May the Lord bless those who have lost themselves to gain a stronger unity for the rest of us...
Within the past couple of weeks my mom and I have developed a closer bond than we have had in the recent past, at least within the past few years. She attended Mass with me at St. Joseph, a parish that offers a more contemporary environment for contemporary suburbanites such as ourselves. As much as I grumble and complain about contemporary structures in celebrations of the Mass, I’ve learned that the Mass is simply the Mass, and whatever song or liturgical form present in that particular celebration, Christ is still present, no matter how much we subconsciously attempt to chase the aesthetic depth of the celebration out. I suppose that’s a different topic for a different time, but it takes a turn into larger considerations, such as unity and substance, which are a more relevant concern for me here.
There is a legitimate irritation my mom shares with a good portion of the rest of my Protestant friends, and that’s the Catholic Church’s exclusion of non-Catholics from partaking in the Eucharist. It’s an age-old concern, and that is no exaggeration. It literally extends to the first age of the Church.
I don’t remember his name, but there was a priest on EWTN the other day who shared his homily concerning the Corpus Christi (i.e. Body of Christ), a celebration within our liturgical calendar this week. The crux of his message concerning the divergence between Protestants and Catholics on this issue is a matter of approach. I suppose there has been too much ink spilled and too many arguments unleashed without any consideration of these primary differences in perspectives. It’s time we give closer attention to the manner in which we speak of Communion; it’s precisely here where the mix up and confusions begin. From the confusions arise misunderstandings, and misunderstandings on both sides are bound to foster a state of consistent conflict between Catholics and non-Catholics. The difference is in perspective of “unity”, that is, what “unity” entails for Catholics and non-Catholics, and what the Eucharist communicates within that context.
To be quite honest, my belief is that American Catholics should be more careful in the way they speak of Communion. Catholics in the States are so concerned with a superficial “getting-along” rather than pursuing true ecumenical dialogue, that we are too scared to call our Communion holy, and most often we don’t even speak of the Eucharist when talking about Communion. And why? Because too many Catholics are told that being “orthodox Catholic” is out-of-date, and to be in with the crowd, it’s time to start talkin’ like a good ol’ American Protestant. Instead of talking about hierarchy, the Papacy, the “Eucharist”, Purgatory, and all those other fancy orthodox terms, it’s time we start dumbing things down to reach people. Unfortunately, with watering down the terminology, we assume that it is nothing more and nothing worse than simply making the terms more friendly. What we often forget is that when we compromise the terminology, we compromise the true reality the terminology designates, and we consequently lose an accurate perception of that reality. Words are like the entry way to a room, and you can’t access the room without having a door to get there. Too much of our conventional speech locks the door to that room. It’s the same reason why the Tower of Babel was a great misfortune in human history. Dialogue is built on clarity, and clarity needs specificity. Or else we get nowhere. We just build competing towers of grandeur within our own isolated cities.
It is because of this very unfortunate phenomenon that Catholics have lost their integrity before the Protestant community, and the Protestant community is understandably left with the assumption that Catholics really do believe in Communion the same way they do; so why aren’t they letting them in? Good question, if communion’s just about spiritual fellowship, and primarily about spiritual unity, then why ARE we excluding Protestants from Our Lord’s Table. Our EWTN priest put it this way, “Protestants see communion as a MEANS to unity, while Eastern Orthodox Christians and the Catholic Church see Communion as the FRUIT of an already complete unity.” It’s our belief that this unity within the Body of Christ, the Body of Christ being a phrase St. Paul specifically uses to designate a PHYSICAL unity among believers, is a complete and accurate sign of this true unity, and that spiritual unity is simply not enough, or better yet, is not true unity because it lacks a primary element of our Redemptive narrative, the physical realm, Christ in the Flesh. St. Augustine made it clear when he said that “schismatics” (or dissenters) are not with us in true and genuine “love, although they agree in essential matters”, because they are not in union with the Church “descended from St. Peter.” Now whether or not one believes in the Petrine Succession is beside the point, as much as St. Augustine defended this Succession. The point is that Catholics have always believed the true Church to be as much a physical reality as it is a spiritual one; you can’t have the truly spiritual without the truly physical, and vice versa. We say that for the same reason that you can’t have Christ without his full physical and divine nature. That was the purpose in defending the Church doctrine against the old Nestorian heresy. You have Christ as fully human and fully divine or you don’t have Him at all. That is why we must “chew” (in Our Lord’s words) on His Flesh and drink of His Blood or we are eating and drinking “condemnation” on ourselves (in the words of St. Paul). Holy Communion for Catholics is just that, “Holy”. As beautiful and joyous of a revelatory festival it is at the Lord’s Table, it’s not time for fun, food, and fellowship. It’s time for deep reflective and contemplative unity with the Holy Trinity by partaking of the Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ together with the full, complete, and physical community of the Christian Faithful, being one “as He and the Father are one” (following the prayer for His Church during the Agony in the Garden).
