 |
| Our Lady of Grace Lancaster, SC |
 |
| Calvary Church, Charlotte, NC |
I am often interested at how such community's conduct themselves. I once attended an evening "service" at one Pentecostal community and the junior "pastor's" speech was indeed quite heretical, unlike last night's sermon at Calvary Church. Of course I let him know what I thought in my post Epistula Aperta ad Ecclessiam Christi Vitae. Like most Protestants ignorant of Church history prior to the start of their particular denomination, he had no response, but I was reliably informed that he was so "hurt." Obviously the hurt was insufficient to initiate a change in his system of belief. Heaven help his congregants.
I have also attended "services" at a local Methodist community. Its senior "pastor's" sermons are very well articulated. I have repeatedly blogged quite favorably in fact about those sermons here. However, I have issue with the priestesses floating about; Christ never ordained priestesses (I don't call them priests because priests are by definition always male, and I don't call them pastors which in Latin means shepherds because shepherds are always male too). Frankly, I loathe feminism (but love authentic femininity and the nobility of true womanhood). But I digress.
 |
| Dr. Munro |
Last night Khalil Ayoub, Pastor of College & Young Adults, gave the sermon and Timothy Hathaway, Pastor of Worship, administered what for Protestants is Communion. The sermon was excellent. Communion, of which I did not partake, was of course invalid and that is NOT a reflection on the administrator thereof but on the way that Protestants in general view the Sacraments. I will discuss both.
 |
| Khalil Ayoub |
Revd. Ayoub spoke on the difficult subject of service to the poor and he did a masterful job. He used as his Scripture texts the following:
- The Parable of the Good Samaritan: Luke 10:25-37
- The Collection for Christians at Jerusalem: 2nd Corinthians 9
- Faith without Works is Dead: James 2:14-17
- Love One Another: 1st John 3:17-18
Using these texts, Revd. Ayoub explained the following:
In the case of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, unlike the Priest and the Levite, the Samaritan took a risk to help the man in the ditch. That risk involved exposing himself to the same danger which had befallen the one whom he was trying to rescue. So sometimes helping another may involve personal risk to ourselves. We will have to get out of our comfort zones.
In the case of the Christians of Macedonia giving alms for the saints in Jerusalem, the Macedonians were a poor church, yet they begged to give out of their poverty. In like manner we must be willing to give not just when we have extra but when we may not.
In the case of those who pray for the sick or the impoverished, what good does prayer do unless it is backed up by concrete action? We cannot simply absolve ourselves of having to help the poor by saying, "I prayed for them."
In the case of those in need, how can we say we love God when we close our hearts and our giving to the less fortunate? That's hypocrisy.
Revd. Ayoub went on to make some more important points. One of the reasons we need a government welfare program is because we in the Church, the Body of Christ, have NOT been doing our Sacred Duty as delineated in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25:31-46. Here the nations are gathered together and those who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the alien, clothed the naked, cared for the sick and visited the imprisoned are those whom Christ welcomes into eternal life. Now it is important to note (something which Revd. Ayoub had not explained - there wasn't time to explain everything) that the Greek word translated as nation is actually ἔθνος which means:
- A multitude of individuals
- A tribe or group of people
It does not have the same meaning as our modern word nation does which refers to country-state. The nations gathered before God are individuals to whom the command is given to help feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, care for the sick, welcome the alien and visit the imprisoned. If we as members of the Body of Christ do our duty as citizens of the Kingdom of God and children of the Great King instead of abdicating our responsibility and evading our accountability onto Tiberius Caesar, then we won't have a welfare problem.
Revd. Ayoub recounted some heart rending stories of his personal experience in Malaysia, travelling on rickety boats to different islands and the appalling conditions of poverty which he saw and which the people there regard as normal. He explained that to them we Americans are rich, perhaps the richest nation to ever exist on planet Earth. We may not feel that way because we are not billionaires. But compared to these destitute people we have everything we need and then some: houses, clean water, nutritious food, readily available mode of transport even in public transportation, etc. He also made a brief reference to immigration, saying that people from war-torn countries like Syria would do anything to have a chance like us. But he also cautioned us not to feel guilty because God has blessed us with houses and food and belongings and a great church, because often people are poor for a reason.
Continuing on, Revd. Ayoub said that we cannot simply throw money at the problem of the poor because that is as bad as simply ignoring them. In fact, sometimes we throw money at the destitute so that we can feel good about ourselves while we walk away without having done anything of substance to solve the underlying problem which caused them to become poor, and that ties into what he alluded to when he pointed out that people are often poor for a reason. He used an example which appealed to me as a recovering alcoholic and drug addict - the story of a homeless man whom a group of young people took in. They fed him, gave him a place to sleep and provided a second chance to him. But he began drinking. And his behavior turned from bad to worse, stealing and fighting. Eventually the men of the house had to call law enforcement to evict the person whom they had befriended because the underlying alcoholism was not corrected and that was the root cause of the homeless man's poverty.
