"...And this food is called among us Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, 'This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body;' and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, 'This is My blood;' and gave it to them alone." (bold mine)Bread of life is a persistent thread throughout the Bible, one which is present in both the Old and New Testaments. God provides manna to the Israelites, for instance. Jesus multiplied loaves and referred to Himself as the bread of life. There are many more examples than just these. When I became more acquainted with the account in John 6 about the ways His disciples abandoned Jesus because of His teachings about "eating [His] flesh" and "drinking [His] blood" I realized Jesus was being completely literal. Had He been speaking symbolically, no one would have batted an eye.
I am the bread of life. 49Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." 59He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
60On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"61Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."
66From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (John 6)
I used to be very offended that I could not receive Holy Communion as a non-Catholic. I see it differently now~~as in, Why should I have? It was just a piece of bread to me. This really can be a "hard teaching" although I confess I have not had a problem accepting it. (My struggles are in other areas!) My time with the Blessed Sacrament~~the Body of Christ~~is the most fruitful experience I have ever had. It is, frankly, not that big of a leap to go from believing in the Resurrection to believing in transubstantiation~~that Jesus' Word, "This is my body," miraculously changes the bread into His body.
Many martyrs living within only a couple hundred years of Jesus' life referred specifically to the Eucharist as the Flesh and Blood (with capital letters). In fact, they were willing to be tortured and die rather than renounce this belief. "Newer" is not always "better" when we have such strong witness attesting to these practices and beliefs of the early church. For me, personally, this doctrine tied together so much from Scripture into a tangible reality here and now, a physical actuality.
7. Confession ~ "Out loud and in person"; I thought I was doing confession. I spoke to God in my mind and confessed to Him frequently. Occasionally, I'd be blessed with the opportunity to do so in person with a trusted soul who happened to show up at the right place and the right time, wherein it would just "flow," but this was not a typical occurrence...it was more an "every now and then" occurrence.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, in Life Together, about a sense I was getting about my "every now and then" confessions:
Why is it that it is often easier for us to confess our sins to God than to a brother? God is holy and sinless, He is a just judge of evil and the enemy of all disobedience. But a brother is sinful as we are. He knows from his own experience the dark night of secret sin. Why should we not find it easier to go to a brother than to the holy God? But if we do, we must ask ourselves whether we have not often been deceiving ourselves with our confession of sin to God, whether we have not rather been confessing our sins to ourselves and granting ourselves absolution. And is not the reason perhaps for our countless relapses and the feebleness of our Christian obedience to be found precisely in the fact that we are living on self-forgiveness and not real forgiveness? (115-116)While my socks are already knocked off by this statement, I also find this one so very compelling:
In confession occurs the breakthrough to the Cross. The root of all sin is pride, superbia. I want to be my own law, I have a right to my self, my hatred and my desires, my life and my death. The mind and flesh of man are set on fire by pride; for it is precisely in his wickedness that man wants to be as God. Confession in the presence of a brother is the profoundest kind of humiliation. It hurts, it cuts a man down, it is a dreadful blow to pride. To stand there before a brother as a sinner is an ignominy that is almost unbearable. In the confession of concrete sins the old man dies a painful, shameful death before the eyes of a brother. Because this humiliation is so hard we continually scheme to evade confessing to a brother. Our eyes are so blinded that they no longer see the promise and glory in such abasement. (113-114)I can't say I entirely agree with Bonhoeffer's take on things. He goes on to write at a later point of the "danger [which] concerns the confessant."
For the salvation of his soul let him guard against ever making a pious work of his confession. If he does so, it will become the final, most abominable, vicious, and impure prostitution of the heart; the act becomes an idle, lustful babbling. Confession as a pious work is an invention of the devil. It is only God's offer of grace, help, and forgiveness that could make us dare to enter the abyss of confession. We can confess solely for the sake of the promise of absolution. Confession as a routine duty is spiritual death; confession in reliance upon the promise is life. The forgiveness of sins is the sole ground and goal of confession. (120)The reference to "routine duty" makes me suspect that Bonhoeffer is referring to the regular practice of the Sacrament of Penance ("confession") in the Catholic church, but this could just be narcissistic of me. Probably he's referring to an attitude of the heart which, no matter which denomination one practices, forms the basis of one's authenticity in the faith walk. One can be participating in Confession out of "routine duty" or one can be doing so with a joyful acknowledgment that, as Bonhoeffer puts it, "what happened to us in baptism is bestowed upon as anew in confession" (115). Likewise, one can "stumble upon" a confession with a brother or sister out of a friendly sense of mutual divulgence or one can do so with an outpouring of humility and repentance.
