Posted on 12/27/2008 2:48:02 PM PST by NYer
Q. Why can’t Protestants receive communion at the Catholic Church?
A. To protect them from Judgment.
1 Corinthians 11: 27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be
guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
Since, Protestants do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist as we do, they do not discern or recognize that Jesus’ body is present under the appearance of bread and wine. We would be allowing them to eat and drink judgment upon themselves. The prohibtion is actually very charitable but, unfortunately, it is usually seen as a rejection.
Evidence of this interpretation of this passage is supported by St. Justin the Martyr :
“We call this food Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true…”
-Justin Martyr -FIRST APOLOGY, 66,20–(150 A.D.)
Q. Why do we call the bread “The Host”?
A. Our use of this term, to refer to the consecrated bread, comes from the Latin word hostia, which means ‘victim’. We believe that Jesus Christ is really present in the consecrated bread and wine on our altars. The mass is a re-presentation of the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. Therefore, Jesus is the victim of sacrifice and we call the bread the host/victim to help us remember that it is no longer bread but the Real Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ given to us to strengthen and keep us on the journey to Heaven.
Your reply doesn’t jive with the previous post about your Catholic family.
St. Ignatious of Antioch referenced it in 107 AD, and I believe , the didache did as well, which was written by the Apostles.
In writing to the Smyrnaneans 6-8, in 107 ad, St. Ingnatius of Antioch (bishop of Antioch in Syria, martyred in Rome)said the following:
“They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, in His goodness, rasied up again.
Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. Yet is would be better for them to treat it with respect, that they also might rise again.
It is fitting, therefore, that you should keep aloof from such persons, and not to speak of them either in private or in public, but to give heed to the prophets, and above all to the Gospel, in wich the passion has been revealed to us, and the resurrection has been fully proved.”
Oh, no. That was much later. ;)
And I’d also invite you to go to your local evangelical protestant church one time and see the passion and love of Christ expressed in a way you’ll never see in a Catholic church. Perhaps it can lead to stronger awareness that Protestant and Catholic, we’re both Christians.
*which- sorry, getting sleepy :)
LOL
Bedtime. Feast of the Holy Family tomorrow. :)
The Catholic Church has survived and always will survive until the end of time. Why? Because Jesus founded it, and Jesus is God. Doesn't everyone realize that?
I married a Catholic girl in her church (yes a mixed marriage, but she’s now Methodist). She has an uncle who is a priest, I have a high school friend who is a priest, and my mother in law is the christian education director and RCIA director for her parish.
I was raised M-F as a Catholic as I went to Catholic schools from Kindergarten through high school. The weekends I went to the Methodist church right up the street.
When I was 14, I chose Methodist, and I haven’t regretted it since. I was baptized a few years later, and have a personal relationship with my savior.
Unfortunately too many Catholics view the Church as the only path to salvation - implicitly or explicitly. If only were more open such as most of my family (yes, uncle Brent, the priest, has even come to my church once and thoroughly enjoyed it) to understand that faith is more than doctrine.
I find it interesting that when asked what religion they are, most Protestants say “Christian”. When asked the same question, most Catholics say “Catholic”. That should be telling in itself.
Thanks for the taxonomy. As an Episcopalian (what I used to be) I was taught that communion was for the baptized. Is there one or are there many Baptist thoughts about the relationship between being baptized and participating in communion?
I believe we are literally receiving Jesus when we have Catholic communion, because I take communion, and when I take it I feel filled with Jesus and in direct communication with him in a way that I never feel when I'm not partaking of communion. I feel it's unfortunate that many protestants have never experienced this and will never know Jesus in that way (that's NOT to say they can't have a deep personal relationship with Jesus in other ways and speak to him directly) I certainly do feel the Southern Baptist ritual is meaningless if they use the time to "symbolically" eat regular bread and deeply reflect about what Jesus death meant for us. Like I said, I've had the same feeling and been deeply moved by watching The Passion of The Christ, why would it matter if I ate some "symbolic" bread while I did it.
I honestly don't know how we receive Jesus himself when we have communion, only that I believe in my heart that we do. Maybe the Catholic doctrine of "transubstantiation" is the truth. Maybe the Orthodox doctrine of "metousiosis" is the truth. Maybe neither is. Of course we refer to it as a wine and bread, because it maintains the physical attributes of wine and bread. God works in mysterious ways.
I'm not too fond of the Roman Catholic Latin rite of having everyone drink from the same glass (even though it was done that way 2000 years ago, who's to say you couldn't catch a disease from someone else by using the same cup). A couple of times lately I've been going to a Byzantine Catholic Church, which has a really interesting way of doing communion (they use a goblet and soak the bread in the wine and then drop it in your mouth), and I find their masses much more exciting. It's kind of a hybred Catholic-Orthodox experience since they're eastern rite, but in full communion with the Pope. That's one of cool things about Christianity, just as there are many kinds of worship styles among protestants, there are many worship styles among Catholics. I can fulfill my Sunday obligations at any type of Catholic church. I'd like to go the Byzantine Catholic church more often, but sadly, it's a long drive from my house.
