Atheist in the Communion Line – A Follow-up Post

[rug]

October 25, 2014 by Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble

The grace of God often comes to a person in the midst of paradox and mystery.

This is perhaps the truth that many missed when they read part of my story of return to the Church. In short, I was an atheist, fallen-away Catholic involved in serious sin who stumbled into Mass one day and received the Eucharist. This moment was the start of my journey back to the Church and eventually into religious life.

Certainly, a reason to celebrate right?

Unfortunately, many reacted to my story of coming home by chastising me or by suggesting that it would have been better if only I had converted in another way, under more perfect circumstances. “If someone had met you at the door and told you not to receive, surely that would have been better,” some opined. However, many people also shared with me that their experience was similar to my own.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pursuedbytruth/2014/10/atheist-in-the-communion-line-a-follow-up-post.html#ixzz3HDRGVCIT

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/pursuedbytruth/2014/10/gradualism-i-am-exhibit-a.html

[IrishAyes]

1. Well, you sure stirred up the pharisees, didn't you?! :)

I'm horrified that you received even a single slightly negative response to your story. But you're a mystic, and many don't understand that at all. I'm glad you returned not only for your sake, but for those you're able to help in their own walk.

[rug]

2. She has a good story to tell.

[IrishAyes]

3. I've subscribed to Patheos too for quite some time. Like 'em a lot.

And I do love a good story.

But I'll never understand anyone criticizing the road another took home. Nobody has room to talk. What matters is that we wind up where we're supposed to be.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

4. I have been saying for years that the Eucharist is our spiritual food, not a reward for being good

What's more, Pope Francis agrees with me. Here is section 47 of his Evangelii Gaudium

The Church is called to be the house of the Father, with doors always wide open. One concrete sign of such openness is that our church doors should always be open, so that if someone, moved by the Spirit, comes there looking for God, he or she will not find a closed door. There are other doors that should not be closed either. Everyone can share in some way in the life of the Church; everyone can be part of the community, nor should the doors of the sacraments be closed for simply any reason. This is especially true of the sacrament which is itself “the door”: baptism. The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.<51> These convictions have pastoral consequences that we are called to consider with prudence and boldness. Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. But the Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems.

The text of footnote 51 is also apropos

Cf. Saint Ambrose, De Sacramentis, IV, 6, 28: PL 16, 464: “I must receive it always, so that it may always forgive my sins. If I sin continually, I must always have a remedy”; ID., op. cit., IV, 5, 24: PL 16, 463: “Those who ate manna died; those who eat this body will obtain the forgiveness of their sins”; Saint Cyril of Alexandria, In Joh. Evang., IV, 2: PG 73, 584-585: “I examined myself and I found myself unworthy. To those who speak thus I say: when will you be worthy? When at last you present yourself before Christ? And if your sins prevent you from drawing nigh, and you never cease to fall – for, as the Psalm says, ‘what man knows his faults?’ – will you remain without partaking of the sanctification that gives life for eternity?”