The legend tells us of an encounter between the young St. Francis and a leper on the plains outside Assisi. As Francis was riding along, he saw the man, disfigured by such hideous sores that Francis almost turned to flee from him. But the love of God overcame his revulsion. This dignified young man—the son of a wealthy merchant—got down from his horse and embraced the man, and kissed his open sores.
Sometimes the story is told with a postscript. When Francis remounted his horse and turned to say good-bye to the leper, the man had vanished. The leper had been Christ in disguise.
The addition to the story gets something right, but at a deeper level it is very wrong. If the leper was Jesus and no one else, then what about the sores? What about the rags? Were they only for show, so that Jesus could teach a lesson in disguise and then pass on? But what if the leper was really a leper—a poor man suffering from a grotesque disease—and Jesus was present in him in the midst of his leprosy?
Here is the problem with the doctrine of transubstantiation, the teaching that the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper are changed by Divine power into the literal body and blood of the Lord Jesus, and so cease to be bread and wine. If this is true, then this food and drink cannot bring us to Christ, because the moment they begin to do so, they are no longer food and drink. But if we eat real bread and drink real wine, and through them really eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink His blood ... then God is really in the world, in things and in people. Then Francis met a man with a real and horrible disease, and in him he really met the Lord. Then the Word has really become Flesh. Then Christ really is the Savior of the world. Not a "savior" who would take us out of the world, but a Savior who sends us into the world (John 17:15-18). He has not come to annihilate the creation and put Himself in its place. No!—He has come to take His place in the creation, and so make it truly become itself, what He created it to be.
Because His brothers were really there craving your help, because they really were needy and weak—because it was for them that you did it, He says, you did it for Him!
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’ ” (Matthew 25:40).
Because it is really bread that you break and eat, therefore you receive the Body of Christ. It must be and remain bread so that you, through it, may receive His real body into yours! If bread had to be absent for Christ to be present, then we could never meet Christ in the material things of God's creation. But it is bread, real bread!—wine, real wine! so that in it we may really meet our Lord!
“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:14-17).
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
"Is it just Jesus in disguise?" or, Eucharistic Docetism
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Ascension Day
Today--forty days after Easter, the holiday of Christ's resurrection--the Church celebrates His ascension into Heaven.
The Lord Jesus ascended
to His Father;
He sat down at the right hand
of the Mighty One.
From there He will return in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and there will be no end to His reign.
"Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, 'Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'
"Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.'"
--Acts 1:6-11 (NKJV)
Monday, April 28, 2008
History
"The history of the world should purport to be annals of the government of the supreme King."
--Jean Henri Merle d'Aubigné (1794-1872), Swiss historian and pastor
Sunday, April 20, 2008
פסח (Passover)
Pesach (Passover) began last night at sundown.
Exodus 12:12-14 "'For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.'"
Monday, April 7, 2008
Pope speaks out against divorce, abortion
At a Catholic congress on marriage and family, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed the Catholic Church's stand against divorce and abortion. These, he said, "are serious offences... which violate human dignity, inflict deep injustice on human and social relations and offend God himself, guarantor of conjugal peace and origin of life.... They also affect innocent victims, the barely-conceived and unborn infant, the children caught up in divorces."
At the same time, Christians are called to help bring peace to people who have been affected by these tragic events: "The Church has the duty to be close to these people with love and delicacy."
(Source: Breitbart via Right Mind)
Sunday, March 23, 2008
CHRIST IS RISEN! Rejoice!
Christ is risen from the dead,
by death He has trampled Death,
and to those in the tombs
He has granted Life!
Joy has come into the world,
Death and the Devil are vanquished,
Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
"Pray that we may be one"
Matthew Petersen has some very good thoughts here on the quest for Christian unity, and the dangers of being dismissive or patronizing toward Christians in other communions than our own.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Palm Sunday
Rejoice greatly,
Daughter of Zion!
Raise a shout,
Daughter of Jerusalem!
Look! Your king
is coming to you,
Righteous, and possessed of
salvation-victory is he,
Lowly, and riding
on a donkey,
On a colt,
the offspring of beasts of burden.
—Zechariah 9:9
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Mar Paulos Faraj Rahho, archbishop and martyr (1942-2008)
We, Christians of Mesopotamia, are used to religious persecution and pressures by those in power. After Constantine, persecution ended only for Western Christians, whereas in the East threats continued. Even today we continue to be a Church of martyrs.
—Mar Paulos, Nov. 26, 2007
Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul in northern Iraq, was found dead on Thursday after having been kidnapped two weeks ago by a group of Islamist gunmen. He had served as archbishop of the Chaldean Catholics of Mosul for seven years. (Mosul, the archbishop's hometown, is the Biblical city of Nineveh.)
Three of the archbishop's companions were killed in a gunfight during his kidnapping, as he returned home after Mass on February 29. There are conflicting reports about the cause of death of Mar Paulos himself; there are some suggestions that he died from preexisting health conditions made worse by the circumstances of his captivity, while others claim he was shot.
(Sources: The Times Online, AFP)
May the God who was preached in Nineveh by Jonah the prophet and by Mar Paulos, and Jesus His Son, bring perfect peace to Mosul and to all Iraq and the Middle East. May He reduce His enemies to obedience to Christ, through the testimony that His servants offer in both life and death.
