wrestling with how to explain the communion of saints to protestants … and needing to do better after this first pass, I think
In my experience, Protestants have absolutely nothing to say to a Catholic who is grounded in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It is the genuine empasse between the Reformed churches and the Catholic Church. Sola Fide … Sola Scriptura … small change in comparison. For a Catholic who understands and believes in the Eucharist, to deny it is equivalent to denying Christ.
The Eucharist generally does not get a lot of discussion from evangelicals, particularly those looking to convert Catholics. Evangelicals are not prepared to discuss it … and if they do have something to say, it’s usually a misrepresentation or misunderstanding of the teaching of the Church. Always reminds me of the Collective Soul album cover … big mouth dude carrying the sign, “Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid.” I’d tack on a line, too, to read, “if not outright lies.” A lot of it is honest ignorance by today’s evangelicals, but someone somewhere along the way had to know what they were doing when pushing some of the garbage I hear, and I imagine there is a hefty burden for such an individual. But as it is, most of the time Evangelicals try to nab Catholics on faith and works, unbiblical hierarchy, unscriptural teaching, blah blah blah. Not that I can’t engage in this discussion, but it’s such small change when stood next to the Eucharist. And so, that’s where I try to point my story.
In Vatican 2 and again in the Catechism, the Eucharist is summarily described as the source and summit of Church life. And so it should be summarized because the Eucharist is Christ, the head of the Church. It’s in the Sacrament of the Eucharist that we take the body of our Lord into our own bodies to be united to Him and, in that, find forgiveness of sins, strengthening of the faith, and establish our communion with the whole Church – both those alive on earth and those alive after death – among other graces.
And it’s on this last point, the communion of the Church or the communion of saints, I really want to talk about for this post, though it’s taken me some time to get here. Specifically, I want to deal with the communion of the Church with regards to how the Catholic Church believes and lives it out in comparison to the Protestant churches.
Growing up, I was raised between 3 different Protestant churches. Now, perhaps it was just me as a kid growing up, but I never felt or really thought that I belonged to a church beyond the 4 walls I visited every Sunday, and even that, I learned – first through observation and then through experience – was subject to change. And in public discourse, there was some camaraderie to be shared between folks who claimed the name Christ, but things, even as a child, would quickly become muddled once we moved beyond that – defintely if the name Catholic came up. And by the time I was in highschool and later had moved on to college, I realized that there was something distinctly lacking about the notion of the body of Christ that churches were suppose to be presenting to the world. Intra-denomational recognition of churches was at times difficult enough; Inter-denominational recognition was generally not much to hope for and a happy thing to have while you had it. The only thing that ever held “communion” between churches together was intellectual assent to the other’s teachings … not a good foundation for something that should be Christ rooted, and certainly a shifty foundation as we’ve seen time and again through the politics of various denominations and theological conferences.
Now when I learned in highschool that my best friend was Catholic, I was to some degree disturbed but at the same time curious. He was my first insight into Catholicism, and so far not too bad. Taking me to Mass though was an experience that certainly seemed to validate everything I had ever heard. But that’s not to say that I didn’t come away with some positives … such as I was distinctly impressed that communion was held weekly (oh, ignorant me). But when we attended a different Mass, one that my friend thought was a little more inline with my Charismatic upbringing, I immediately latched onto something I really hadn’t seen or thought about before.
What I saw at this second, livelier parish was … the same service with different tunes and an arguably better preacher. …but I realized that… this was more than just a Service. This was something tantamount to an Event. I had had my first taste of not just liturgy but more importantly started to perceive Sacrament, and I was liking it.
It wasn’t until some time later that I started studying Catholicism for Catholicism, but two of the first things that should ever come out of such a study is that (1) the Eucharist is, perhaps, the most important thing in the life of faith and (2) liturgy is the foremost if not only place the Eucharist has ever been celebrated and consecrated since the earliest days of the Church. The form of the liturgy of the Mass follows that of the Last Supper, which is an instance of the Passover Seder with Jesus’ own flair, and has grown through variation from this core into the liturgy we have today. All time in Christian history has texts that concern themselves with the proper exercise of Christian liturgy and exhortations that the Eucharist is truly, really Christ and should be so revered.
