Another view of the Catholic Church.

[Silver]

First off I just want to say that this a something that a friend of mine not from E had to write for one of their college classes. Please just keep that in mind, that it's not from my mouth. I just was wondering what the views upon something such as this might be....
   
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I am satirizing the Catholics view of consuming the body and blood of Christ.
Catholics go to church to repent and have their sins be forgiven by god. One of the
final steps of each service is to consume bread and wine, which symbolizes the body
and blood of Christ. Some Catholics believe that when they consume the bread and
wine, they can 'feel' god within them. The priest tells the parishioners that when
they eat the bread and drink the wine, they should remember Jesus Christ and how
he gave his life for us. This is wrong and to me, it sounds like cannibalism. I
understand the message they are trying to convey but the way they do it sounds
entirely wrong. There must be another way to teach this message without the
inclusion of cannibalism.
   
I will create an at home communion kit so that everyone can receive the
actual body and blood of Christ. The kit will contain Jesus Christ with a straw
infused in his major blood vein, a knife & a fork. Jesus will be dressed in his white
robe and sandals. The straw will have a knob so that the blood can flow in the straw
when the parishioner is ready to receive communion and to halt the flow of the
blood. The knife and fork will be used to cut out sections of Jesus and eat the flesh to
be able to feel god inside of them, purifying their soul. Also, considering the fact that
Jesus Christ is all-powerful and everlasting, his blood and his body will regenerate.
Thus they will never have any guilt or sorrow in killing Jesus Christ. The kit will cost
roughly $666 flat.
   
The kit is a form of literalness. I am literalizing the idea that people are
cannibals and actually eat and drink Jesus Christ. I am also including the fact that
Jesus is everlasting so he will never run out of blood or flesh. I figured literalizing
communion would be the best tactic in grabbing the attention of the Christians.
     
The kit is trying to obtain the church's attention and say this is wrong, try
something else. So, the kit is also constructive. It describes that the church needs a
change in the way communion is perceived. People shouldn't have to eat the body
and drink the blood of Christ in order to remember him. There must be another way.
   

[The Overlord]

LOL interesting, having grown up in a Catholic setting the one thing I can still respect is that they like to drink, unlike these crazy Baptists and Methodists that live around me now. Still, I always had a problem with the communion thing...I mean it's an unsalted styrofoam wafer and a chalice of wine. Symbolism has never had a big effect on me *shrug

[OldSchoolGamer]

I'm not exactly sure what the point is.  Most religions have elements that seem a little, well, bizarre to those who are not adherents of the faith in question.  Perhaps even offensive to some.   Christianity is 2000-odd years old, and standards for what was "icky" or weird were different back then.  Most of us who came of age during the mid or late 20th century, or 21st, have little idea just how radically different life was around A.D. 30.

[Oniya]

A similar sort of thing involves the fact that one of the major holy symbols for Christianity (or at least the R.C. branch) is the crucifix - an instrument of Roman capital punishment.  Translating that into today's imagery, how would people react to a religion where, say, an electric chair was held up as something to venerate?

And for what it's worth, I remember making the transubstantiation -> cannibalism connection at one point during my time with the R.C. church.  I also remember walking into a church for the first time and exclaiming 'Look at all the plus signs!'

...

Yeah, they should have known I wouldn't last.  ;D

[Pumpkin Seeds]

I do find it humorous that Catholics are made fun of for believing they are consuming the actual "body and blood" of Christ, yet other people are the ones pushing that.  I never once thought I'm tasting the flesh of a 2000 year old dead man when I was eating the wafer.  For God's sake it comes in a plastic wrapper before they hand it out.  Its a symbol, nothing more.  The word body and blood do not mean the same now as they did back then.

[Oniya]

Well, that's where the whole transubstantiation thing comes in.  When they leave the factory, the hosts are essentially matzoh.  Flour, water, not much else.  (Although I think they're starting to make some gluten-free...)  It's not until they've been blessed by the priest that they become 'hosts', and not until the Mass that they are mystically imbued with Christ.  Some branches of Christianity acknowledge that it's a symbolic thing, but the R.C.'s are all up with the idea that it miraculously becomes The Body and Blood of Christ.

