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To: PapaNew
"All that stuff is between a man and his God. The Bible authorizes no one to exclude one from taking communion."

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If taking communion unworthily is harmful for a person (as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11), the loving and caring thing for anyone to do is to try to stop that person from harming themselves.

The Bible doesn't tell us to try to stop heroin addicts from shooting up, either, or to try to stop a person who is obviously drunk from climbing into their car and driving off, or to try to stop a person who is mentally ill or disturbed from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, but that does not mean that a loving, caring person (including a pastor) should not try to stop those harmful things, from happening, just because they don't perceive those exact word formulations in the Bible.

Now (in reality) the truth is that if someone insists on taking communion in an unworthy manner, they will most likely be able to do that anywhere they go, as no priest or Eucharistic minister can possibly know if a person has totally turned away from their sins and sinful life, and have taken the right steps and have properly received the Sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation prior to coming to Mass, making them eligible to receive communion in a worthy manner. However, if a person insists on harming himself/herself, they will most likely be able to do that for the time being, but it is a very foolish choice to make.

Read just a bit further in that letter to the Corinthians:

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For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

1 Corinthians 11:29

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75 posted on 04/24/2014 8:36:16 PM PDT by Heart-Rest ("Our hearts are restless, Lord, until they rest in Thee." - St. Augustine)
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To: Heart-Rest
Read just a bit further in that letter to the Corinthians:

Yes...

But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world (1 Cor 11:32).

God does not condemn his children, he chastens them and loves them as a Father.

However, your emphasis is on the wrong syllAble. You take out of context the correction Paul was administering to the wayward and carnal Corinthian church. The issue with the Corinthians was when taking communion they were not discerning the Lord's body. What does that mean? It means discerning what Jesus told us to discern when

[H]he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me (Luke 22:19).

The Corinthians were using the communion for drunken feasts, not discerning or remembering the fact the Lord's body was broken for us so that we might know his wholeness.

Jesus never communion to be a time of self-flagellation and condemnation. It is meant to be a beautiful and wonderful time of remembering what he did for us and the power of his broken body in our lives. Else, what's the point?

79 posted on 04/24/2014 9:00:05 PM PDT by PapaNew
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