Holy Eucharist: May we worthily believe and live

		Notes from the  Vicar General  Msgr. Paul J. Swain

This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1407) reminds us that: the Eucharist is the heart and summit of the church's life, for in it Christ associates his Church and all her members with his sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving offered once for all on the cross of his Father; by his sacrifice he pours out the graces of salvation on his Body the church.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke each give an account of the beautiful and haunting Last Supper when Jesus celebrated the traditional Passover meal with his disciples and changed its meaning forever.

I grew up in a faith community that viewed communion as only symbolic of the Last Supper. That did not fill my spiritual hunger.

What a powerful and life changing moment it was when I was able to open myself to the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. It was the Eucharist, that extraordinary gift of Christ of Himself, that brought me to the Catholic Church, that sustained me on my faith journey as an adult convert, and that supports me in my priesthood.

What a humbling privilege it is to stand at His altar and be His instrument in this mysterious miracle.

Are we privileged?

We are all privileged people. We have the opportunity to receive the Holy Eucharist every day if we choose. Pray for and encourage that more men will open their hearts to God's call to priesthood so that his gift of the Holy Eucharist can be as readily available to generations to come as it is to us.

We continue to need that gift regularly. Each of us has areas in which we struggle, for which we need his saving sacrifice. What we receive, forgiveness, healing, the grace to bear our crosses, we are to share in our relationships with one another.

Communion is not distributed down the pews, person to person. Those who are able are asked to come to the altar. The priest or extraordinary minister of communion holds up the consecrated Host and declares, The Body of Christ, and the chalice filled with consecrated wine and declares: the Blood of Christ.

We respond, Amen, an affirmation that we truly believe what has just been declared. If we merely go through the motions without reflecting on what we do and say, or are more concerned about making a dinner reservation on time, we may miss the essence of this extraordinary moment of engagement with the Lord.

Or casual?

We can become a bit casual about our need and its importance to our spiritual well-being, especially in the summer when many come down with vacationitis.

Its symptoms are placing golf, gardening, and other summer activities ahead of Mass and prayer. As beautiful as a summer day can be, it pales in comparison to the beauty and power of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist.

Jesus said, I am the living bread come down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.

Are we open to His power, what it can do for us, what we can do strengthened by Him? Or do we receive routinely, like a trip to McDonalds, gets this line moving. To receive the fullness of the gift of Christ in the Eucharist, we need to pray for the faith to appreciate its mystery, prepare ourselves properly, and receive disposed to change our lives to become more like the One whom we receive.

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Corpus Christi. May we believe what we receive and strive to live our lives worthy of the gift of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Confusions in Congress:
Letter muddies the waters

		The Catholic  Difference  George Weigel

On May 10, 48 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives - all Catholics, all Democrats, 45 pro-choice, three pro-life - wrote Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, chairman of the bishops' Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians.

Their letter bespoke a host of confusions about the nature of the abortion issue, the responsibilities of legislators, and church law.

Abortion issue

One confusion has to do with the public character of the abortion license, which the members described repeatedly as a matter of "personal morality."

This is precisely wrong. Abortion, as the bishops have consistently taught, is a matter of the fifth commandment, not the sixth; it's a question of public justice, not sexual morals.

Why? Because abortion involves taking the life of an indisputably human creature, endowed with an inalienable right to life. That is a serious public matter, not a private choice, because protecting innocent life is one of the first requirements of justice in any decent society.

Court got it wrong

Roe v. Wade (the 1973 Supreme Court decision that tried to justify abortion via an alleged "right to privacy") and Casey v. Planned Parenthood (the 1992 decision that re-tooled the abortion license as a "liberty right") were both wrongly decided - just as Dred Scott v. Sandford, the 1857 decision declaring African-Americans legal non-persons, was wrongly decided.

As the pope, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the U.S. bishops have all taught - and as any reputable theory of justice would confirm - legislators who have sworn to uphold the rule of law, but who recognize that the Supreme Court has made a grave error, have certain responsibilities; they can't simply wash their hands of the affair, on the grounds that, well, the court has settled the issue.

To begin with, legislators have an obligation to state publicly that the court got it wrong. In their letter, the members justified pro-choice voting records on the grounds that "the Supreme Court has declared that our Constitution provides women with a right to an abortion."

Anyone truly opposed to abortion would immediately continue, "But the court, sadly, was wrong. Tragically and lethally wrong."

Limit damage

Secondly, conscientious legislators have a moral obligation to try to limit the damage caused by bad Supreme Court decisions. Some of the members who wrote Cardinal McCarrick have done so; most have not.

Moreover, few of the signatories have made any serious effort to change the dynamics within the Democratic Party, in which unabashed support for the abortion license is the litmus test for national office and the litmus test for weighing judicial nominees.

This suggests that most of these members are not working, as any morally serious legislator must, to reverse the court's wrongheaded abortion decisions - which is the third requirement for lawmakers in situations like post-Roe v. Wade America.

Invoking Jesuit priest

The members also mistakenly invoke Fr. John Courtney Murray, S.J., in defense of their attempt to describe abortion as an issue of "private" morality not subject to legal regulation. Murray (who died almost six years before Roe) was dubious about the wisdom of the church defending state laws that criminalized the sale of contraceptives.

But contraception, while a serious sin with grave cultural implications, is, in essence, a matter of conjugal morality and the sixth commandment; abortion is a matter of public justice and the fifth commandment. That's the distinction Murray would likely draw.

Canonical penalties

Finally, the members misrepresent canon law and the purpose of canonical penalties. Canon 915 states that those who "obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."

The application of this canon to present circumstances is being vigorously debated throughout the United States (and in Rome) right now. The debate would be a wiser one if everyone understood (as the 48 members of Congress evidently do not) that canonical penalties have a different aim than penalties in civil and criminal law.

The purpose of canonical penalties is remedial, even medicinal: imposing a penalty is intended, not so much as a punishment, but as a prod to conversion. The aim is not retribution, but change of heart and mind.

The members' letter did not, alas, advance an important debate. It muddied the waters even further.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.