Now, perhaps not everyone thinks this an important detail, but for me, who was and is vastly curious about where the Church came from, I found this point intriguing. Catholics do things, more or less, the same … day in, day out, since the time of Christ. Add to the notion that the Eucharist, where all the faithful are drawn into the one, final, perfect sacrifice on the cross, and you’ve got yourself more than just a powerful sign of belief but, for believers and unwitting participants, a powerful reality … Something no Protestant church can come near to touch or express in its beliefs, except to say that such things are heresy. And I, for one, cannot believe something so obviously foundational to the praxis and beliefs of the Church throughout history, especially so strongly present in the early Church, to be heresy.
But what does all this mean and do? Well, first, when the Catholic Church says it is catholic, it means it. Catholic with respect to geography and time. In the Eucharist, the Church believes that all the faithful are made present to the cross … like a kind of time travel without anyone going anywhere, in some mystical way present before the same, one cross Christ died on. And just as we are, in the particular moments of the Mass, mystically present at the cross, so are we mystically joined with every other man, woman, and child who has ever lived and lives in Christ. And in receiving the Eucharist, uniting with Christ in a real, tangible way, we find our common unity in each other, the rest of the body, in a real, tangible way. And in this reality comes the awareness that all of who we are, all the gifts and riches we have been given by God, are not gifts for ourselves, not just gifts to be used for Christ, but gifts meant for the service of the entire body.
Now, we can assent to all these things intellectually, big deal that Catholics have a sign to go with it. And, I guess if that’s one’s perspective, so be it with the whole lot Christianity. Baptism – eh … who needs it, really? But if signs are the mechanism of sanctifying grace as is a common belief with regards to Baptism, how could such a sweet gift like the Eucharist be ignored?
I don’t think the Protestant churches could legitamately lay claim to the Eucharist today, though I know a number try. The Eucharist is tied intimately with liturgy and liturgy with authority and authority with Bishops and Deacons and all that falls out from that. That’s a pretty big hump to have to get over, and I often wonder if Protestant churches can. But all we Catholics are left to do is pray that somehow it does and keep faithful to Christ through the Sacraments as a sign to the world, especially our separated brethren, that indeed there is more to what is seen, it is real to us today, and it is a better way … it is The Way.
The Pope gave an address 22 December 2005
In it, he explains and reflects on … well, a lot.
He talks about Christmas, Christ, JP2, World Youth Day, Worship, Evil, Suffering, Vatican 2, the right and wrong way to understand Vatican 2, the reason why Vatican 2 needed to happen … there’s probably some other stuff … but that’s the stuff I remember off the top of my head.
Now, this is a long read … probably took me an hour to parse my way through it (I am a slow reader because I like to be sure I’m understanding as much as possible, so that means a lot of re-reading) … BUT YOU SHOULD READ THIS.
It offers … so much … oh, it even touches on religious freedom … and the nature of the deposit of faith and the expression of faith and historical continuity in the deposit of faith and the seemingly historical discontinuity in the expression of faith. Did I mention I found this read awesome?
I’ve read elsewhere that this should be viewed as a kind of mini-encyclical before the Pope’s first encyclical due out later this month. Rumor has it that the Pope will be on something of a rescue mission for Eros – Romantic/Sexual Love – in his encyclical. Judging by the way that this man has stirred my noodle even in small passages, I can’t wait … even if the rumors turn out wrong.
525 Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty heaven’s glory was made manifest. The Church never tires of singing the glory of this night:
The Virgin today brings into the world the Eternal
And the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible.
The angels and shepherds praise him
And the magi advance with the star,
For you are born for us,
Little Child, God eternal!
526 To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become “children of God” we must be “born from above” or “born of God”. Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this “marvelous exchange”:
O marvelous exchange! Man’s Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church
… is forgetting that theology is only as good as the relationship with Christ you have and continue to pursue.
How often we forget that and make theology our idol.
Makes sense though … having a perfect theology probably makes you feel a lot more secure than the tenuous ebb and flow, give and receive of earnest relationship. But that’s what Christ calls us to. He went to the cross to give it to us. We ought to be brave enough to stay true to Him in our hearts and lives as we know how before anything else – open to let the rest pour forth.
I doubt that’ll make everyone Catholic – oh, one come hope – but I do imagine it’ll bring us closer if the peoples of the faith can really latch onto that idea.
