Posted on 06/07/2002 12:03:41 PM PDT by big'ol_freeper
It looks a whole lot like wine and bread to the naked eye. But...if you sent it to a testing lab, do you know what the scientist's report would say? It'd say that the wine is wine, and the bread is bread...although it might question whether or not that stiff little wafer qualifies as bread.
I held aloft a golden chalice, gazing upwards at it, performing one of the central liturgical rituals of the Mass, in which the consecration of the wine takes place. But my attitude was not one of reverence or solemnity. I possessed neither the eyes of faith, nor the traditional Christian understanding of the Blessed Eucharist. I was not standing at an altar, let alone in a church. Nearby, my friend and frequent evangelistic partner was neither kneeling, nor bowing his head, nor making the sign of the cross. He was chuckling.
I wore a mocking, sarcastic scowl, just as I wore a mockingly makeshift priestly robe. I looked as ridiculous as the cowardly lion wearing his kings robe in The Wizard of Oz, for I was not a priest, or an ordained clergyman of any sort. I was a non-denominational, Evangelical Protestant, lay missionary. My friend (a former Catholic) and I were making light of the gestures and rituals of a priest saying the Mass. This was in the late 1980s, several years before my surprise 1990 conversion to Catholicism.
Link to article:
====
You have no taste. This post is puerile.
I honestly can imagine few things more childish than believing that having the local shaman uttering a few words of mumbo-jumbo will turn bread and fruit juice into the spirit of the Almighty Creator of the Universe (whom the worshippers then proceed to consume!) and ridiculing such superstitions is the job of responsible adults in teaching people to, in Paul's words, "put away childish things."
Were a South Pacific tribe reported to believe that saying a few words over mango pulp would turn it into the Great Spirit of the Sky, I have no doubt that most Christians would snicker at how 'primitive' the natives were for holding to such ideas. True puerility is refusing to recognize one's own superstitions as such.
As for your second remark, let me point out that stereotypes are quite often simply exaggerated manifestations of a fundamental truth. If the shoes of the fisherman fit...
Take some Bean-O.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.