Tuesday, March 27, 2012

You think that'll cow us, Mr. Dawkins?





Tonight, as I waited in line for Confession, I sat mere feet from the Lord of the Universe. The One Who not only made little ole me, but made the galaxies as well. Tis true, every word of it, as surely as I live and breathe. 


It still blows my mind.


The Alpha and Omega humbled Himself to be a man, first appearing as a vulnerable baby in the womb, then offering Himself as a lamb to the slaughter on the Cross. And now, every day, in every Catholic Church in every land, He humbles Himself again, becoming vulnerable and offering Himself to each one of us, under the appearance of bread and wine. And we can go to Him and sit at His feet in adoration, or we can take Him into our bodies, consummating a one flesh union in which we not so much consume Him, but in which He consumes us.


The Eucharist -- Christ truly, substantially present among us -- is the very "source and summit of the Christian life"

Really ponder that: 

The Eucharist is the source of the Christian life. 
The Eucharist is the summit of the Christian life. 

The Eucharist is everything to us. The Eucharist is Christ. 



"I am the Bread of Life"



So I had to laugh at the folly of Richard Dawkins, atheist of note, who recently told a crowd of his fellow non-believers to "mock and ridicule" Christians, singling out our belief in the Eucharist:

“Do you really believe that when a priest blesses a wafer, it turns into the body of Christ?” he said, ridiculing Catholics. “Are you seriously telling me you believe that?  Are you seriously saying that wine turns into blood?”
Why, yes indeed, Mr. Dawkins, we really are saying that, and we really do believe that. And we always have. And we always will. And I'm pretty sure that the Roman emperors were scarier than you and your piddly little words of derision. The early Christian martyrs went to their deaths rather than deny the Eucharist -- as do modern Christian martyrs, come to think of it -- and you think we can be cowed by your silly adolescent outbursts?

Clearly, you don't know anything about faithful Catholics.
Clearly, you don't know your history.
(And clearly, you've never seen The Mission!)



Bring it!


Government mandates that we commit mortal sin, public calls by atheist rock stars to ridicule and mock us…. Man, I am giddy to be a Catholic this Lent! Aren't you?




"I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!" -- Jesus Christ (Luke 12:49)

"If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire!" -- St. Catherine of Siena


PS: Say a prayer for Mr. Dawkins and his followers the next time you approach the Eucharist. There but for the grace of God go all of us.
.






18 comments:

  1. I sure am. Proud. Thrilled. Honored. Humbled. Grateful. Unworthy. Jubilant. Even these words don't quite encapsulated my feelings about being Catholic.

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  2. I am giddy to be a Catholic this Lent! Aren't you?

    This Lent and every one previous.

    If you're bored with atheist emotionalism, raise your hand.

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  3. This is the 3rd time I'm hearing that quote from St.Catherine of Siena. First from Matthew Kelly, then from our parish priest, now from you. And it's so true! Can you imagine what this world would be like if we all truly sought to be our authentic selves, to be all that God is calling us to be, what would be accomplished if we always were open to what God asks of us?

    This world would be a different world if every Catholic embraced and lived out wholly the genius of Catholicism.

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  4. “Do you really believe that when a priest blesses a wafer, it turns into the body of Christ?” he said, ridiculing Catholics. “Are you seriously telling me you believe that? Are you seriously saying that wine turns into blood?”

    And do you, Mr. Dawkins, really believe that in 2000 years of history nobody more intelligent than you has ever processed this information? Are you seriously telling me that you are God's gift (pun-intended) to the intelligent world, and surpass the likes of Augustine and Aquinas? Are you seriously saying that in 2000 years of history, YOU are the smartest man to have ever existed, the smartest man to ever have vetted the Catholic Church?

    Are you kidding me? Apparently "there is no God" for Dawkins because that would take him down a notch in his self-importance to the world.