(Miraculously is used here in the religious sense, not the sarcastic sense.)

I got either my mother or a priest (or possibly both) rather annoyed when I questioned this at the age of 11 or 12.  I also confused the heck out of my CCD teacher by selecting a passage from Revelations as my favorite part of the Bible.  (She couldn't find it.)

[The Overlord]

Some branches of Christianity acknowledge that it's a symbolic thing, but the R.C.'s are all up with the idea that it miraculously becomes The Body and Blood of Christ.

(Miraculously is used here in the religious sense, not the sarcastic sense.)

Yeah see, sorry, but that's just weird. Consuming the flesh and blood of a divine avatar taken form of a man...there's just no way to get around that it stinks of cannibalism. I do recall some Catholic nuns at elementary school essentially saying this...it doesn't sit any better with me now than it did then.

I got either my mother or a priest (or possibly both) rather annoyed when I questioned this at the age of 11 or 12.

See, now that's where I start really having issues with the religious. To imply that you can't even question dogma sets a dangerous precedent, it’s too easy for things to turn ill with that.

[Greenthorn]

It's supposed to be the fact that it's blessed and a reminder that you have a "part of Jesus" within you and should act accordingly.  I personally never take communion anymore simply because as per Catholic "rules" you cannot have communion unless you go to Confession...and well...I don't need absolution for my sins from a man in a black robe.  God and I talk every night.

I think the cannibalism thing comes from being outside of the religion since I doubt very many Catholics would look at it that way (I could of course be wrong *laughs*)  We were taught at a young age (we as in us who went to Catholic school) the true symbolism of Communion.

[Oniya]

I was a strange kid, GT :)  Mind you, at the time, it didn't stop me from going up and taking Communion, but the fact that I'd made that connection bothered people.

Then again, my mother wanted me to talk to a priest after I started playing D&D.

[Greenthorn]

*laughs*

Well...I was expelled because I used to write "Satanic poems" (which were actually lyrics since I wrote songs for the local teen metal band).

[Oniya]

I got kicked out of a youth group for wearing a Celtic trefoil (like on the ZoSo album, only with a larger circle laced through the points), despite the fact that a 'Trinity knot' was embossed on the spines of the Bibles they had on site.

[Pumpkin Seeds]

Most Roman Catholics I know acknowledge it as a symbolic act rather than ingesting the actual body and blood. As GT said, it's a symbolic taking in of Christ not an actual digestion of his body.

[Avi]

The actual term for it is "transsubstantiation".  As Catholics we believe that, through the grace of God, while the bread and wine remains just that, Christ takes them into himself and makes them a part of him on a spiritual level.  That is what Communion is, we don't believe we are actually eating flesh and blood.

[Mathim]

Of all the things about the church that needs to be changed, Communion is pretty far down the list.

[The Overlord]

It's supposed to be the fact that it's blessed and a reminder that you have a "part of Jesus" within you and should act accordingly.  I personally never take communion anymore simply because as per Catholic "rules" you cannot have communion unless you go to Confession...and well...I don't need absolution for my sins from a man in a black robe.  God and I talk every night.

I think the cannibalism thing comes from being outside of the religion since I doubt very many Catholics would look at it that way (I could of course be wrong *laughs*)  We were taught at a young age (we as in us who went to Catholic school) the true symbolism of Communion.

Well if you go with the idea that God is maker of all things, then the best part of him we have is ourselves, and what we do with that is most important. Not a bunch of unflavored cookies and a bottle of wine.

Me being someone who was 'inside' the Catholic faith during my formative years, and now having been outside of all that for well past 20 years, yes I look at things differently. I look at them with a wider and wiser perspective. I can see communion being symbolic, but this idea that it's actually the flesh and blood of a divine avatar through a priest's blessing...well, that's just weird.

Funny thing about the talking to god thing...at no point in my life have I ever felt that was more than a one-sided conversation. Off topic slightly but if there's anything there at all, it's only content to listen, at least from my experience.

