When the Homily is about Immunology

Addendum to Real Rituals

I was introduced to Terry Mattingly's newest article in his On Religion Column and enjoyed it a great deal...many of my postmod friends might also enjoy reading about what this group is up to. Allow me to connect and perhaps contrast the attitudes expressed in this article and what I just wrote in the last post. A couple of quotes from the article:

"We don't think that what we're doing is getting back to the ancient ways. We think that we're using elements of the past in ways that make sense to people who are alive today."

"People want a sense of the ancient, but they still want something that they feel is appropriate to their lives, today...What we're trying to do is find out what will be meaningful to our people, what will help them experience God in their lives."

Now consider what I just wrote and the fact that in the Orthodox Church, we commune even the littlest of infants, for whom the Eucharist probably does not "makes sense", cannot possibly be perceived as being "appropriate to their lives", and naturally is not terribly "meaningful." I am intrigued by the contrasting attitudes that are presented here...it speaks, I think to the different perceptions beyond the simple and obvious fact that the Baptists in the story deny any hint of sacramental theology. There is something deeper going on that has more to do with our general sense of what is REAL and how that is discerned.

Come to think of it, I don't think the Eucharist "makes sense" to me either. But, "taste and see..."

My daughter Kelsey, echoes St. Ignatios and calls the Eucharist "medicine." Indeed it is!