JDG wrote:
None of us earns the gift of Christ's love. None of us "deserves" the
Eucharist.
I don't understand how all of the things that this article says one "needs" to do fits with the sentence above.
The Eucharist remains today the source and summit of Catholic life. And
like every Catholic generation before us, we need to take the words of St.
Paul very seriously: "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup
of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and
blood of the Lord" (1 Cor 11:27).
And are we to take it that this is an instruction for when it is okay to offer or receive communion, or is it another reminder of our imperfection and need for God?
> "No one may take part (in
the Eucharist) unless he believes that what we teach is true, has received baptism for the forgiveness of sins and new birth, and lives in keeping with what Christ taught."
I read this as self-righteous legalism.
Worse, too many Catholics receive the body and blood of Christ even when
they ignore or deny the teachings of His Church.
Christ ignored or denied the teachings of the church! That's what the Pharisees condemned him for.
When we sin by theft, lying, adultery, pride, gossip, anger, envy, callousness to the poor, pornography or indifference, we do not live "in keeping with what Christ taught."
Since I'm certain this was written by a sinner, I read it as self-righteous legalism... not in keeping with what Christ taught.
We remove ourselves, by our actions, from
friendship with God.
Nothing can separate us from God's love, Scripture says. Certainly not our failures. God doesn't love us as we should be -- we'll never be as we should be.
That means we need to turn back to the sacrament of
penance before we receive Communion. In fact, many of us today need a
deeper devotion to confession simply to regain a basic understanding of
grace and sin.
I don't hear grace in these words. Confession doesn't change God, it changes me, but what I hear in the words above are that God demands repentance as a condition of forgiveness... which flies in the face of agape, unconditional love. Christ chose to spend his time with people whose imperfections were no secret, saving his harshest criticisms for the self-righteous ones.
Claiming to be Catholic and then rejecting Catholic teaching is an act of
dishonesty and a lack of personal integrity.
That leaves no room for prophets, no room for reform from within. The church, as a human institution, is in constant need of reform. This language seems to ask me to worship the church, not God.
Worse, if we then receive
Communion, we violate every Catholic who does believe and does strive to
live the faith fully and unselfishly. And that compounds a sin against
honesty with a sin against justice and charity. Again, as Justin Martyr
said: "No one may take part (in the Eucharist) unless he believes what we
teach is true."
In my opinion, this paragraph is a guilt trip, which has no place in Christianity.
If we claim to believe in Jesus Christ and the Catholic faith, then we need
to act like it — without caveats, all the way, all the time, with all our
heart, including our lives in the public square.
And who can do that? Not me. And no pastor, priest or politician, either. I find this appallingly self-righteous... but I'm fairly sensitive to self-righteousness, in the way that a former smoker is sensitive to others' smoking.
Denying anyone Communion is a very grave matter. It should be
reserved for extraordinary cases of public scandal.
Goodness, this puts into a different perspective all the times I've gone to a Catholic mass and not been allowed communion. Apparently I am an extraordinary public scandal, I guess because I'm not Catholic.
I'll add that this issue is meaningful to me beyond just my participation in communion as a recipient. I also take and serve communion (consecrated in our Sunday services) to people who are homebound, hospitalized, etc. I did so on Tuesday in the chapel of a Catholic hospital, and couldn't help wondering how scandalized some Catholics might be if they knew that a lay Lutheran was serving communion in their chapel.
But hey, Jesus was quite the scandalous character to his church, not to mention undignified and foolish. And transparent.
-- Nick Arnett Director, Business Intelligence Services LiveWorld Inc. Phone/fax: (408) 551-0427 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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