You and I are in perfect agreement about the right relation of faith and works. I must confess that many Protestants get so eager to get away from a gospel of works that they make salvation sound cheap and ignore sanctification--the process by which, after salvation, we grow and come closer to reflecting the image of our Lord--altogether. And believe me, when I encounter that, I come down on it with just as much fervor as I do on any works-based salvation.
I agree that faith without charity is worthless, but here we're often the victims of old english translations. The word most often translated "charity" is agape, which means a pure love such as Christ showed the Church, not the giving of alms to the poor. And indeed, Christ said that the two laws on which all the Torah and the prophets (and by extension, the whole of the NT) hung were to love God above all else and to love your neighbor as yourself (Mt. 22:36-40). Paul's great dissertation on love is in 1 Cor. 13.
Getting back to the original point of the thread, which shows the greater love: To insist on a wheat Host for a little girl who is deathly allergic and to tell her that the non-wheat Host she had didn't count? Or, realizing that the Bible nowhere insists on wheat-based bread, to show love and grace by allowing her to partake in what she can safely consume?
I think Christ would say, "Bring the little girl to Me, and forbid her not."
Neither. Give her the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ under the species of wine, something which is in no way inferior to receiving him under the appearance of bread. It is giving her the true Sacrament which demonstrates the most love - not giving her normal bread. "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst for ever".
the Bible nowhere insists on wheat-based bread
The divine law of Christ requires wheat bread. "Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone" (John 12:24) "the rest I will set in order, when I come" (1 Cor 11:34).
I couldn't be more in agreement with you. And you are absolutely right about Paul's 'great dissertation.' It never grows old, it never loses it's appeal, it never loses the power to make me weep.
I think Christ would say, "Bring the little girl to Me, and forbid her not."
As a Catholic, I understand the argument that the side that opposes your viewpoint brings to bear here, but I can't help but hearken back to the distinction Christ himself made about the 'letter of the law' and its Spirit.
Also, I find it curious that the Church, of all the obstacles it currently faces, would pick this to apparently take such a vehement stand on.
After I read this piece, I couldn't help but remember a quote I read sometime ago:
"those who are foolish in serious things, will be serious in foolish things."
I think Christ would say, "Bring the little girl to Me, and forbid her not."
Well summed up!