210 The Lord set up the holy supper so that through it, religion could be united with heaven, and in this way with the Lord. So it is the most sacred act of worship.
211 But we cannot know how this union takes place through the holy supper unless we know something about the Bible's inner, spiritual meaning. Otherwise, our thinking will not get beyond the outer, literal meaning. From the Bible's inner, spiritual me aning, we can understand the meaning of body and blood, of bread and wine, and of eating them.

212 In that meaning, the Lord's body, or flesh, symbolizes the goodness that comes from love. Bread means the same thing. The Lord's blood is the goodness that comes from faith. Wine means the same thing. Eating them is making them a part of ourselves and uniting them with ourselves.

This is how the angels who are with us when we go to the holy supper understand it, since they understand everything spiritually. So the sacredness of love and faith flow into us from these angels, which means it is flowing through heaven from the Lo rd. This is how the union takes place.

213 From this you can see that when we eat the bread, which is the body, we are united with the Lord through the goodness in our love for him, which comes from him. When we drink the wine, which is the blood, we are united with the Lord through our fa ith in him, which also comes from him.

You should realize, though, that the holy supper only unites us with the Lord when we have in us the goodness of loving and believing in the Lord, which comes from him. When we have this, the holy supper does unite us with him. When we do not, he is there with us but we are not united with him.
214 The holy supper also includes and embodies all the divine worship set up in the Israelite religion. The burnt offerings and sacrifices that made up most of that religion were all summed up in the single word "bread." So the holy supper accomplishe s what all those burnt offerings and sacrifices used to accomplish.