Holy Eucharist: Father Matthew Presents the Sacraments

Episcopal Priest, Matthew Moretz, presents a piece on the meaning of the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, with a little help from two friends. This is part of the series "Father Matthew Presents the Sacraments" which is almost finished! "Father Matthew Presents" as a whole is a series on Episcopal Church life and teaching produced by the Curate at Christ's Church in Rye, New York. www.fathermatthewpresents.com

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• Eucharist
• Episcopal
• Communion
• Anglican
• God
• Church
• Sacrament
• Bread
• Wine

[x8lover]

It is my hope that one day all Christians will be able to share table fellowship in any church. It saddens me that as an Anglican I am not allowed to take communion in a Catholic church even though our traditions are very close. I value our spectrum of belief that allows the eucharist to be individual to each on a personal basis. This is one of the riches of Anglicanism. But it is also the thing that Rome objects to and as a result if I go to a catholic mass abroad I keep my angliacanism quiet

[FatherMatthew]

@ohlordbabyjesus But I actually like Of Montreal....



[manlioman]

@FatherMatthew The persecution and extermination of the pagans and hebrews, the destruction of their temples and statues of deities, was all performed by the Fathers of the Christian Church and the use of the Bible teachings. The punishments were all done for the love of Jesus.... that's christian love as historically demonstrated.

[FatherMatthew]

@manlioman So, some atheists are sacrificially minded, and some aren't. Same with Christians. But the pivot point is the Way of Christ which renounces the evil of thinking that you can cast out evil and not become evil yourself. And Jesus was a historical person. We should talk after you read some Girard, if you are truly interested in inter-faith comparisons. I'd be interested to see what you'd make of him!

[manlioman]

@FatherMatthew The biblical Jesus, Mary, God, holy spirit & christian dogmas were all created using the charactoristics of ancient PAGAN divinities. Nothing in christianity is original. That's why there is no contemporary historicity of Christ. Christ's birth, death &resurrection is the pagan's solstices and equinoxes, which they rejoiced and celibrated on the same dates which the christians replaced with their festive dates (such as dec. 25th).

[FatherMatthew]

@manlioman Any time a person demonizes someone or excludes them and then gets a unifying force from that expulsion (whether you are demonizing pagans, Christians, scientists, or fundamentalists) this is scapegoating-like behavior. And it is not superstitious because it works to enculturate all sorts. All against one works. Yet there is another way. Jesus exposes the scapegoating process, and offers new life without killing and sacrifice by showing that God is in our victims.

[FatherMatthew]

@manlioman Nietzsche noted the potent difference between Christ and Dionysus. He chose Dionysus, unfortunately.  They are not the same or equivalent. Although they traffic in similar symbols, their configuration is cataclysmically different.

[manlioman]

@FatherMatthew (by the way, atheists do not use sacrifice nor scapegoating, that's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard). Scapegoating was mainly a hebrew superstition. The hebrew God and christians seem to favor scapegoats, enough to invent Jesus as a scapegoat in order to redeem humanity's sin (another great christian mechanism usful for instrumentalizing your flock).

[FatherMatthew]

@manlioman PLEASE read Rene Girard's "The Scapegoat." I'm serious. The point is not the bread and the wine drinking. The point is the bread and the wine drinking in light of the death and resurrection of Christ which calls out all sacrificial behavior. Peace isn't even the issue. Anyone can get peace after a stoning or sacrifice. This is its power. But the Christian Eucharist calls us back to the historical Christ event which is different.

[manlioman]

@manlioman Even the utensils (like the paten and chalice) and mixing water and wine came from the Mitrian cult. You, preforming magic tricks and turning Jesus particles into cookies is identical to what the Pagans used to do. It is typical and historical that christians claim falsehood to anything the pagans did, only to substitute thos same rituals and belief with the christian God. Hence, as you know, the same thing applies to Baptism and many others.

[manlioman]

@FatherMatthew Christian theophagy is exactly as that of the Eleusi mystics and their sacred Kykeon, Dionisis' Holy Grail of wine, Cybele's eating and drinking from the kymbalan and tympanon, and that of Mitra and the consumption of BREAD & WINE. All peaceful comunion meals of thanks, much like the Essenes rite later on. Christain theophagy is also very similar to Indian cult of Agni's (sun divinity, and son of the virgin) eucharist. Bread & wine were used also for Attis theophagy

[FatherMatthew]

@FatherMatthew We like to talk about Christian teaching as "revelations" or "discoveries" or "epiphanies" not that it was "created" or "made up." Christian truth is part of a historical institutional process that seeks to perceive what God is up to in the world. At its best, like science, it discovers wisdom, it doesn't make it up.