It’s not a place that we’re destined to. It’s a union to God through Christ; a perfect relationship. That’s something that starts now. It’s not what theology is. Theology informs us how to make it stronger. But so many people have got it backwards – it’s so easy to do because it’s so much easier … probably more comfortable, too.
Part of what I’ve been so busy doing lately is studying the documents from Vatican II and presenting a small subset of them to members of my parish as part of a whole parish catechesis program (fancy name for sunday school for people of all ages). In particular, I’ve been focusing on the documents that affect the Mission of the Church and the laity’s involvement in that. In total, I cover 5 documents:
Dignitatis Humanae DECLARATION ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Nostra Aetate DECLARATION ON THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS
Unitatis Redintegratio DECREE ON ECUMENISM
Orientalium Ecclesiarum DECREE ON THE CATHOLIC CHURCHES OF THE EASTERN RITE
Ad Gentese DECREE ON THE MISSION ACTIVITY OF THE CHURCH
Together the documents repaint the picture of the Church’s place in and relationship with the world. This is something of a rough sketch of what I’ve been dialoguing with my fellow parishoners the past few days.
Firstly, the Church acknowledges and affirms the need for religous freedom in the world. Religion is suppose to be an honest pursuit of Truth: answers to whence we come, where are we going, how we’re getting there, and above all else why? As such, each man must be free to be honest in himself, to who he is, and what it is he knows and believes to be true. That is not to say that the Church denies that all men are bound to come to the Truth of the Church, but rather that each man must come to the Truth of the Church himself, in honesty and sincerity. There is to be no coercion of people, whether it be by religion, state, or individuals. There is to be freedom and honesty and dialogue – an open society of religous ideas, striving in common purpose if not to common ends and conclusions.
Secondly, the Church realizes and acknowledges that She is not the only religion in the world. There are many other great religions in the world, and there are many things in common between these religions. With the Buddhists, the Church acknowledges and affirms a common contemplative life. With the Muslims, She acknowledges a common ancestry with Abraham and belief in the God of Abraham. With the Jews, the Church acknowledges Her full ancestry rooted in that great religion. It acknowledges the many moral precepts that all these religions and more share with the Church. In all these things, the Church seeks a kind of solidarity and common encouragement for the purposes of pursuing true, free religion.
But the Church also wishes all of mankind and especially these religions that She is the first and foremost and fullness of all Divine Revelation. Though there not be immediate agreement on this, the Church is ever ready to study with the peoples of these great religions and enter into honest and open dialogue. The ideas of commonality that is seen amongst the great religions, the Church sees as seeds of God’s grace, waiting and ripening for the coming of the Gospel. The people of the Church are ever called and are to be found ready to share the Gospel of Christ with all men so that God’s grace, that has been given to and received by men outside the Church, can come into its fullness of life.
As to its special relationship with others who claim Christ as their own, the Church acknowledges all who are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit as proper owners of the title Christian and members of the universal Church. The Church again maintains its foremost position as bearer of the fullness of faith and revelation in this world but also wishes to begin and continue dialogue with those Christian groups outside of Her communion.
In Her relationship with the Churches of the Eastern rite, the Church acknowledges the validity of their history, their existence, and their Sacraments. Her members are to feel free, while remaining faithful to their local parish and diocese, to participate in the Eastern Traditions, especially during special occasions.
Lastly, all members of the Church, keeping in mind all that has been said beforehand, are to participate in the great work of the Church in the world: Mission, to go out. The Missionary work of the Church has long been co-opted by the ideas of travel to far-off lands of destitution and poverty; however, any work that would inspire the Christian life truly begins in the individual and in their family. The Missionary work must begin first in the home with parents rearing children – to teach the faith, encourage engagement in the faith, and to live faith’s works of love. And in these things, to live our faith externally as much as live it internally – let it indeed be an all encompassing passion. In this way, when families of faith join together in worship and common faith, greater encouragement and engagement can be found, and greater deeds be made manifest in the world for the glory of God. And finally, through the solid base of faith found in the whole community, the distant and far-off missionary work of the Church will become that more effective and lasting.
Missionary work is about identifying common purpose, participation, encouragement, and dialogue. The Missionary work should not be viewed as a kind of colonization motivated by a kind of manifest destiny. It is a life of love, not simply duty and obligation. Without love born of a life of faith, the Missionary work of the Churh will not be as lasting and potent as possible if it is successful at all.