At a Vespers service on Sunday night, I stuck around for communion after the service had ended. I must admit that I was not delighted about the communion cups that the school uses or the Methodist pastor who was serving, but being forced to attend non-denominational free-Church/Presbyterian services had made me glad for any chance to take the Eucharist. I was a little uncomfortable that several avowedly non-Christian students had also hung around to take communion.
Growing up in the Free Church and then a Southern Baptist Church, the Eucharist was merely symbolic. Anyone who professed a commitment to Christ could take it, regardless of baptism. When I started to attend and Anglican church, I was initially dismayed that, since I hadn't yet been baptized, I could not partake. In retrospect, though, I think the prerequisite of baptism acknowledges the worth of the Eucharist.
Was what these students did wrong, or, perhaps better put, not the best idea? Or was it something beautiful? I suppose it depends on one's view of the sacraments. For that reason I do not take the Eucharist in Catholic masses, though I have often wanted to.
Any ideas?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I think I know how you feel, though perhaps I've arrived at it in a different way. Growing up Presbyterian, communion was done only about three or four times a year at my church, and when I attended Fourth Pres, they did it once every other month. When I first learned that Catholics and Anglicans do it every week, I was uncomfortable with the idea of it being a routinzed thing, rather than a rare, special event. In that way, it seemed, to me, to devalue the sacrament. Now that I'm older, I guess I don't really care about the frequency, but the effects still linger to some degree.
In regards to non-Christians taking the sacrament, what bothers me about it is not that they're taking the Body and Blood of Christ per se, but that perhaps they haven't taken the time to seriously think about what they're doing.
Anyway, reading what you wrote reminded me of a short essay Walker Percy wrote called "The Holiness of the Ordinary," here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=EEzOeBHWnoIC&pg=PA368&lpg=PA368&dq=walker+percy+holiness+of+the+ordinary&source=web&ots=lMGAVHptPZ&sig=RpJkmxDjkKIVWP-osDViYDHSrPU#PPA368,M1
I guess people like you and me,who have been in the faith for a while and had the chance to really reflect on it, have the luxury of being incapable of feeling "lukewarm" about the Eucharist.
-Paul
I think it's wrong. I went to a Catholic high school and once a month they had Mass. I never took the Eucharist, as I wasn't Catholic, but I still thought it was a holy time. It really bothered me how many people took it in a careless and disrespectful way. And that was back when I just thought it was symbolic.
This past summer I was attending my dad's church and we didn't have communion once. The week I was in Chicago I attended a Catholic church, so again, I couldn't partake. Having the Eucharist right in front of me and being prevented from communing was difficult and frustrating and also illuminating. I realized how much I missed it.
Holy things should inspire holy fear. They shouldn't be scary, and I don't intend to call down bolts of lightning from heaven. But when anyone is allowed to take it with any attitude, the purpose is obscured.
A few months ago I went with a friend to a small church plant. Towards the end of the service the pastor announced that we were going into a time of prayer and communion. The communion table was set up at the back of the church and you were supposed to serve yourself. The fact that we had our backs to the sacrament the entire service and that it was unofficiated seemed a little sacreligious to me. I didn't take it. I got back and tried to explain to my housemates why I felt it was wrong, but no one quite seemed to get it. I'm not sure how far to take my views of the sacraments. I don't want to be divisive. But I do want to hold some things as truly sacred.
I tend to agree with you, David. I do recall a Methodist pastor I knew well who used to quote John Wesley, saying that communion could be a "converting sacrament." What an interesting way to mark your first commitment to Christ, I would think. I'm not sure the students who troubled you were thinking this, but they may have been giving evidence of wanting to come closer to something like commitment? Hard to say.
dw
Post a Comment