I was so glad this example was used. The best thing that ever happened to me early in sobriety was to be told that if I did not get an AA group and an AA sponsor, and work the 12 Steps of AA, then I would die. Nothing else mattered - not job, not girlfriend, not family, not anything - except God and my sobriety. He had to be number one or I would surely die.
After some time in sobriety I became a sponsor myself. In that role I once picked up a drunk on the beach (literally). I brought him home to my apartment. I got him to meetings and I even paid a month's rent in a halfway house for him. But he went out to drink again. I could not rescue him. Sadly some people are not ready for God's grace. They have to go out there and have "some more fun." But by God's grace alone that has not happened to me so far, but it's only a one-day-at-a-time program.
So my personal experience confirms what Revd. Ayoub spoke about. The underlying problem has to be fixed, and that's not government's job. That's our job. As a Catholic Christian, these things remind me of the various Works of Mercy in Paragraphs 2446 and 2447 of the Article 7 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2446 St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs." "The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity":
When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.
2447 The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities. Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God:
He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none and he who has food must do likewise. But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you. If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?
I do wish however that greater emphasis had been placed on addressing poverty in our own country first, but I honestly cannot fault Revd. Ayoub's sincerity and his personal corporal works of mercy in foreign lands. Surely God will bless him for that. I also wish that the account of Jesus' feet having been anointed with oil in John 12 had been discussed. Mary, sister of Martha, had taken 300 denarii worth of oil to anoint Jesus' feet. Judas Iscariot exclaimed that the oil (worth a year's wage) could have been sold and the profit used for the poor. Scripture records that he said this not because he cared for the poor but because he carried the money purse and would steal therefrom. Jesus Himself said:
Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.
The lesson here is threefold.
First, those who cry the loudest for government to tax those who earn wealth and redistribute to those who refuse to work are the very ones who steal that tax revenue for themselves.
Second, we will not ever be able to solve the problem of poverty and create a man-made paradise on Earth; that will only happen when Christ returns. Rather, we do corporal works of mercy for the sake of justice and for our own salvation. And that reminds me of something my AA sponsor always said, "It's a selfish program. You help to save the next person so that you yourself will stay sober today."
Third, in the story of the rich young man in Matthew 19:16-22 and Mark 10:17-22, Christ told the rich man to sell all he had and give to the poor and follow Him not to rescue the poor from their state of poverty, but because Jesus looked on him and loved him (Mark 10:21) even though his possessions had become an idol between him and God's love, and that idol had to be removed.
Nevertheless, all in all, Revd Ayoub did an outstanding job. Bravo!
 |
| Tim Hathaway |
Revd Hathaway administered a Protestant version of Communion. Broken up crackers on brass plates and then grape juice in tiny single serving cups in brass trays were distributed by the ushers. 1st Corinthians 11:22-33 was read. Appropriate emphasis was put on verses 27 through 29 that I wish were likewise emphasized at Catholic Mass:
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. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.
Again, without casting aspersions on Revd Hathaway's character and commitment (both of which seem excellent), I wonder why Protestants do not consider the implication of verse 30:
That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
If the Bread and Wine have NOT been "transubstantiated" or transformed into Jesus' Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, then what power do they have to make the unworthy partaker weak and ill and even to die? If they are mere symbols, then by what means are their unworthy reception injurious to body and soul? Surely John 6:53-57 is correct?
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.
 |
| The Crucifix |
So of course I did not partake of something that has no divine form, no divine power, no divine substance other than being some sort of community symbol. With NO intent to hurt anyone's feelings or to shove supremacy of one Christian denomination over another in some false sense of triumphalism, and without any denigration of the character of the preachers at Calvary Church itself, we must remember that paragraph 1400 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church states the following:
Ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation and separated from the Catholic Church, "have not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Holy Orders." It is for this reason that, for the Catholic Church, Eucharistic intercommunion with these communities is not possible. However these ecclesial communities, "when they commemorate the Lord's death and resurrection in the Holy Supper . . . profess that it signifies life in communion with Christ and await his coming in glory."
More can be read about this in Paragraph 17 of Dominus Iesus by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (that paragraph can likewise be easily taken in the wrong way). And what the early Church Fathers - the men who succeeded the Apostles - said about the Eucharist in the first few centuries after Christ may be read here. They believed in the Real Presence of Jesus. Therefore, while the neighborliness and friendliness of the people at Calvary is something which Catholics would do well to emulate, and while I have great admiration and respect for the preaching that was given, that Ecclesial Community does NOT posses valid Holy Orders NOR a Valid Eucharist. Nevertheless, they remain our separated brethren in Christ and we should pray what Jesus prayed in John 17 that we all be one in His Kingdom.
ASIDE: I wonder sometimes at certain Novus Ordo Catholic Parishes whether their Communion is valid as well - this isn't just a Protestant problem. END ASIDE
No comments:
Post a Comment