Common Ground Song 124 ‘The Hand of Heaven’
Words / Music: John Bell © WGRG / Iona Community
YouTube recording:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfe1-hx_GW8
Featured image: from pxhere.com

Another Sunday, another communion hymn. The tune set in the book – and used in the video linked above – is an arrangement of an old ‘French carol melody’, but the editors note that the words also fit well to the much better known tune Abbots Leigh.

The theology behind this hymn is what I would call ‘mainstream Trinitarian’. The focus is on Jesus, and his action at the Last Supper, asking God the Father to bless the bread and wine that he shared with his disciples, telling them to share it and accept it as his body and blood. After the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Church came to see the role of the Spirit in consecrating (making holy) the bread and wine when blessed by a Christian priest or minister.

The delicate question of whether the consecrated bread actually is the body of Christ in a literal sense, or only in a symbolic sense, will probably never be settled. As the words of the second verse put it, ‘though to sound this be a mystery, though to sense it seems absurd’. Take whichever position you prefer. 

The third verse, though, takes us from the realm of theology to that of practical Christian living: ‘Let it bring the life we long for and the love which we forsake. Bind us closer to each other, both forgiving and forgiven’. The title of the hymn only appears in the very last line: ‘Give us grace in this and all things to discern the hand of Heaven’. The taking of communion is always intended to be a feeding of the soul and an inspiration to the mind, as we go forth into the week, one body of many people. The mass is ended: go in peace.