I attended services as a Methodist Church once, for Ash Weds in downtown Chicago. It was a very nice homily, but overall I didn't like it. The one I went to was wayyyy too liberal for my tastes. It was one of those "we welcome openly gay and lesbians to our brethen" churches and they had a female pastor in plain clothes. Didn't feel comfortable there. I know GWB is a Methodist, perhaps you know of a more conservative branch because overall they seem pretty liberal.
I've attended Lutheran and Anglician services, and liked them, mainly because they're the most "Catholic" of the Protestant branches it's kind of like experiencing a different brand of Catholicism. My grandfather was a Lutheran.
One time I attended a four hour Greek Orthodox service, and found theirs to be the most interesting of all. Since we both believe in the "Real presence", I did indeed participate in what I thought was communion there, and stood in line for the bread, only to learn later on that they didn't give me the actual communion but merely "blessed bread" since I wasn't an orthodox Christian member. The priest said he wasn't offended though and it's fine for me to get in line for the bread if I want to. And I can honestly say that receiving "blessed bread" but not the physical Jesus was NOT as spiritually enriching for me, something was missing. In any case I really love the Orthodox style of worship but there are some big sticking points that prevent Catholics and Orthodox from reunification. One thing with the Orthodox church is they all tend to be very "ethnic", you go a Greek church and it's VERY Greek, you go to a Russian church and it's VERY Russian, so for someone not raised in that background, you're simply an outsider. It's a very interesting service though. I highly recommend others to attend one sometime.
I was always taught that Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox are the three main tiers of Christianity and each has unique and enriching culture and rituals of their own. I can't imagine any "Christian" attacking the other two branches as heathens and heretics because some of their doctrines are different.
The heart of the matter. Thank you for saying it.
Jesus didn't realize that...Why would anyone else???
If you were married in a Catholic ceremony, then you would have had to produce your baptismal certificate. Thus, as I stated before, you would be a baptized Catholic..
BTW, this Catholic has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ — I think that is one of the biggest misunderstandings between Catholics and PROTESTants.
I would assume then that you read the translation your pastor told you to read, otherwise you might hear something different than what you read.
Baptism is an act of obedience to God. An outward symbol of a heart change. You must be a true believer to take communion or you bring judgment upon yourself according to scripture. Some Baptist churches have closed communion where only baptized church members take communion. Others have open communion where Christians of other denominations may participate in their communion service also.
"Jesus didn't realize that...Why would anyone else???"
Start with the knowledge that Jesus is God. He realized all things, especially the longevity of the Church that he founded. I mean...c'mon, this is basic stuff.
Congratulations, you fooled a priest. Tells me more about you than it does the priest.
Well you have a point there. Since something like 85% of America is Christian, when I ask people their "religion" I'm usually wondering their specific denomination. If they answer "Christian", I say "Aren't most people? What branch?" and then I get their religion: "Dutch Reform" and so on. Of course if you ask a Catholic what religion, they almost always reply "Catholic". If you ask what branch they're probably say "Roman"
Well you know the way Catholics see it is that no religion is perfect once man gets to it, nothing will be exactly like the church that Christ intended. Christianity is full of leaky boats, and from the Catholic perspective, Catholicism is the least leaky boat. All the other branches of Christianity stray from what Jesus intended (to varying degrees), and Catholicism is the closest to what Jesus wanted.
Perhaps it is a bit arrogant of Catholics but most of Catholicism views all Chrisitianity as Catholic (after all, Catholic means "universal", the nicene creed says "one holy catholic and apostalic church"), and the Pope as the spokesman for all Christians. From the Catholic POV, the other branches have just slowly strayed from their Catholic roots and are not listening to the guy who is the spokesman for Christianity -- namely, the Pope.
I do tend to think in these terms myself sometimes, as much as I try to be humble. Of course from the Orthodox perspective of course, it's the other way around -- they seem themselves as the "original" church that Jesus started, and say that 4 out of 5 of the original "main centers" of Chrisitanity stayed faithful but then in 1054 the Roman branch got a little cocky and ran off to do its own thing.
And from a historic perspective (taking away my own religious bias), you can really see it either way.
And the protestant branches... well I see most of them as started by guys that had some good intentions, mostly trying to reform corruption within the Catholic church, but ended up doing more harm that good. I mean Martin Luther was totally right about calling the Pope to task for the Catholic church selling indulgences, but later in life he became a rather nasty anti-Jewish bigot and threw out books of the bible that had been around since antiquity. And John Calvin, John Wesley, they all had some good ideas too, but ultimately I think they were wrong on alot of things. Such is the failing of mortal men.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.