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  5. I said it before, and I'll say it again. When I was in my pro-choice, pro-contraception, rebelling against the Church days in college, I tried attending a few other churches. But what kept me Catholic (and for a long time was the only thing keeping me Catholic) was the Eucharist. I disagreed with nearly every moral teaching of the Church, but I knew in my bones that Christ was (is) truly present in the Eucharist and is to be found no where else.
    The sentiment of Peter in the gospel, "To whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life" pierced my soul like a sword. Thanks to many prayers of faithful friends (and people I will probably never know) I came to realize the full beauty of all Church teachings.
    But in those dark days, the Eucharist remained the thing that kept me Catholic.
    Our God is so amazingly good.

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  6. As an aside, you wrote, "Tonight, as I waited in line for Confession ... "

    The last few times I've gone to confession I've been surprised that I've had to wait in line too. These weren't "special" times or seasons, just the regular ol' Saturday afternoon.

    I just thought it was very cool and a good sign and wanted to mention it :)

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  7. Hey, Richard Dawkins believes in God... if by "God" you mean "Richard Dawkins."

    My MIL's boss gave us a book about Eucharistic miracles a while back - I should make that my Holy Week reading!

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  8. You guys simply don't know the joy of depending entirely on yourself and only in things you can see. It's so liberating and you can face anything, even the black voids of space because you know there's nothing greater than you and...

    OH MY GOSH THE BLACK VOID OF NOTHINGNESS!

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  9. LOVE YOUR BLOG! LOVE! Please peruse mine if you have time. . .I am really new to this but eager to bring a Catholic view to the adoption crisis!
    http://4alittleloco.blogspot.com/

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  10. Eucharistic adoration was key in my conversion, even before I had a full understanding on what Catholic communion actually meant. For me it became the anchor to Christ, regardless of how I felt about the Church, and I struggled with a lot of her teachings. People just don't understand how I could be so *sure* about what the Church teaches, how I could accept it even when the teachings seemed so unsympathetic. It was because of the Eucharist. I experienced closeness to Christ through it, and I knew that if I wanted to keep that closeness, I needed to be in the Church.

    Barring a miracle, the Dawkinses of the world will never understand it and I don't think it can be explained to them. There's no language for it. Even the language we Catholics use only gives a pale idea of what that immanent Presence is like. If the eyes of your heart are squeezed shut to it you will not be able to see it. If you are able to open them just a little, even just a little, then it will reveal itself. But to the world it is just foolishness.

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  11. I love how the media showed this meeting of the "anti-religion" group, and every time a group of 10 occupiers get together makes "Breaking News". But rallies across the country in which 10's of thousands participated in? Not news worthy.

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  12. These heretics need a little St. Nicholas in their lives and I would love to be the guy to do it. At the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, St. Nicholas had just about enough of Nestorius claiming that the Blessed Mother was not the Theotokos (which the Council eventually declared Dogmtic) but that she was Christotokos, that he went up to him and PUNCHED him right in the face. Bam! How do like them apples?

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  13. I just loved this. So I had to tell you. He was such a big bully.

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  14. Wow. I find it amusing in a sick way taht he blames religion for wars and division in the world, and then instructs his "flock" to ridicule Catholics. What annoys me the most with most of the new atheists is that they don't have a "Live and let live" attitude. They have a "I'm smarter than you, and I'm going to mock you until you run away or convert" attitude.

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  15. A little yelling, a little screaming, a bit getting red in the face isn't stopping me from being Catholic. It's called faith for a reason.
    Reason, there's a loaded word.

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  16. I hope you don't mind but I quoted you from this post... "a one flesh union in which we not so much consume Him, but in which He consumes us." to use on my daughter's first communion invites. :) I remembered reading this post last week and I thought that was said on one of the links in it...so I've been searching and searching. Then I had a "duh" moment and realized you wrote it in the post. LOL Love your blog and your posts!

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  17. Spence I am honored!! Thank you!! :) And God bless your daughter!

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