Sabbatical Journey Day 5

 

I have been mulling something since Sunday. I went to Mass at the Abbey and the homily was excellent. Of course, the Table was closed. The Table of the Lord was not open to those people who are not Roman Catholic.

In the midst of great hospitality, which I have received, and the spirit of most monasteries, there would seem to have a desire to fulfill the hearts and minds and spirits of all people who come in the door. When one has a feast and one invites people to the feast, it is presumed that all those invited will be welcome at the table. In this case, ‘sorry Charlie….”

People who are not Roman Catholic are always invited to come forward and when they get to the priest, cross their arms and instead of giving the person Holy Communion, the priest then gives the person a blessing. To me this is like, “Hey, glad you are here at the feast and I won’t feed, you, but I sure will greet you well!” I stayed in my seat. Frankly, it seems pretty patronizing to me.

Truthfully, the Roman Catholic Church has a different teaching on Holy Communion than Protestant churches do. This is certainly true, but does access to the Table of the Lord demand absolute adherence to a church’s theological perspective? Did I miss when theological perspectives over took faith? Did I miss in Jesus’ commissioning of eating his body and blood had the addition of a theological litmus test? I wonder what Jesus’ answer would have been at the Last Supper if someone had queried him about transubstantiation…

Did I miss, perhaps most of all, when the Table of the Lord morphed into the table of the church? When did it happen that this was no longer God’s Table, but now belonged to a church which had the right to pick and choose who came to dine?

I am a minister of the United Church of Christ for a variety of reasons. One is this. When we say the words, “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey,” we mean them. When we invite you to the feast, you are always welcome at the Table of the Lord. After all, it’s only hospitable to do so.