Eucharist & reiki

[Corki]

Honestly, you’ve lost me, kind of. How can something be sinful at one point, then not at another?

It’s not that confusing. Take fasting for example. The sin is in not obeying the precept of the Church regarding fasting. The specifics of that precept may change and one’s behavior can change to obey the current rules.

Attending Mass on Holy Days is also a precept of the Church. Which days have the obligation is different in different countries, as determined by the conference of bishops. The duty is to obey your own bishops; sinful if you do not.

Attending Protestant services is one of those things that is a change in the “how” a teaching is implemented. The underlying teaching is that Catholics must avoid attaching themselves to non-Catholic communities and to avoid any behavior that would give scandal. In decades past, the prudential way to do that was to not allow Catholics to even attend Protestant services without dispensation. Today, attending is not strictly prohibited but the caution about attaching still exists. The “how” of that is that Catholics do not receive Communion at Protestant services, they can’t become members of Protestant congregations and, of course, they can’t let attendance at Protestant services interfere with their Sunday obligation at Catholic Mass.

Without getting too off topic, this is a charge often lobbied at Catholics regarding eating meat on Friday. Why was it a sin in the 1950s to eat meat on a Friday (not in Lent) but it’s not a sin today? The answer is that in the 1950s, the precepts regarding fasting included all Fridays, now it only includes the Fridays in Lent. The sin was on of disobedience, not of eating a steak.

 

[cheese_sdc]

It’s not that confusing. Take fasting for example. The sin is in not obeying the precept of the Church regarding fasting. The specifics of that precept may change and one’s behavior can change to obey the current rules.

Attending Mass on Holy Days is also a precept of the Church. Which days have the obligation is different in different countries, as determined by the conference of bishops. The duty is to obey your own bishops; sinful if you do not.

Attending Protestant services is one of those things that is a change in the “how” a teaching is implemented. The underlying teaching is that Catholics must avoid attaching themselves to non-Catholic communities and to avoid any behavior that would give scandal. In decades past, the prudential way to do that was to not allow Catholics to even attend Protestant services without dispensation. Today, attending is not strictly prohibited but the caution about attaching still exists. The “how” of that is that Catholics do not receive Communion at Protestant services, they can’t become members of Protestant congregations and, of course, they can’t let attendance at Protestant services interfere with their Sunday obligation at Catholic Mass.

Without getting too off topic, this is a charge often lobbied at Catholics regarding eating meat on Friday. Why was it a sin in the 1950s to eat meat on a Friday (not in Lent) but it’s not a sin today? The answer is that in the 1950s, the precepts regarding fasting included all Fridays, now it only includes the Fridays in Lent. The sin was on of disobedience, not of eating a steak.

Interesting. Can we move to something even more basic? Can you define “sin”? I think that may be part of the confusion.

 

[Corki]

Interesting. Can we move to something even more basic? Can you define “sin”? I think that may be part of the confusion.

From the CCC:

1850 Sin is an offense against God: “Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight.” Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become “like gods,” knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus “love of oneself even to contempt of God.” In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.

Obedience (or lack thereof) is central to the concept of sin.

 

[cheese_sdc]

Obedience (or lack thereof) is central to the concept of sin.

I see now. For you, even though the Catechism makes no mention of sin being “not following the rules of the Catholic Church”, you have generalized the concept of “disobedience of God = sin”, to “disobedience of the Catholic Church = sin”. Does that sound about right?

I am given more the understanding that sin is: “that which does harm to God, or to myself, or to another person”. To use the example of going to a Protestant service, even in the 1950’s, I have difficulty believing that this did harm to God or to the person going.

 

[Mickey]

It is sinful to practice superstitious and occult things. Regardless of specific documents being binding or not, that much is binding. Reiki is the occult and certainly superstitious. Therefore, one cannot rightly continue to practice it and receive the Eucharist.

Yes.

 

[cheese_sdc]

It is sinful to practice superstitious and occult things. Regardless of specific documents being binding or not, that much is binding. Reiki is the occult and certainly superstitious. Therefore, one cannot rightly continue to practice it and receive the Eucharist.

Can you define “occult” in the sense that you use it here? I’ve looked at the definition a few times and what to make sure that I understand you correctly.

Also, can you define “superstitious”? I also like to make sure I understand your meaning here.

 

[Spencerian]

Can you define “occult” in the sense that you use it here? I’ve looked at the definition a few times and what to make sure that I understand you correctly.

Also, can you define “superstitious”? I also like to make sure I understand your meaning here.

Hi.

From a Catholic perspective, the occult involves any practice or object or method that tries to either circumvent God’s power by tapping into a power source within themselves or outside themselves that is not granted to you by God. Most new-age practices like reiki do this.

We believe that trying to be your own witch or wizard is *deliberately *asking for serious trouble to your soul because any power source not given by God is that of demonic influence and *will *(**not **“may”) corrupt you and wreck your life and others. There are plenty of people who have bad experiences from occultism. (Sharon Lee Giganti is a Catholic apologist that specializes in such stories and has tragic results from the use of such things.)

Humans are both spiritual and physical beings. But demonic influences are **way **smarter than the smartest human alive, and are entirely spiritual, looking for people to exploit and taint who think that can manipulate energies and powers for their own benefit. God is not a battery to tap into, and neither is anything else that we can safely use for healing or other magical things.

Our fictional stories that wield magic and sorcery are just that: fiction. It’s important not to confuse it from reality.

Superstition is, effectively, belief without either faith or reason to support it.

I hope that clarifies things for you.