Friday, August 20, 2004

Explanation, please?

Explanation, Please?



Haven't had a chance to check on the blogosphere today, and have much in the way of else to do. But I just saw this and am both pissed off and confused. Pissed off, because it seems a really lame reason to deny a person communion. Confused, because presumably the communion wafers are transubstantiated anyway -- so why does it matter what they started out as?? I mean, really. If we are to believe that the miracle of transubstantiation exists at all, why wouldn't it? It's not a spell where a practitioner of magic has to have the right ingredients or it all goes pear-shaped -- it's not supposed to be magic at all, is it? It's supposed to be bloody miraculous. I thought there was a difference, but apparently there's a limit on what miracles can be performed.

6 comments:

meg said...

Exactly -- my reaction was along the same lines. This fixation on wheat suggests some bizarre twin earth in which the Vatican says, "Whoa, no, if it's a rice wafer, then you didn't get the body of Christ, you got the body of Joe-Bob down the Appian Way!" I'm gobstoppered by the whole ridiculous thing.

Anonymous said...

It does seem somewhat bizarre, particularly in light of the other exceptions that the Church has made. Alcoholic priests are allowed to use grape juice instead of wine routinely in the mass, and lore abounds of priests in prison camps during WWII using tin cups for altars and any scraps of any kind of bread as hosts.

Are we seeing the handiwork of a powerful gluten lobby?

Windhorse

Anonymous said...

It does seem very strange. I've got an Italian friend with the same condition and I'm sure he's not the only one over there. I wonder if the Italians are so strict.

Anonymous said...

That was me Claire by the way. 17th-century.info/news

Anonymous said...

I don't really understand the distinction you are making between magic and miracle. However, if needing the right ingredients makes it magic then, indeed, the Catholic Church does teach that transubstantiation is magic. Consecration can only be carried out by someone who has been given special magic powers. He can only use wheat bread and grape wine and he must say exactly the right words. Otherwise nothing happens. All the sacraments are like that. You must have the right person, the right stuff, the right words and actions. Otherwise the magic doesn't happen.

Anonymous said...

Esoteric observers have made the claim that sacraments are indeed high magic for some time now. And it's true that magic does require the correct elements. But the church is given the authority to loose on earth and in heaven, an authority they frequently use to make exceptions in cases just such as this.

As an aside, an interesting distinction between theurgy (high magic) and the Catholic sacraments is that while theurgy requires soul "arousal" on the part of the magician to make the ritual effective (see Dion Fortune), the theory from the Catholic side is that priests are automatically imbued with their power, and therefore can be wicked, dim, unmotivated or virtually asleep and get the same effects.

Windhorse