Things Only A Catholic Would Freak Out About #623: Receiving Holy Communion

For Catholics this is a big deal. It’s not snack time. It’s not a time to eat crackers and juice. It’s not a time to pass beverages down the length of the pew in little plastic cups. This is the big moment of our day, the moment in which God enters our Churches and presents his entire self, body, blood, soul and divinity, to us. And I freak out about it all the time. There are a lot of preparations that should go into this, just as any good host would make preparations for guests, especially a king. First I have to examine my conscience. I need to make sure I am not in grave sin, that I am in good standing with God. If not, it can easily be remedied by going to Confession. Then I need to make sure I have observed the fast. Have I eaten anything in the last hour? For me its the other way around, do I have time to eat this popcorn before its an hour before taking Communion.

Then there is the actual moment that we receive Christ, the moment we take his flesh and blood into our possession. How do I receive him? I can receive him by hand or by tongue. How can I respect him the most? Probably by tongue. How do I take it on my tongue? How far do I stick out my tongue? Am I too far? Am I not far enough? Is my mouth open too wide? Am I going to get priest finger in addition to the Body of Christ? Is it worth all the trouble to receive on the tongue? Does Father remember that I get his finger every day when I go up for Communion? Does he dread me coming up? What am I going to do? Oh man, I’m next in line!

These are the questions that race through my mind after the sign of peace and during the procession to the front to receive Holy Communion. Believe it or not, it is a huge deal for me and I get my undies in a bunch about it everyday. I only want the best for my Lord, but I do not want the priest to fear that I’ll slobber all over his finger when I go up for Communion. I’m really really self-conscious about it. I mean really self-conscious about it. It’s almost ridiculous. No, it is ridiculous, and its only something a Catholic would freak out about. Hence, my rant.

The Dalai Lama vs The Pope

A very interesting video that Fr. Longenecker posted on his blog. Just goes to show the slanted view people have about the Catholic Church. Caution: this video is a bit racy.

The Evolution of Creationism

That’s the title of this year’s celebration of Darwin Days, the commemoration of Charles Darwin’s birthday at NDSU. I’m not sure what the title is hinting at exactly. Either it is a commentary on Creationism by Evolutionists, or it is a nonsensical title that really has nothing to do with the concerns of Creationism. Either way it does draw to mind the continual clashes of intelligent design extremists and evangelical atheists. Being that I am only making assumptions, I acknowledge that some of the ideas I spit out next may or may not be the truth behind this event. I can imagine that there will be degrading comments made by staunch evolutionists during the panel “discussion” that will take place this week. I use the term in quotes because in all likelihood it won’t really be a discussion but a time to prop up the theory of evolution with a whole bunch of beating around the bush. I mean, that’s all my evolutionary education has ever been since I started learning about it in high school.  It seems like our university system has become a bully pulpit in which to bash organized religion based upon deific worship. I need more than one hand to count the number of lecture periods I have attended in which a professor goes beyond the bounds of evolution to take a slash at God, at creationism, at intelligent design. Nobody questions them. Nobody. That’s not true, somebody questioned my english teacher in high school and he apologized, but that was a different story. The point is nobody questions them because really, nothing will change if we did. But if a professor started taking swipes at Darwin, and spoke of how intelligently our bodies are designed, you can bet a bunch of atheists and nominal Christians would fight it. If we had an event on campus called “The Creation of Evolution” there would probably be an article condemning us in the uber liberal school newspaper The Spectrum. We are painted as dangerous nutjobs for not believing in evolution. That somehow “pushing our religion” on others will bring the downfall of American society. Reality check. Our nation continues to fall down not because we have Judeo-Christian values, but because we have abandoned them. The idea that we are all created equal is not supported by evolution, but is refuted by it because it is based upon the weak, the injured, the unfit, the unadapted among us not being able to survive. And while some evolutionists deny that a full embrace of Darwinian dogma will bring about “Social Darwinism” I believe they are wrong. While full spread Social Darwinism is not right around the corner, it will come eventually when we let go of the idea that we all have intrinsic value, if we haven’t let go of it already. When we complete the abandonment of the ideology expressed in our Declaration of Independence what will stop Evolution from leading to its logical end, to prey on the weak? When those who are willing to stand up and defend the weak and defenseless have been silenced, who will stop them from complete annihilation?

