and SOUP did fairly well last night at Mass. for those who are completely clueless as to why i just brought up food in conjunction with church, there is a very good explanation: SOUP is a music group. it's the youth music group started at my church about four years ago. SOUP stands for Singing Our Undying Praise. i'm one of the "charter members" of the group. i've been with it since we started under our old youth minister. (who got fired 2 yrs ago this coming february, but that's a delicate subject.) there's only three of us left from the original group. well, only two of us make it on a regular basis. the third shows up occasionally. anyway, as a "charter member", i'm typically songleader (i'm only NOT songleader, anymore, when the third member shows up); i sometimes play guitar sometimes (only sometimes, on songs that are very heavy on guitar, since our guitarists moved, cause then, all the other instrumentalists are singing, and they don't need my single strong voice since they got a bunch of voices that need to stop being afraid of being heard); and i play percussion some too. the percussion tends to be on the fly, if the song we are playing really feels like it requires some. our drummer graduated a few years ago, and i've played congas, shakere, tambourine, and other such instruments as occasion has demanded. i don't play the set for two reasons: one, i can't play the set, and two, i can sing and play the other stuff simultaneously. so...that was probably way more information than you ever wanted to know about SOUP, but oh well! :-D tis a happy thing, music...
last night could have been better...do you know the feeling where you KNOW that you know something, and that there is a very good answer to the arguments that you are being presented with, but you cannot remember for the life of you? i went through a stinkin' long period of that last night. and i finally have something to offer on the topic, now that i have slept. let this be something to chew on until i have a chance to explain more.
topic: Papal infallibility. the argument given me last night was that they are not infallible at all. it was said that Catholics say that they can never sin; that we believe that they can never err. permit me to return to the beginning of my explanation on infallibility, so that this might make more sense to all involved.
first off, we Catholics do NOT believe that the popes are always infallible. i'm sorry, but that's a bunch of hogwash. however, under that same token, we do believe that they are infallible. SOME of the time, not all of it. a quote from a letter to a non-Catholic friend: "Therefore, the Pope CAN make a mistake - unless he is speaking under certain conditions. these conditions are: 1) when he is speaking ex cathedra (note: this means from the Chair of St. Peter; with full papal authority; literal translation is out of the chair) and 2) manifests his intention of defining a doctrine 3) of faith or morals 4) officially binding the whole Church. At such a time, the Pope's teaching is infallible; that is, at such a time he is assisted, watched over by the Holy Spirit so that he does not use his authority and his knowledge to mislead the Church." ALL of these conditions must be met for a teaching to be made infallible!
here's an actual historical example: when the whole thing with contraception came up, and all the li'l, completely ununified Protestant churches caved in and said that it was OK, the Catholic Church met to discuss it. they looked into everything; and they were about to say that it was OK. BUT when the Pope stood up to announce this as such under all conditions said above, that is not what he said! He upheld the teaching of the sanctity of life, and to this day, the Catholic Church remains vehemently opposed to all forms of contraception, abortion, euthanasia, etc.
here's a question for all you non-Catholics: why are you so ununified? hmmm? i'll tell you: it's because you have no central authority. you say that sola scriptura, only scripture, tells you what to do in matters of faith and morals.
(Jesus said,) "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.' But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." (Matthew 5:31-32 NAB)
The Pharisees approached and asked, "Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?" They were testing him. He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?" They replied, "Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her." But Jesus told them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and be joined to his wife], and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate." In the house the disciples again questioned him about this. He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." (Mark 10:2-12 NAB)
yet time after time, you see Protestants get divorced and remarried. what happened to sola scriptura? it doesn't sound like you are following the Bible to me!
and with sola scriptura, you interpret the Bible under your own steam, so to speak. you open the Bible, you see what it says, you say what it means for you. and you wonder why protestants can't agree on anything! each person is going to interpret the Scriptures differently! before luther decided that he didn't like some of the Church's teachings and its leaders, there was one Church. but when luther left, and began interpreting the Bible on his own, look at what happened! today, there's 3000+ different Protestant denominations. heck, a serial murderer could read a passage in the Bible and say that it wanted him to go kill a bunch of people. your (you being Protestants) lack of central authority is what causes you to be so divided! you say that the Holy Spirit will guide you...it doesn't look like you are listening to its guidance very well to me. new denominations are a dime a dozen. the teachings seem similar on top, but have many fundamental differences. heck, you can go to two different churches within the same Protestant denomination and there's differences! but I can go to church in chicago, san diego, new york, mexico city, rome, paris, abu dhabi, beijing, sydney, or st. petersburg, and the teachings will be the same. the language may be different, but the Church is universal; i know that, when i walk into a Catholic church, i am home, regardless of where i am.
and that goes deeper than just the teachings being the same. that goes deeper than papal authority or apostolic succession. when i walk into a Catholic church, i am in the presence of God Himself. when trying to explain this last night (while being continually interrupted, i might add), a Protestant friend said, and i quote: "it comes down to the ritual aspect of the catholic service. Something that is very....different. even i, as a protestant, found it to be kinda kewl, even if i dont believe in all the doctrine." the ritual is something that does set the Church apart, i will admit that. but within this "ritual aspect" that was spoken of, there is so much more! Christ is truly present in the building! He comes down for us to be our spiritual nourishment. He IS the Eucharist! it is HIS Body and HIS Blood that we consume during the Mass! it is HIS Body that is reposed within the tabernacle!
and for all you "sola scriptura" people, you are probably all quite mad with me right now. "it's merely symbolism; Christ isn't in that li'l piece of bread!" "Christ is WITH the bread; and He's not there after communion." *chuckles* allow me to direct your attention towards John's Gospel. this is a long passage, so bear with me, please. i did shorten it some. for the complete version, read John, chapter 6.
So they said to him, "What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" So Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
So they said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst..."
The Jews murmured about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven," and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day...Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will rais him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him..."
Then many of his disciples who were listening said, "This saying is hard; who can accept it?" Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, "Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father."
As a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. (John 6:30-35, 41-44, 47-56, 60-66 NAB)
another passage:
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins." (Matthew 26:26-28 NAB)
some of you sola scriptura people think that Catholics don't follow the Bible and take it literally...we take it more literally than you do! Christ specifically said, "This is my body," not "This is a symbol of my body" or "This is with my body"..."This IS my body." and if you persist in saying that He was merely speaking symbolically, take a look at the first passage! the Jews didn't think He was speaking symbolically; they knew that He was speaking the truth! they just couldn't accept it. it is only by a miracle of God that the bread and wine do not change appearances to reflect their substance. transubstantiation...the substance of the bread and wine truly do change to the Body and Blood of Christ.
proof, bwah hah hah hah...in the eighth century, a priest was saying a Mass. he doubted the words that he was saying; he doubted the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. as he said the words of consecration, the bread and wine actually changed to flesh and blood! much, much later, in the 1970s, scientists did tests on the flesh and blood. the Flesh is human heart tissue, and the Blood is blood type AB, as is the Flesh. now, get this...the Flesh and Blood are alive...the enzymes within the Flesh and Blood are the same as they are within your body or mine. mind you, this miracle took place more than 1200 years before the scientists ever performed any of the testing.
don't believe me? check these out, or google lanciano:
http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/lanciano.html
http://www.miraclerosarymission.org/lanciano.html
http://www.trosch.org/inx/lanciano.html
http://www.zenit.org/article-12933?l=english
i think that's enough theological discussion for now. i might return to theology later. i may only be 17, and may not know all of the Church's teachings yet, but i intend to continue to learn everything i can.
-enna
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