CITH, standing, can certainly be criticised because of what it replaced for the majority of Roman Catholics and how it replaced it.
I’d argue it is part of an iconoclasm that has changed attitudes to abortion. Major swingeing ‘reforms’ to R.C. rites plus a major swing to ‘buddy Jesus’ and ‘we don’t know if anyone is in Hell’ equals a ‘faithful’ who don’t know their religion and aren’t too worried about it.
Thus, abortion legislation in previously Christian societies. Because Jesus will forgive you. Because ‘we don’t know if anyone is in Hell’.** Because we can now follow our conscience. Because the central rite of our religion has shifted focus from propitiating God to ‘celebrating’. So why worry? You’re as good as saved. **
Calling for ‘more catechesis’ when you’ve taken out educational elements like receiving the Body Of Christ on your knees, without touching it, is just short-sighted or disingenuous.
Learn by doing. It’s faster, simpler and more memorable.
If truth be told, we can criticize anything want. No one is going to stop us. It’s like a law suit. The law says that I can sue if I don’t like someone’s nose too.
My mission and mandate as a friar is to teach the laity what is helpful and what is holy according to the mind of current Church teaching and that of St. Francis. That’s what I’m doing here. In fact, it’s my only reason for being here. If the laity does not want to learn from us, there is not much that we can do.
The first fact is that abortion has nothing to do with the way that people receive Holy Communion. Abortion has been around since the creation of Adam. The fact that is has become legal in many nations is an independent phenomenon from the posture for receiving Holy Communion. Do not take an issue of moral justice and turn it into a liturgical issue, because it is not.
Secondly, most of us find thewe can move ahead in the spiritual life with Communion while standing. It is not an impediment for our growth in the life of grace, contemplation, silence, discipline, penance and the perfection of charity. Once we take the focus off of what others doe and place it on what we must do to pray and to reach contemplation, we find that we begin to move forward.
There is often too much attention being paid to what others are doing and not enough being paid to what we, as individuals, should be doing. The key questions in the life of every person of faith are:
- Do I worship?
- Do I receive the sacraments?
- Do I spend time in prayer?
- Do I spend time with the scriptures?
- Do I avoid sin and strive to practice virtue?
- Do I do penance for my sins and those who do not do penance?
- Do I draw into the life of silence and solitude or am I too engaged in the affairs of others?
- Do I strive to meet Christ in the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable members of society to quench his thirst?
- Am I a faithful son or daughter of the Church, even when I disagree?
- Am I faithful to my vocation or state in life?
Anything outside of that is for those times of day and week we have nothing better to do. But if we really focus on these ten points, it should keep us very busy. Some of these things we can combine. That’s why I suggest that for every post that you place here on Holy Communion or the mass, you do the suffering Christ the great charity of writing a letter to end abortion and send it to some political leader in any country. Imagine the impact that would have. Imagine the witness value to those who are non-believers.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