I've a closer thing to a religious experience standing out under a dark and starry sky or a walk through a darkening forest at twilight then I ever have in a church or a religious retreat...fair to say the cosmos and I have reached a silent agreement.

[Oniya]

I've a closer thing to a religious experience standing out under a dark and starry sky or a walk through a darkening forest at twilight then I ever have in a church or a religious retreat...fair to say the cosmos and I have reached a silent agreement.

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church-
I keep it, staying at Home-
With a Bobolink for a Chorister-
And an Orchard, for a Dome

E. Dickinson.

[Pumpkin Seeds]

I think most cultures and religions have practices that people look at and say weird.  Though I would be reluctant to tell a practioner of that faith they are weird for doing so.  I do try to be respectful of other cultures and religions, even ones that my family practices. 

As for finding tranquility, peace, God, or what have you elsewhere than Church then I'm with you on that.  I have had moments of relief or contentment when praying in a Church before, but I would not say I felt closer to any divine being.  My moments have mainly occured when helping other people.  For my mother, as an example of something"weird", her spiritual moments came while watching someone die.  At one time she was a hospice nurse and she talks about that as if it were a religious expierence.  She even describes watching someone pass peacfully as a beautiful event that should not be feared.

[Greenthorn]

What may need change or may look strange to one... is totally acceptable to another.

Many people who are not devout <enter religious affilitaion here> will find something wrong with <enter religion>.   ;D

My grandparents were devout Catholics and they felt everything that the church taught was totally acceptable, as does most of my family.  Yet, because I do not practice my religion, I find things like confession and "donating" to the church very unacceptable.

[Inkidu]

I don't care for the church of an denomination really, but if you're going to write a satire on the Catholic Church. Don't you have to capitalize God? (English lover in me.)

[Greenthorn]

I don't care for the church of an denomination really, but if you're going to write a satire on the Catholic Church. Don't you have to capitalize God? (English lover in me.)

A satire?  I used Catholicism as an example because I have knowledge of it (having been raised as such and attended Catholic school).  And did I not also state that I do not practice the religion?

And (English lover in -me-) should you have inserted a comma after "Church" and before "Don't"?  ;D ;)

[Mellonlegolas]

N.B. That I was baptized Roman Catholic and find their doctrine some of the most interesting in a historical sense, I no longer consider myself Catholic due to personal convictions.

I find myself having to agree with Mathim that Communion is way down on the list of things that the Church needs to work on... namely the disconnect between Catholic beliefs and a world that has gone through some pretty radical changes since Catholicism came into being... then again few religions have ever really kept up with the times.

A similar sort of thing involves the fact that one of the major holy symbols for Christianity (or at least the R.C. branch) is the crucifix - an instrument of Roman capital punishment.  Translating that into today's imagery, how would people react to a religion where, say, an electric chair was held up as something to venerate?

And the history person in me must point out that crucifixion is not a form of capital punishment. It was a high punishment but the act of crucifying someone was not deadly. The Romans had been using crucifixion as a form of punishment for around 3,000 years before Christ was, and they knew how to do it so that it wasn't fatal. Sure it was one of their more severe punishments but it wasn't a death sentence. In fact, many of those crucified along the Appian Way were eventually taken down and sent on their way. If the Romans had truly wanted Christ dead they would have sentenced him to being beheaded or pulled apart by oxen... Christ didn't die from being crucified, he died from being stabbed in the side by a soldier who pitied Christ's suffering.

[Oniya]

A satire?  I used Catholicism as an example because I have knowledge of it (having been raised as such and attended Catholic school).  And did I not also state that I do not practice the religion?

I think he's referring to the original post, which was set forth as a satire.

[Inkidu]

A satire?  I used Catholicism as an example because I have knowledge of it (having been raised as such and attended Catholic school).  And did I not also state that I do not practice the religion?

And (English lover in -me-) should you have inserted a comma after "Church" and before "Don't"?  ;D ;)

No because when you're talking about the church of any denomination it's not capitalized. Only if you're talking about the Catholic Church should it be. The comma that's contestable, because I didn't capitalize church. :D

Anyways, I wasn't talking about your GT. In Silver's, friend's satire up at the top. Her friend didn't capitalize God. :D