Ah, Life
These are my bridesmaids wearing their wonderful dresses that it only took us 1/2 an hour to pick out! I was so surprised, but very happy. They're being ordered and will be here by November. Everybody looks great in them and likes them, which is the most important. Yay for my beautiful bridesmaids!
On another wedding note, Eric and I picked up our unity candle at the Renaissance Festival today. It is perfect, just what we wanted. It looks great, and now we just need 2 plain white candle sticks to light it with. We can get those anywhere, so we're not really concerned about it.
I feel like I should write about something deep, especially since there's a few things that have been on my mind. One is sortof a response to something in Matt's blog. It's actully come up a few times in the past couple months, so it's almost ironic that he wrote about it. That's the communion for non-Catholics thing. My main problem with it is not that they shouldn't be part of the community and that they should be excluded (I do not think anyone has a right to refuse anyone else communion, no one should sit in judgment of someone else's moral state or religious beliefs), my problem is that by not believing that the bread and wine is the Body and Blood of Jesus, they cannot fully understand what they are receiving and cannot act in accordance with that. It's a perplexing issue that I haven't fully come to a good conclusion on, especially because I want to be inclusive and community oriented, but I also want anyone who gets communion, whether Catholic or not, to be prepared for what they receive and act accordingly. Other things that I've been having difficulties with are just being able to express myself and what I really think without being seen as a bigot or closeminded or anything like that. I often feel like I can't really express what I want to, especially in classes or around certain people. It's very annoying and somewhat disheartening, especially at a place that prides itself on diversity and respect for all people and for all different views. I feel that that idea here is somewhat hypocritical because a lot of the time certain views aren't allowed to be expressed, or at least you get the feeling that you better not say something because it's not just the minority view but completely wrong. It's not even that people have the opinion that that particular view is wrong-it's almost as though everyone takes it for granted that it's true and so it's not even up for discussion or debate because it's already been decided that it's wrong. It's so frustrating.
And I don't want to make a fuss about it
The only certain thing in life is death
posted by empeterson @ 9:04 PM
2 Comments:
At 2:56 AM ,
Matthew B. Novak said...
I totally understand your desire to make sure that all people receiving the Eucharist understand the fullness of what's going on. That's a totally reasonable goal. But there's a couple problems with creating the rule based on that ideal (i.e. the rule that you cannot receive communion unless you're a Catholic in a state of Grace).
1. How many Catholics - whether in a state of grace or not - really get what's going on?
2. Even if they do, how many of them are totally focused on it when they receive communion?
3. That's the ideal, but it doesn't make sense as the rule. For it to be a good rule, you'd need to have some indication that receiving communion in a less-than-ideal state would actually be offensive to God. This is one of the problems I find with the Church - they're often making rules based on the absolute best goal possible, the thinking being that "well, if that's the rule, people will get to that absolute ideal", but they fail to realize how that can backfire, driving people away, making the Church seem unreasonable, etc. I just think they screwed up when they made that the rule, and depending on who you talk to, the decision to receive the Eucharist is totally between the individual and God. I'm sure not going to be offended if someone wants communion - even if they don't totally comprehend it. Because they'll still get the Grace, and hopefully eventually they will get it. And that's the way to the ideal.
At 7:25 AM ,
empeterson said...
I'm not saying it should be the rule, just that it's hard to accept so many people receiving it who don't get it. Like I said, no one should ever be turned away from communion or be told by anyone at anytime that they are not "worthy" or whatever to receive communion. It's a difficult situation, because there are so many Catholics who also receive communion just to receive communion, not because they understand it or even always completely believe it. Communion is tricky that way. So maybe your right in that because no one can always completely understand it or even always believe to the same degree that it is what it is, everyone should be able to receive it. But that doesn't mean that people shouldn't try to understand it or not worry about whether or not they believe it really is Jesus. Because I think that is essential to the Eucharist-believing or trying to understand that it really is Jesus, otherwise what's really the point? There is more than just community at the heart of Catholicism and the world in general, and not caring or trying to understand/believe goes against what Jesus was teaching in the gospels. People walked away from him when he told them about the Eucharist, and he let them, he didn't try to do whatever he could to make them come back, although I'm sure he didn't want to be exclusive. But you're right-no one should be exluded and I guess communion should be an option for all, but it's still hard to accept that it's completely ok for believe to receive it when they won't even try or care to try to understand/believe it's really Jesus.
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