You Are What You Eat: A Sunday Rumination

     Today Catholics celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi: The Body and Blood of Christ. These are gifts He gave us at the Last Supper, in fulfillment of the promise He made to His followers:

     Amen, amen I say unto you: He that believeth in me, hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world.
     The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever. These things he said, teaching in the synagogue, in Capharnaum.

     [The Gospel According to John, 6:47-60]

     There are several ways to interpret this passage. The literal one fails on two counts. First, the body and blood of Jesus of Nazareth, living or dead, were not consumed by anyone, but rather were transported out of this realm and into heaven at His Ascension. Second, stipulated that the consecration of the Eucharist does transubstantiate the host into Christ’s flesh, the bodies of those who partake of it nevertheless die ordinary fleshly deaths. So the literal interpretation can’t be correct.

     But the interpretation founded on the story of the Last Supper:

     And whilst they were eating, Jesus took bread; and blessing, broke, and gave to them, and said: Take ye. This is my body. And having taken the chalice, giving thanks, he gave it to them. And they all drank of it. And he said to them: This is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many. Amen I say to you, that I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it new in the kingdom of God.

     [The Gospel According to Mark, 14:22-26]

     ...makes metaphorical sense. The host, once transubstantiated by an ordained priest, provides the sustenance – the fuel, if you will – that makes it possible for a soul to rise to eternal life in heaven.

     For Catholics, “you are what you eat” reaches its fullest meaning in the Eucharist.

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     For some years now I’ve reposted this essay, which first appeared at Eternity Road in May 2005, on Corpus Christi Sunday. I won’t be doing that today. It’s a good piece, but my Gentle Readers can always surf to it if they so desire.

     For today I have a different angle, foreshadowed by the previous segment. We who believe want to become ever closer to God, particularly in His Second Person. We pursue that goal through prayer and the sacraments, most particularly the Eucharist. We who remain under the veil of time have no way to approach Divinity more closely than we do through the Eucharist.

     Yet while we live we remain frail, fallible, and temptable. In other words, we remain sinners, at least potentially so. We are surrounded by temptations to abuse one another, or to disparage God and faith in His goodness. The Eucharist strengthens us against those temptations. Its protection isn’t impenetrable – how could it be, given the freedom of our wills? — and it doesn’t last terribly long. Like a vaccination for tetanus, regular renewal is recommended.

     But it costs nothing. It asks only acceptance – the acceptance that it truly is the body of Christ, not in form but in substance, and that through it one is put briefly into communion with Him – and sincere gratitude for the gift. If those conditions are met, it provides and sustains spiritual strength, just as a proper diet provides and sustains physical strength.

     The body demands that one regularly eat temporal meals for sustenance. It uses that sustenance to build new flesh and blood. Similarly, the soul demands renewed sustenance from the Eucharist. It takes that sustenance and builds new spiritual muscle with which to face the cares and trials every Christian must know.

     You are what you eat: body and soul.

     May God bless and keep you all.

A Bit More From The “You Will Be Made To Care” Files

     Institutional subornation appears to be the American Left’s primary tactic today. Moreover, it doesn’t matter what the institution was created to do. If it concentrates money, political power, or influence over public opinion, it will be targeted. Its size and efficacy at those things will determine its priority among the Left’s targets.

     Scant wonder, then, that the Left put America’s Christian churches high on its target list. Its successes there have been spectacular. Catholicism being the largest Christian denomination, it was first to be attacked. Unfortunately, the Church’s clerical policy of ordaining only men provided an efficient invasion route. As outright homosexuals were admitted to and graduated from the seminaries, flowed into American rectories, pulpits became political platforms, and other dominoes fell, we arrived at atrocities such as this one:

     John McAdams and a slew of academic-freedom groups are challenging Marquette’s indefinite, unpaid suspension of the conservative political science professor after he criticized a fellow instructor for refusing to let a student disagree with gay marriage in her classroom.

     Marquette President Michael Lovell ordered McAdams to admit his “guilt” for blogging about the incident between Cheryl Abbate, at the time a graduate student instructor in philosophy, and a student in her undergraduate ethics class. He refused, and has been banned from campus for more than three years.

     The administration and professor have continued arguing the case in the public square as the April 19 Wisconsin Supreme Court hearing nears. McAdams went so far as to describe Marquette’s demands of him as “Stalinist stuff” in a recent Fox News interview.

     The original incident shines an unsparing light on Marquette’s campaign of defamation against McAdams:

     A student we know was in a philosophy class (“Theory of Ethics”), and the instructor (one Cheryl Abbate) was attempting to apply a philosophical text to modern political controversies. So far so good.

     She listed some issues on the board, and came to “gay rights.” She then airily said that “everybody agrees on this, and there is no need to discuss it.”

     The student, a conservative who disagrees with some of the gay lobby’s notions of “gay rights” (such as gay marriage) approached her after class and told her he thought the issue deserved to be discussed. Indeed, he told Abbate that if she dismisses an entire argument because of her personal views, that sets a terrible precedent for the class.

     What followed is paradigmatic of Leftist censorship of divergent views:

     Abbate explained that “some opinions are not appropriate, such as racist opinions, sexist opinions” and then went on to ask “do you know if anyone in your class is homosexual?” And further “don’t you think it would be offensive to them” if some student raised his hand and challenged gay marriage? The point being, apparently that any gay classmates should not be subjected to hearing any disagreement with their presumed policy views.... She went on “In this class, homophobic comments, racist comments, will not be tolerated.” She then invited the student to drop the class.