“Norm, my friend, you are taking this far too seriously.” But am I? How many years ago has it been since the last genocide has taken place on this planet? How many years has the murder of children been legal in this nation? Can we really believe that things will get better with the way things are right now and a trajectory towards propping Darwin up as a god of some sort?

Now I am unable to make a final judgment on the truth of evolution. There certainly is evidence that suggests it. But there is a lot of evidence that suggests otherwise. And the fact of the matter is that none of us were there when it happened. Evolution can never been proven true or false. It will always be a theory until we find that film from that camera aimed at the primordial swamp and we can watch it bubble and ooze and see the evolution of successive generations.

The last thing I have to say is that I find the ways that NDSU is celebrating Darwin hilarious. Costume parties (what am I supposed to dress up as, one of the missing transition species), and rub on tattoos. Yes, tattoos, the kind I wore when I was in 5th grade. One of my professors actually handed out two tattoos to each student we could wear Darwin’s likeness on our arms. I suppose I shouldn’t complain, she could have passed out free condoms like our wellness center does.

Pax

Bad News For Me

I drink more  than 2 sodas a week.

Enter 77

Sorry, this post is a huge reference to Lost, but it only so that I can make a huge observation on humanity. In this season 3 episode, the flashbacks are about Sayid Jarrah, a former Iraqi military communications officer and torturer for the Republican Guard. In this particular event, Sayid is working at a restaurant post-torturing and a woman tells her husband that Sayid is the one who tortured her into confessing to a crime she did not commit. The husband kidnaps Sayid and locks him in his kitchen to try forcing him to confess to what he did to his wife. This snippet below is of the wife, Amira, explaining to Sayid, who has repeatedly denied that it was he who tortured her, how unsafe she felt after moving to Paris because of his torturing.

I like how she mentions that we are all capable of doing what those children did to the cat. It is very true. Even as Baptized Christians with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Even those who take part in the sacrifice of Christ most intimately through the sacrifice of the Mass, we are all capable of sinning against our brother in big ways and small ways. I believe that the Church calls this concupiscence. We all tend towards sin. Yet, Amira here shows that as humans we always have a choice. While we are capable of these sins and tend towards them, we cannot commit them without choosing to. We have the ability to choose to not give in. When we desire to torture our brother in revenge, we can choose to let them go. We are able to choose to forgive.

This is the better way. We must choose the higher path, the path of forgiveness because it is right and it is what God demands of us. But I think this lesson goes far beyond revenge, forgiveness, and sin against our brother. It goes for anything. Even as a faithful Catholic, I am capable of leaving Christ at any moment. At any time I can choose to turn myself off to the love of God. No, God will not let go of me, but I can let go of him. He will not force me to stay with him because that is not love. But I have to be aware of my ability to seek my self, my tendency towards satisfying myself and leaving God. We are not immune from this part of our humanity, our longing for independence. It is a dangerous thing to believe that we are shielded from falling away from God as I was once lead to believe, and I once told many many Californians. At any moment we can choose to leave God’s graces. Each moment, each act is a choice to do what is right or not.

Let us pray that each and every moment we are reminded of the promises that we made to God at Baptism. Let us remember the promise of God’s love made present to us each time we take the Eucharist. Let us be conscious of our resolve to sin no more that we make each time we go into the Confessional. Let these memories, these promises, these realities spur us on, and be our strengths so that we can always make the right choice in each moment to not be like those children, letting the evil take over.

Pax

Catechism 1.2.2: The Transmission of Divine Revelation

God our Savior…desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth.

1 Timothy 2:3b-4

The truth that is spoken of here is none other than Jesus Christ. The Church maintains that Christ must be preached to all nations and to all individuals, for that is the desire of God.  At the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, Christ entrusts the gospel message of salvation to his apostles to protect and to preach. Through the ages, the Church has continuously passed this gospel on in two ways. The first is through oral tradition from the moment of Christ’s Ascension, and secondly in writing, many years later, as the New Testament was produced (CCC 76). Both oral tradition (referred to from here on as Tradition, with a capital ‘T’) and Sacred Scripture have been maintained through apostolic succession. That is, the Apostles appointed Bishops to take their places after death, giving them a teaching authority. This line of succession allows the Church to give everything that she is from one generation to the next, and is preserved through the Holy Spirit as God “continues to converse with the Spouse of his beloved Son” (CCC 79).

