When I first converted to Catholicism I carried with me much
Lutheran baggage. I professed that the Catholic Church held the fullness of the
truth, yet, like so many Catholics today believed that it was wrong on some
very important points. I let my pride guide my mind as I set forth to prove
where and why the Church was wrong.
My biggest beef was in the way the Church distributed
communion. She freely shared the word of God with anyone who would listen but
she reserved the body of God to a select few who met a certain criteria. The
Church teaches that you have to be in a state of grace to receive communion.
Aren’t sinners the ones who really needed the Lord the most? Didn’t Jesus
himself say that the healthy are in no need of a doctor and he came to heal the
sick?
My logic was sound. Sound logic is what made people like
Luther and Calvin so popular during the reformation. As sound as my logic
sounded to me at the time it was never the less still wrong. The Eucharist is the
source and summit of the Catholic faith. The Catholic faith begins with the
Eucharist, is centered in it, and ends with it. To question the Church’s
teaching on the Eucharist is to question the very foundation of the faith. Had
I really converted or was I just another Catholic in name only?
If we liken mortal sin to a cancer that destroys a soul then
we need a very powerful chemo to kill the cancer. The Eucharist is not that
chemo. The Eucharist does not remove the stain of mortal sin from a person’s
soul. The Church does possess the chemo that destroys the cancer. It is the
most powerful type of chemo that can destroy even the most aggressive and
deadly cancer. This chemo is called the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Jesus gave
the Church the authority to forgive sin. Jesus gave the Church the medicine to
heal those dying from the cancer that devours souls. Forgiveness is the
strongest medicine known to man. It is the antidote to the poison we let into
our lives.
So if the Eucharist is not a medicine what is it? The
Eucharist is the ultimate super vitamin. It takes a healthy body to the next
level. The Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus. When we
take the Eucharist into our bodies we are forming a very personal and intimate relationship
with him. He lives in us and he dwells in us. If we release our will to his we
become one. So why can’t a person receive the Lord at this level unless they
are in a state of grace? Why does the Church keep Christ from those who do not
believe this simple truth?
Sometimes people are so sick, their bodies so weak, that the
cure would kill them. Before we can treat the cancer we have to treat the
person to get them strong enough to survive the cure for the cancer. To a
healthy body the Eucharist is a super vitamin that will bring the person to the
closest state of perfection they can obtain on this side of heaven. To a sick
person the Eucharist can be deadly. Saint Paul tells us very clearly that those
to receive the Eucharist unworthily bring death upon themselves. When a sinner,
who knows that they have committed grave sin, thumbs their nose at the Church
and takes the Eucharist anyway they do so at the risk of serious peril.
The Church knows and understands this and that is why
communion is restricted to those who hold this understanding of what the
Eucharist is and who, to the best of their knowledge, are in a state of grace.
The Church has the authority granted to her by Jesus to heal the disease with
the Sacrament of Reconciliation and then strengthen body and soul with the Sacrament
of Holy Eucharist. These “medicines” have to be administered in the correct order to
be affective. One without the other or administered in the wrong order can be
deadly.
There is one less bag I will be carrying through this life. Fortunately
for me it was also the heaviest.