     Which the student is doing.

     McAdams has sued for reinstatement, and has received considerable support. Marquette has decided on a counter-campaign of defamation:

     Marquette, knowing they have been taking a public relations beating over their attempt to fire this blogger, has bought a Google ad to point people to their biased and selective page of “resources” on our case....

     One utterly libelous thing Marquette has posted is the claim that we “doxed” the instructor about whom we posted, one Cheryl Abbate. Abbate, remember, told an undergraduate that he was not allowed to express opposition to gay marriage in class since it would be “homophobic” and would “offend” any gay students in class.

     “Doxing” is defined as follows:

     To dox someone is “to publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge.”

     We, of course, did no such thing. Rather, we linked to Abbate’s toxic feminist essay “Yes All Men… Contribute to the Prevalence of Rape,” published on her blog. If somebody dug around her blog, they could have found her e-mail address.

     But just how is an e-mail address somebody publishes on their own blog “private information?”

     Marquette, quite simply, is lying about this.

     Mind you Marquette is a Catholic university, which receives funds from Catholic donors. It also receives funds from campaigns for Catholic educational institutions, which occur in parishes throughout the United States each and every year. And of course, the doctrine of the Catholic Church is that marriage is a sacred contract between a biological man and a biological woman. Indeed, it’s one of the “five non-negotiables:” declarations of absolutely inadmissible moral wrongs to which all Catholics are expected to assent without qualification:

1. Abortion
2. Euthanasia
3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research
4. Human Cloning
5. Homosexual "Marriage"

     These five “non-negotiables” derive from the Church’s stance on the sanctity of human life, its origin, and its nature as a gift from God.

     At this point, Marquette’s defamation campaign against McAdams is attempting to cloud the issue. This appears on its “facts” page about the case, where it claims that McAdams violated the university’s mission to “care for the whole person” because he publicly criticized a graduate student:

     We cannot and will not stand by when a professor needlessly and recklessly harms a student teacher by putting her name and contact information on the internet before a hostile audience without her permission. If John McAdams had written the exact blog post and omitted the student teacher’s name and contact information, no disciplinary action would have been taken.

     Inasmuch as all McAdams did in his blog post was to link to Cheryl Abbate’s blog — note that that blog is now devoid of content – Marquette’s claim that McAdams “doxed” her is plainly a second slander. It’s also a red herring: Marquette’s administration supports Abbate substantively. It does not want Catholic doctrine on the inherent wrongness of “gay marriage” discussed in a Marquette classroom.

     If homosexual marriage, which is promoted as a “gay right” by homosexual activists from coast to coast, cannot be discussed in a classroom at a Catholic university, where can it be discussed? Yet Marquette’s administration sided with the censoriousness of teaching assistant Cheryl Abbate against the Catholicism and liberality of Professor John McAdams. Not only did it harshly penalize McAdams, it’s conducting a smear campaign against him prior to his countersuit coming to trial.

     Clearly, this supposedly Catholic institution has been completely suborned. It is no longer Catholic as the Church and true Catholics understand the designation. Yet it continues to represent itself as such, and to receive funds under that pretense – because the Catholic Church in America was suborned first.

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     It’s my policy never to contribute funds to any organization whose conduct I suspect. These days, that’s just about every organization on Earth. The ongoing politicization of the Catholic Church in America is even making it difficult for me to contribute to the support of my own parish, as I know that at least one of its priests makes use of his pulpit to push his political positions.

     The conflation of the Christian faith with leftist / “progressive” political stances, and the suppression of any Church doctrine that contradicts any of those stances, is one of the Left’s highest priorities. Whatever holdouts there might be will be defamed, marginalized, and silenced. Marquette’s administration has attempted to do exactly that to Professor John McAdams, in blatant contradiction of Marquette’s supposedly Catholic identity.

     Even in your most private moments – even in your worship – even when you’re alone and on your knees – you will be made to care.

Nuns - NOT an Outmoded LIfestyle

My eldest is a sister (technically, nuns are the ones in enclosures of some kind - cloistered convent, monastery). She is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Third Order of St. Francis - SSJ/TOSF. She is living in Chicago, teaching at Clare Woods Academy, and, usually, each year she performs in community theater (yes, she loves musical theater, but is NOT the Whoopi Goldberg-type of nun). She has written and talked about life as a sister, as have other religious women.

They are a diverse and accomplished group of women.

I'd like to suggest that you consider donating to an organization dedicated to providing the resources for aging sisters. When many left orders in the 60's and 70's, they left behind other women, now elderly, who need support in their senior years. Many sisters live into their 80's and 90's, and, as always, these senior citizens are in a cash crunch.

The organization I have in mind is SOAR, which support sisters, brothers, and priests who need financial assistance to keep them healthy and alive. Unlike other organizations with this mission, the money to SOAR goes to a charity that cuts out many layers of bureaucracy. You give to SOAR, they provide grants directly to the religious group.

There are many suggested ways to give, including:

• Life insurance - did you know that if SOAR is a beneficiary, any premiums will be tax-deductible? You can get the deduction now, and benefit them when you die, without having to have that donation through probate.
• Stocks and bonds - if you would otherwise have a capital gains tax, you can get the deduction by donating, and avoid any tax - both you and SOAR.
• Matching Gifts - if you're stuck giving to United Way or other charity at work, you can designate SOAR as the recipient.
• United Way: Write in Support Our Aging Religious, Inc. on your pledge card and include the SOAR! IRS identification number: 52-1485481