Sacred Scripture and Tradition both have a single source, that is from the Divine mouth of the Holy Spirit. Through the voice of the Spirit, the authors of the Sacred Scripture, preserved in truth the word of God. But before this occurred, the Spirit passed on the entirety of faith, through succession of the Apostles. Therefore the Church cannot know all that is true from Sacred Scripture alone, but must be reconciled with Tradition, which is held to be equal to Sacred Scripture. The Catechism here is sure to note the difference between Tradition and tradition. The former is that which is handed down through Apostolic Succession. An example is the Immaculate Conception. The latter is would be a disciplinary thing, such as priestly celibacy. These traditions are always under the influence of Tradtion, but may be changed, modified or altogether abandoned by the Magisterium.

The interpretation of this heritage of Tradition and Sacred Scripture has been handed onto the entire Church through the successors to the Apostles. The proper interpretation of these Revelations is left to the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of Peter, and to the Bishops who remain in communion with him. The Church here has no authority to teach, however, that which has not been handed down to her through Tradition and Sacred Scripture.  For example, the Eucharist as a mere symbol is not a teaching which the Church has received, therefore the Church can never teach such a thing. Our submission to the Church’s Magisterium comes from obedience to Christ when he says to the Apostles, “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me and he who rejects me rejects the one who sent me,” (Luke 10:16).

The Church exercises her teaching authority through dogmatic definitions, binding on all of the faithful. These dogmas are arranged hierarchically from the base, built upon each other supernaturally. All of the faithful have received the Holy Spirit at Baptism and have the ability to understand these truths when opened to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When we are guided in a Spirit of Truth by the Magisterium, we open ourselves to be penetrated more deeply by the supernatural faith, to know God more fully.

In conclusion, “it is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others, ” (CCC 95). Go ahead and try it. Try using Scripture without the guidance of the Magisterium and Tradtion. Each will come to his own conclusion and our own conclusion are nothing but opinions and do not reflect Christ, who is Truth, not an opinion.

Munching on Burgers and Watching People Run From Monsters

After Mass, a few of us went to the Turf with Fr. Cheney to get burgers. I hope none of my Protestants saw us because they would say, “Oh boy, the Catholics are at the bar, what a shock.” I only say that because I have had friends that have had perpetuated that awful stereotype of Catholics as drunks. Anyways, it was a lot of fun having dinner with Father. I know I’ve said this before, but it really helps to spend time with your priest to see just how normal priests are. At the end of the conversation, right before we found out that Father payed for all of our dinners, I mentioned Lost for some reason, “Oh boy, Norm talking about Lost, what a shock.” One of the others who was at dinner also watched it so we were talking about how it is a really deep show about the ultimate battle between good and evil and Father suggested that since I have it on DVD I bring it over to the Newman and we could all watch it. So we did and I think  most everyone liked it after about three episodes. I kind of realized that the pilot isn’t the best episode, but once you get to about the third episode, its really good. I wasn’t quite sure how much Father liked it, but when we were done he said that we should watch it on Saturday nights at the Newman and that I should let him keep season one at the Newman. So I think it’s safe to assume that I got about four new people, including a priest, hooked on Lost. Therefore it was an accomplishing day.

Goals for 2010

Just flipping through one of my notebooks that I brought to conference and came across some goals I had set for this new year. Only a few of them have been holding, though I haven’t really been consciously attempting them. Some of them are pretty lofty:

• Pray the rosary daily
• An hour of eucharistic adoration each week
• Daily discernment of my vocational call
• To live a life of penance for myself and the whole world
• To perfectly imitate Christ in offering my life up to him
• To use the sacrament of penance once a week

I added a few other goals during discipleship last week:

• Read Scripture for 20 minutes each day
• To pray in the chapel for a half hour every day

Adoration and penance are the only ones I have been doing consistently. Hopefully this week I’ll put a little bit more effort into it.

My Interview on Real Presence Radio

Two months ago I was on the radio. Here is the interview for your enjoyment, or your displeasure, I’m not sure which it will be for you.

PART 1

PART 2

Here is the Blood

WARNING: Very graphic video of a heinous crime being committed.

Check out Here’s The Blood for more info on these intrinsically evil crimes against humanity.