paul spoke them. Many in Corinth were not coming to the Lord’s Supper with the correct mindset. As Paul says earlier in the chapter, “one is hungry and another is drunk.” The latter unfortunately continues to be a problem in some churches throughout the world to this day.
For some, though, these words put fear in them. They would not take Communion, least they be found wanting.
Margaret is correct, though. We take Communion so that we might share in a part of our Lord. That relationship is of the upmost importance, and we should do all in our power to nurture it.
Because this is our Lord, we have nothing to fear in being found wanting. Our Lord died that we might not be found wanting. The Last Supper is a reminder of that fact. As long as we take Communion with this Truth in mind, that our Lord Jesus Christ died for you and me to bestow on us the gift of His Love and Grace, we will be okay.
Margaret wanted her people to have Communion as a means of growing closer to our Lord Jesus Christ. We are called then to move past any fear we may have and do the same.