Anyway, just a thought from the Catholic side of the fence...
Within the past couple of weeks my mom and I have developed a closer bond than we have had in the recent past, at least within the past few years. She attended Mass with me at St. Joseph, a parish that offers a more contemporary environment for contemporary suburbanites such as ourselves. As much as I grumble and complain about contemporary structures in celebrations of the Mass, I’ve learned that the Mass is simply the Mass, and whatever song or liturgical form present in that particular celebration, Christ is still present, no matter how much we subconsciously attempt to chase the aesthetic depth of the celebration out. I suppose that’s a different topic for a different time, but it takes a turn into larger considerations, such as unity and substance, which are a more relevant concern for me here.
There is a legitimate irritation my mom shares with a good portion of the rest of my Protestant friends, and that’s the Catholic Church’s exclusion of non-Catholics from partaking in the Eucharist. It’s an age-old concern, and that is no exaggeration. It literally extends to the first age of the Church.
I don’t remember his name, but there was a priest on EWTN the other day who shared his homily concerning the Corpus Christi (i.e. Body of Christ), a celebration within our liturgical calendar this week. The crux of his message concerning the divergence between Protestants and Catholics on this issue is a matter of approach. I suppose there has been too much ink spilled and too many arguments unleashed without any consideration of these primary differences in perspectives. It’s time we give closer attention to the manner in which we speak of Communion; it’s precisely here where the mix up and confusions begin. From the confusions arise misunderstandings, and misunderstandings on both sides are bound to foster a state of consistent conflict between Catholics and non-Catholics. The difference is in perspective of “unity”, that is, what “unity” entails for Catholics and non-Catholics, and what the Eucharist communicates within that context.
To be quite honest, my belief is that American Catholics should be more careful in the way they speak of Communion. Catholics in the States are so concerned with a superficial “getting-along” rather than pursuing true ecumenical dialogue, that we are too scared to call our Communion holy, and most often we don’t even speak of the Eucharist when talking about Communion. And why? Because too many Catholics are told that being “orthodox Catholic” is out-of-date, and to be in with the crowd, it’s time to start talkin’ like a good ol’ American Protestant. Instead of talking about hierarchy, the Papacy, the “Eucharist”, Purgatory, and all those other fancy orthodox terms, it’s time we start dumbing things down to reach people. Unfortunately, with watering down the terminology, we assume that it is nothing more and nothing worse than simply making the terms more friendly. What we often forget is that when we compromise the terminology, we compromise the true reality the terminology designates, and we consequently lose an accurate perception of that reality. Words are like the entry way to a room, and you can’t access the room without having a door to get there. Too much of our conventional speech locks the door to that room. It’s the same reason why the Tower of Babel was a great misfortune in human history. Dialogue is built on clarity, and clarity needs specificity. Or else we get nowhere. We just build competing towers of grandeur within our own isolated cities.
It is because of this very unfortunate phenomenon that Catholics have lost their integrity before the Protestant community, and the Protestant community is understandably left with the assumption that Catholics really do believe in Communion the same way they do; so why aren’t they letting them in? Good question, if communion’s just about spiritual fellowship, and primarily about spiritual unity, then why ARE we excluding Protestants from Our Lord’s Table. Our EWTN priest put it this way, “Protestants see communion as a MEANS to unity, while Eastern Orthodox Christians and the Catholic Church see Communion as the FRUIT of an already complete unity.” It’s our belief that this unity within the Body of Christ, the Body of Christ being a phrase St. Paul specifically uses to designate a PHYSICAL unity among believers, is a complete and accurate sign of this true unity, and that spiritual unity is simply not enough, or better yet, is not true unity because it lacks a primary element of our Redemptive narrative, the physical realm, Christ in the Flesh. St. Augustine made it clear when he said that “schismatics” (or dissenters) are not with us in true and genuine “love, although they agree in essential matters”, because they are not in union with the Church “descended from St. Peter.” Now whether or not one believes in the Petrine Succession is beside the point, as much as St. Augustine defended this Succession. The point is that Catholics have always believed the true Church to be as much a physical reality as it is a spiritual one; you can’t have the truly spiritual without the truly physical, and vice versa. We say that for the same reason that you can’t have Christ without his full physical and divine nature. That was the purpose in defending the Church doctrine against the old Nestorian heresy. You have Christ as fully human and fully divine or you don’t have Him at all. That is why we must “chew” (in Our Lord’s words) on His Flesh and drink of His Blood or we are eating and drinking “condemnation” on ourselves (in the words of St. Paul). Holy Communion for Catholics is just that, “Holy”. As beautiful and joyous of a revelatory festival it is at the Lord’s Table, it’s not time for fun, food, and fellowship. It’s time for deep reflective and contemplative unity with the Holy Trinity by partaking of the Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ together with the full, complete, and physical community of the Christian Faithful, being one “as He and the Father are one” (following the prayer for His Church during the Agony in the Garden).
Anyway, just a thought from the Catholic side of the fence...