Personally, I am thankful for the "institutionalization" of Confession in the Church. I really am. My confession does not have to be hit or miss and it doesn't have to continue to reside in the safety of the private. I find myself more accountable and, at the end of the day, looking back at where I fell short and also how God is working on me and what He is changing. Saying the confession aloud is completely humbling, but so is receiving the words of Jesus~~that the sins are forgiven.
8. Purgatory ~ My friend Jenna asked me once, "Purgatory is Scriptural?" As in, "No way!" There's no way such a bizarre vision of the afterlife could actually be taken seriously or have any Scriptural foundation~~at least, that's how I looked at it. After looking into this concept, though, I found it explained a lot, particularly about those parts of Scripture that didn't seem to connect with the teaching that, when you die, you either go immediately to heaven or hell.
On a "basic" level (is any of this stuff basic? :) it makes sense that, even though saved, my soul must be purified once and for all before entering Heaven (Revelation 21:27 states that "nothing impure will ever enter it"). There is much Scripture pertaining to the judgment occuring at death (see Matthew 12:36, for instance, where Jesus states that "men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken," among many other examples) and based on that example alone, I don't get the impression that Jesus is exempting anyone from this. In fact, how can God when He is entirely just? We should be honored that God brings us into a state of worthiness to be received by Him. It couldn't happen without Jesus but it still has to happen.
In 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, Paul writes,
10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.Notice how Paul discusses how, through God's grace, he "laid a foundation" and not only is "someone else building on it," but "each one" is building on it. There is an accountability asserted here, leading perhaps to a difficult process of being saved, a purification, "as one escaping through the flames."
One of the books of the Catholic Bible which has since been removed from Protestant Bibles writes about an atonement for the dead:
- But under the tunic of each of the dead they found amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. So it was clear to all that this was why these men had been slain.
- They all therefore praised the ways of the Lord, the just judge who brings to light the things that are hidden.
- Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. The noble Judas warned the soldiers to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.
- He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view;
- for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death.
- But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought.
- Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin. (2 Maccabees 12:40-46)
Personally, I appreciate being able to pray for the dead. Praying for the dead is a pretty substantial part of Catholic prayer. It's new to me as a fledgling Catholic but it's also a relief and it makes sense to me, because the souls of the departed are most urgent need of salvation. Interestingly, the Catholic Church defines the "communion of saints" as referring to 1) the souls in heaven, 2) the souls journeying toward heaven on earth and 3) the souls in purgatory.
"We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church..." (Catechism, P962)
9. The celibate priesthood ~ I used to think this was creepy and weird. And who isn't slightly fascinated by it? But now I'm mostly in awe. What a sacrificial life. And all this on my behalf, so I can receive the Sacraments and so the priest can be the father to the entire parish.
10. Veneration of Mary ~ I recently wrote in my post on the Rosary,
[Mary] states, "Generations will call me blessed." So calling her "blessed" is appropriate and, one could argue, "compulsory," in a Biblical kind of way.Reading Revelation 12 was a big moment for me. I came away from it feeling like I had somehow overlooked this precious gift to me in the form of a spiritual mother.
...During the wedding feast at Cana (John 2), Mary told the servants in reference to Jesus, "Do whatever he tells you." Revelation 12 describes the crowning of Mary as the Queen of Heaven and refers to "her offspring—those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus." This is further reiterated in John's account of the crucifixion, where he describes how Jesus says to his disciple, "Here is your mother," and from that time on, the disciple "took her into his home" (John 19:27). Finally, we are told to "Honor thy father and mother," and Revelation 12 states that she is our mother (since we are her offspring).
I found these examples from Scripture to be very compelling reasons to consider Mary as our spiritual mother. I ask people to pray for me, so why wouldn't I ask Mary?
In the meantime, my eyes are burning...I'm very tired. I need to sleep now and I think I will go ahead and click on "publish." Good night.
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