What if it's a Bishop who's watering down the Eucharist?

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Greetings to all: A homily, given by Bishop Gumbleton on Corpus Christi Sunday, was published by *National Catholic Reporter *[The Peace Pulpit Homilies by Bishop Gumbleton June 13, 2004]](The Peace Pulpit Homilies by Bishop Gumbleton June 13, 2004]). A friend of mine received it from her friend, a fallen-away Catholic now attending the local Church of God.

Even though I know that his eminence is to the left of the Pope, the homily really left me breathless (hyperventilating?). He begins by stating,

“Back in the late Middle Ages, there were many difficulties in the church-much corruption, a lot of bad teaching. And among those who were trying to reform the church was someone we all know of very well, Martin Luther. He was a priest of the Augustinian Order. And one of the things that he said and that he was so determined to try to do something about was the Holy Eucharist. He says, “The church has turned an action into a thing.” He was proclaiming a very important truth about what had gone wrong in the church. The church turned an action into a thing. What could he mean by that?”

Frankly, it goes downhill from there. His eminence ends by saying,

“[A] child had learned about the Blessed Sacrament and really came to a deep understanding in simple words, but they’re words that maybe all of us could remember. He said about bread, “This is not just any bread, this is God bread. And it shows us that God loves us and that we must love one another.” That’s the whole message. If we do the action of the Eucharist well, then we understand God loves us, but also that we must love one another.”

I agree with my Catholic friend that the homily requires a response, and I intend to help her craft a magisterial, Catechism-based, Scripturally sound answer that goes beyond the “can’t we all just get along?” watered down image of the Holy Eucharist.

Please pray … for my friend, her friend, and most especially for Bishop Gumbleton.

Thanks & God bless all of you
 
Can’t see any problem with your quotaion of Bishop Gumbleton. What is your beef with it ?
 
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roemer:
Can’t see any problem with your quotaion of Bishop Gumbleton. What is your beef with it ?
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And considering some of the things I have heard from Bishop Gumbleton, this is just about the best. We need to live out our Eucharistic faith; I don’t think this is watered down, simply a different aspect of the whole. I’ve heard high ranking clergy directly preach against things like exposition (“The Eucharist is food meant to be eaten, not stared at”), so maybe I’m jaded with prelatial shenanigans!
 
I was about to have the Bishop shot at dawn, but I can’t find anything to convict him.
 
I was going to read the article, but the link didn’t work. Is there a better link?

JimG
 
Wolves in sheeps’ clothing. There is this movement among some clerics to say “Eucharist is a verb.”

Yes, of course we must act like Christians. In fact, if we seriously err in that, we must go to Confession first before receiving THE BODY, BLOOD, SOUL, AND DIVINITY of Our Lord. The Bishop’s emphasis on our resonsibility is well and good, but the exclusion and minimization of Adoration and adequate preparation (through Confession and/or examination of conscience) is suspect. Of course the Eucharist is a mystery; nobody need act like they completely understand it. His homily implies that everyone, regardless of their state of grace, should come up and receive. This is against Church teaching.

Read the entire homily. Don’t let the “warm fuzzies” part of it fool you.
 
Thanks for the links. I read the homily. I guess it’s not unorthodox, just a different viewpoint. To me it seems kind of a strange homily to give on the Feast of Corpus Christi, which is the day that in the recent past we did have Eucharistic processions. I also worry that in an age when apparently many Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence, this does nothing to build up that belief. But it seems to be the point of view in the homily that what we believe about the Eucharist is less important than what we do about it.

JimG
 
“And when we receive the Eucharist, the bread especially the wine…” I though Jesus was fully present Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity, under both species, why especially the wine?

I would nail any Protestant saying this to please explain, let alone a Bishop…

But most damaging is the end of the talk, basically Bishops/Priests (A few) who have denied the Eucharist to counterfeit Catholics, such as John Kerry or Ted Kennedy…This Bishop frowns upon such behavior. He seems to say “Can’t we just love one another, don’t be judgemental, let’s all get alone…” But these phony Catholics need to repent, they are steeped in obvious mortal sin. This Bishop, although most of the talk is OK, his real agenda was to compromise the faith with these politicians.

My humble opinion…another weak Bishop in the heirarchy.

Thanks
 
“And so when we receive the Eucharist, the bread, but especially the wine, we are saying by our action that we want to enter into the covenant of Jesus-this new covenant with God.” Bishop Gumbleton

Does anyone else see a problem with this quote? This man’s a bishop and ought to know that if it’s the Eucharist, it’s not bread or wine anymore. If this sounds picky then you don’t understand.
At first glance, the article looked okay, but a deeper reading revealed deeper problems.
The Church, from the Pope on down, is celebrating a renewal of Eucharistic adoration. Apparently the Bishop hasn’t heard. Either that or he thinks the laity don’t understand the true meaning of the Eucharist.
Of course, the fact that he writes for The Reporter says a lot in itself.
Buckeyejoe is right on about refusing the Eucharist to prominant persons who make political hay out of being Catholic and yet persist in obvious and public mortal sin.
Father Euteneuer of Human Life International has the corrct answer in another thread.
 
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