{"id":3066,"date":"2015-10-19T15:02:18","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T21:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=3066"},"modified":"2015-10-20T08:01:41","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T14:01:41","slug":"can-a-sinner-receive-communion-and-a-misreading-of-evangelii-gaudium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/10\/can-a-sinner-receive-communion-and-a-misreading-of-evangelii-gaudium.html","title":{"rendered":"Can a sinner receive communion? and a (mis?)reading of Evangelii Gaudium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yesterday I griped that Archbishop Cupich was starting to sound an awful lot like a German Bishop (except for the part about banning non-Church Tax-payers from communion) and quoted a line from an article in the Tribune<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cAre sacraments rewards for good behavior or are sacraments, as the pope would say, medicines for mercy?\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

not a direct quote from Cupich, but from a priest who was portrayed as thinking as Cupich wanted him to think.<\/p>\n

This is similar to\u00a0the aphorism that \u201cthe church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners,\u201d as quoted, for instance, in a piece at the National Catholic Reporter from 2013<\/a>, which then goes on to say<\/p>\n

I think most priests evolve. When I was first ordained at the age of 36, I thought it was my job to enforce the rules. \u201cNo Communion for you.\u201d But gradually, I came to see that the sacraments are not a reward for good behavior but the medicine of sinners.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, I can\u2019t figure out if this NCR article made such a strong impression that it\u2019s being quoted two years later by this Chicago priest, or if there was an underlying source to both these essentially similar statements, but this isn\u2019t exactly what the pope said.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the text, from Evangelii Gaudium<\/em><\/a> (the Joy of the Gospel), published in November of 2013:<\/p>\n

The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine for the weak.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cMedicine for the weak\u201d . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

But \u201cweak\u201d has been modified into \u201csinners\u201d \u2014 and further into \u201cunrepentant sinners\u201d (and \u201cthe church\u201d in that aphorism, has morphed into \u201cthe sacraments\u201d), but that\u2019s not what it says.<\/p>\n

When the Pope says that the Eucharist is \u201cmedicine for the weak,\u201d he\u2019s not issuing an open invitation for everyone to come to communion, believers and unbelievers alike, nor is he welcoming unrepentant sinners. \u00a0(At least, I hope not!) \u00a0I see this as offering hope for those who struggle deeply to stay true to their pledge to \u201csin no more\u201d \u2014 whether it\u2019s succumbing to temptations to sexual sins, or greed, or garden-variety anger and discord in family relationships.<\/p>\n

He uses the term \u201cmedicine\u201d \u2014 and I think it\u2019s significant. \u00a0One takes medicine if one wants to get well. \u00a0Someone who thinks they\u2019re doing just fine as it is, and it\u2019s only those other people<\/em>\u00a0who refuse to see that, has no interest in medicine. \u00a0Only if you know you\u2019re in need of healing \u2014 in this case, forgiveness \u2014 do you seek medicine.<\/p>\n

Now, I was thinking of this during my workday today, while reviewing a Chinese post-retirement benefit curtailment calculation, and as it happened, an opinion piece by Ross Douthat <\/a>popped up in my twitter feed, addressing this very issue. \u00a0He says,<\/p>\n

But the key debate at and around the synod in Rome right now is not a\u00a0broad<\/em>\u00a0one about whether the church should look outward or look in, focus on missionary work or focus on its own internal rubrics. . . .<\/p>\n

No: It\u2019s a very specific debate about\u00a0whether conversion and repentance are necessary, not for community, but for\u00a0communion<\/em>: The reception of the eucharist, the body and blood of Christ, during the central act of Catholic worship, the sacrifice of the mass.\u00a0And by claiming \u2014 or at least very strongly implying \u2014that\u00a0Jesus\u2019s meals with sinners<\/em>\u00a0are the template for how the church should think about communion, Father [James] Martin is effectively rejecting the entire sweep of our common church\u2019s own tradition on this question. . . .<\/p>\n

If the eucharist is basically a form of food-based Christian fellowship, a means to\u00a0outreach and welcome and hospitality rather than\u00a0a sacred mystery for believers to approach with reverence and not a little fear, then forget the divorced and remarried; barring\u00a0anyone<\/em>\u00a0from receiving\u00a0makes no sense at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which is quite well expressed.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: \u00a0Hey, I got Elizabeth Scalia\u2019s attention<\/a>! \u00a0True, she rejects what I have to say and, says \u201cit is our weakness that keeps us from having either the understanding or the courage to repent,\u201d and you can check out what she has to say and see what you think.<\/p>\n

My first reaction is that this reads as if someone who refuses to repent that they get a pass because they just don\u2019t understand, and this spooks me a bit. \u00a0Besides, when I read the phrase \u201cmedicine for the weak\u201d I immediately connected this to a particular situation, of someone who indeed has repented but struggles to keep the sin in check. \u00a0When It comes down to it, reality is, outside of these hot-button issues such as homosexuality and remarriage, most people don\u2019t, in fact, reject the fact that their sinful actions are, well, sinful, but it is their weakness (not their blindness to the reality of what they\u2019re doing) that causes them to keep stumbling.<\/p>\n

This is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and there are purple ribbons on the trees at church and at village hall. \u00a0Sure, many abusers reject that there\u2019s anything wrong with what they\u2019re doing, and stereotypically say, \u201cshe had it coming for looking at the waiter too long,\u201d but isn\u2019t it equally the case that plenty of people want to do the right thing, and know what the right thing is, and know when they\u2019ve done wrong, and are even able to apologize and promise it won\u2019t happen again, but struggle to keep their anger in check?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I griped that Archbishop Cupich was starting to sound an awful lot like a German Bishop (except for the part about banning non-Church Tax-payers from communion) and quoted a line from an article in the Tribune: \u201cAre sacraments rewards for good behavior or are sacraments, as the pope would say, medicines for mercy?\u201d not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCan a sinner receive communion? and a (mis?)reading of Evangelii Gaudium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yesterday I griped that Archbishop Cupich was starting to sound an awful lot like a German Bishop (except for the part about banning non-Church Tax-payers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/10\/can-a-sinner-receive-communion-and-a-misreading-of-evangelii-gaudium.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can a sinner receive communion? 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