euphemos

Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Yesterday’s Zenit included this article referencing a letter from the Bishop of Sioux City, Iowa in which he cautions against “a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture” prevalent in the Roman Catholic Church as we interpret the documents of Vatican II. He comments:

It seems to me that in many areas of the Church’s life the “hermeneutic of discontinuity” has triumphed. It has manifested itself in a sort of dualism, an either/or mentality and insistence in various areas of the Church’s life: either fidelity to doctrine or social justice work, either Latin or English, either our personal conscience or the authority of the Church, either chant or contemporary music, either tradition or progress, either liturgy or popular piety, either conservative or liberal, either Mass or Adoration, either the Magisterium or theologians, either ecumenism or evangelization, either rubrics or personalization, either the Baltimore Catechism or “experience”; and the list goes on and on! We have always been a “both/and” people: intrinsically traditional and conservative in what pertains to the faith, and creative in pastoral ministry and engaging the world.

The bishop proposes five action items for his diocese that I think any diocese, parish, or person of faith should also consider:

1. We must renew our reverence, love, adoration and devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament, within and outside of Mass.
2. We must strengthen catechesis on every level, beginning with and focusing on adults.
3. We are called to protect, build up and foster holy families in our midst, without whom the Church and the world perish.
4. If we renew the Eucharistic, catechetical, and family life of our diocese, we will simultaneously foster a culture where young people can more readily respond to the radical calls of ministerial priesthood and the consecrated life.
5. We must acknowledge and embrace the missionary character of the Catholic Faith and the vocation of all Catholics to be, not only disciples, but also apostles.

With any call to cling to new things, there is a correlating call to let go of something. The Bishop suggests…

In order to strengthen our devotion to Christ in the Holy Eucharist and worship God rightly, we need to renounce any attachment to how we worship currently… To improve the spiritual depth of how we perform the Church’s liturgy, we will need to renounce attachment to worldly expectations and long-standing habits. To spend more time adoring Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, we need to renounce attachment to how we currently use our time. To deepen our intimate love for God in our hearts and heads, we need to renounce attachment to whatever is not God that is filling our hearts and heads. To live in more intentional and holy Catholic families, we need to renounce attachment to distractions, sins, and imperfections that harm our domestic churches. To accept the divine plan God has for each of us, we need to renounce attachment to our own plans. To change the world for Christ, we need to renounce attachment to how we want the world to be for ourselves.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

In his first apology (150AD ish), Justin Martyr wrote:

“We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true…”

Since Protestants do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist as Catholics do, they do not discern or recognize that Jesus’ body is present under the appearance of bread and wine. We would therefore, according to Paul, be allowing them to eat and drink judgment upon themselves.

The intention is to avoid giving occasion for sin to our Protestant brothers and sisters, with whom we enjoy a spiritual communion in the Body of Christ, although imperfectly. Sometimes interpreted as close-minded and mean-spirited, we mean it as an act of love.

Joseph was always very conscious that he was in the presence of Jesus and Mary.
— Most Rev. Placido Rodriguez, CMF

And so should we all.