"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Recently, a clerical friend of mine was officially installed at a parish here in San Diego. It called to mind the invitation of Jesus to His Apostles:
“Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men” – Mark 1:17
I remember being in primary school and, upon hearing the phrase “fishers of men”, had fantastical pictures in my head of St. Peter and Andrew dragging ashore nets full of squirming bodies of fully-grown men. What can I say? I had a vivid imagination as a child.
There’s a lot of discussion online at the moment about the conditions under which people may or may not receive communion. I have another post in draft on this subject, but I wanted to do a quick post outlining some of the earliest Church testimony on this subject.
In the First Century, the Didache teaches the following:
“On the Lord’s day, gather yourselves together and break bread, give thanks, but first confess your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. However, let no one who is at odds with his brother come together with you, until he has reconciled, so that your sacrifice may not be profaned.” – Didache (Chapter 14)
So here we see that unrepentant sin or in a state of disunity cannot receive communion. We find Justin Martyr in the Second Century saying something very similar:
“This food we call Eukaristia [the Eucharist], and no one is allowed to partake but he who believes that our doctrines are true, who has been washed with the washing for the remission of sins and rebirth, and who is living as Christ has enjoined” – St. Justin Martyr, First Apology (Chapter 66)
Here we find the three basic conditions to receiving communion: baptized, assent to Church doctrine and right living.
I’ve got a more substantial post in the works on the subject of interdenominational communion which I’ll publish next week…
As a bit of a follow-up to my post the other week about relativism, here is a really creative video:
This video is based on C.S. Lewis’ radio broadcast during World War II, which was later used as the foundational chapter of one of his famous books, “Mere Christianity”, one of the best basic presentations of Christianity.
There are lots of other videos on the CSLewisDoodle YouTube channel for other works of CS Lewis. They’re definitely worth seeing.
Do my actions honour or forsake my words?
– Mark Hall, Lifestories
Halloween is coming up and about this time some Christians start getting a little crazy, typically claiming that Halloween is Pagan:
For something a little more serious, here’s an interview with Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio on the subject of Halloween:
Today’s “Quick Apology” comes from a conversation a friend of mine recently had with a Reformed Protestant. It’s actually a bit of a long response for a “Quick” apology, but oh well…
“I’ll concede that the case for the historical church being the Catholic church is very strong. However, the chosen people (the Israelites) were consistently disobeying God throughout history and eventually ended up crucifying Christ. Throughout history the chosen people abandoned God. What makes you think that the Catholic Church hasn’t done this or won’t do this?”
Here, the Protestant is admitting to many of the claims of the Catholic Church, but appears to be challenging the Church’s continued status as Christ’s Church, as well as calling into question her continued authority.
It must first obviously be admitted that sinners are found in the Catholic Church. After all, why else do you think I’m allowed membership?!. However, a few points should be made…
Israel certainly sinned over the course of Salvation History. However, would it mean that because of this, it would be better for a Jew or Gentile to abandon God’s people and “go it alone”? Of course not! If one left Judaism, thinking that this couldn’t possibly be the true religion due to the hypocrisy of some of their rulers and many its followers, then one would be making a huge mistake!
As Saint Paul said, “…to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs“ (Romans 9:4-5). The Lord had given to Israel many wonderful gifts for the sake of salvation. It would be crazy to reject these gifts and walk away!
However, we actually have an example in the Old Testament of when some members of Israel did just that. After King Solomon’s death, his son ascended to the throne (1 Kings 12) who was a complete tyrant. The northern tribes refused to follow him and this resulted in the division of the Kingdom: the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judea in the south. This separatist movement received the condemnation of the prophets. Not only had they abandoned their rightful king, they had cut themselves off from the priesthood, the Temple and the sacrifices.
