The Eucharist and The Paper of Record

I was going to write about marriage between women and men this time out, which I will, but was caught off guard by something I saw on the Internet last night.  To go back for a second, I'm embarrassed that so much time has gone by without making a comment about the new gay "marriage" law in my home state of New York.  This summer has been a blur of meetings, weddings, retreats and trips up to Massachusetts to see my father, who needed heart surgery in July (Saw him yesterday; doing much better. Thank you all for the prayers).  The whole thing came and went and I was ill prepared to comment.  But for now, I want to talk about the Eucharist and the New York Times.

Sunday Bill Keller, the outgoing executive editor of the Times, wrote a piece in the Magazine section that advocates for greater scrutiny of the presidential candidates' religious beliefs.  All in all, this is not a bad idea.  A person's faith, well integrated into their lives, will influence how they think, act and, yes, govern.  The controversial part of the article comes when he tries to differentiate between what he considers more inconsequential, if odd, beliefs held in various religions and more central ones that could effect policy decisions. I quote at length:

I honestly don’t care if Mitt Romney wears Mormon undergarments beneath his Gap skinny jeans, or if he believes that the stories of ancient American prophets were engraved on gold tablets and buried in upstate New York, or that Mormonism’s founding prophet practiced polygamy (which was disavowed by the church in 1890). Every faith has its baggage, and every faith holds beliefs that will seem bizarre to outsiders. I grew up believing that a priest could turn a bread wafer into the actual flesh of Christ. 

But I do want to know if a candidate places fealty to the Bible, the Book of Mormon (the text, not the Broadway musical) or some other authority higher than the Constitution and laws of this country. It matters to me whether a president respects serious science and verifiable history — in short, belongs to what an official in a previous administration once scornfully described as “the reality-based community.” I do care if religious doctrine becomes an excuse to exclude my fellow citizens from the rights and protections our country promises. 

I highlight the offending line, about the Eucharist, and one that has gone largely unnoticed, one that I read as relating to the gay "marriage" issue.  What Mr. Keller is saying, in essence, is that it's alright to have your exotic and esoteric beliefs, as long as you don't make a show out of it.  But when faith actually influences your world view, well we just can't have that.

I can't and won't speak for Mormons and their adherence to the texts they hold as sacred, or how they believe those scriptures came into existence, but as for Catholics, the True Presence is not some fringe, disposable belief.  It is central and holds the key to our entire belief system and world view.  It is the concrete reminder that God so loved the world that he sent us his only Son, that we might not die, but live eternally.  It is the reminder that God walked our streets, ate in our homes, healed the sick and raised the dead.  More to the heart of the matter, it is here to remind us, it is the memorial of Jesus' death, Resurrection, and Ascension.  The Eucharist is the fulfillment of Jesus' promise to remain with us for all time, until He comes again.  When we receive the precious Body and Blood we experience intimate communion with the Lord, and also with our brother and sister communicants.

When we say "Amen" before receiving communion we are saying that we believe in the True Presence, but also that we believe in what the Catholic Church teaches, reveled both in Scripture and Apostolic Tradition.  We are saying that we are in union with our brothers and sisters but also with the Pope, the successor of Peter.  We are saying "Amen" to a deep relationship that impels us to think differently, to to see the world and others differently, to live differently.

The Eucharist is nothing less than the extension of the Incarnation through history.  In the Eucharist Christ is present in the transubstantiated bread and wine and in the believing community united by the Sacrament.  It is the "bread for the journey" that gives us strength and makes us the Body of Christ so that His work of proclaiming the Kingdom will continue here on earth until the General Resurrection. It is also the reminder that God is close; as close as the tabernacle in your parish church, as close as our neighbour.


As for the second point; faith as an excuse to deprive people of their civil rights, I will enter into next time.  As I've tried to say, in so many words, ours is an incarnational faith.  The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.  He came in the form of a human being, in a living body, as a man.  That the Second Person of the Trinity came among us as a man rather than a woman was purposeful, and points to the reality that the body matters and says something about who we are.  It is more than just a matter of how the plumbing is arranged, a quip I've heard now and again. But it points to our personal identity, how we are created in the image and likeness of God, and how we cooperate with Him in the ongoing work of creation.