ARCC spot LIGHT - Feed My People (maybe)!

Mon Mar 1, 2010 8:15 am

Feed (some) of My People!

Our Catholic Church holds that there can be no interdenominational agreement on receiving the Eucharist before full ecclesiastical unity is achieved.  Too often, this is equated with another matter, that of Eucharistic sharing, the act of making the Eucharist accessible to individuals of other traditions who are, by virtue of baptism, our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ, and who are present for the Eucharistic celebration, whether as occasional visitors or as spouses of the nearly 50% of Catholics in North America who have married across denominational lines.

This lack of Eucharistic sharing between believing and prepared Christians makes a mockery of the theology of sacrament which says a sacrament effects what it signifies.  If the Eucharist is the ultimate sacrament of unity, should it not be allowed to effect that unity as well as signify it?  Should it not be more generously shared with properly disposed persons of faith who by special circumstances find themselves at a Catholic liturgy and ask to share the Body and Blood of Jesus with this us?  In asking this, do they not meet all the criteria specified in the 1993 Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms of Ecumenism, Article 131,as well as Canon 844, Article 4 of the Code of Canon Law - a law too often required to be obeyed, too seldom generously applied?

Must we continuously tell such people of good faith that we are sorry but they cannot receive, cannot be healed by the ultimate sacrament of healing, cannot live the unity of their marriage at the Eucharistic banquet, cannot be united with us (and we with them) by the ultimate sacrament of unity?  Must we wait until such unity is officially proclaimed before we offer food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty?

Eucharist is not a prize for some theological winning team or some favored team member. It is food for the journey. And we all journey together: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God who is Father of all.  No Christian tradition has complete control over Eucharist.  Regardless of our interpretation, it is still Eucharist, the sharing of the bread/wine/body/blood of Jesus that He gave us to be again become a living, resurrected, presence amongst us.

If Jesus commands this in His memory who can make rules against it?  A thought to pray about during Lent!