Episcopal Bishop sticks his nose in Catholic Communion

I am not feeling particularly nice this morning, so this may come off as more of a rant, than anything else. 

Oh where do I begin!  Last week the openly gay retired Episcopal Bishop Rev. Gene Robinson wrote an article for the Washington Post [link at bottom]telling the Catholic Church what it should do and how it should run its own faith regarding Holy Communion.  After learning of Edward Peters (Catholic Canon Law Teacher) comments reminding Catholics that it is wrong to receive Holy Communion in a state of mortal sin- which includes rejected official Catholic faith, the Episcopal retired Bishop decided he would tell the Catholic Church who should be allowed to receive the Eucharist at Catholic masses around the world. 

The puffed up and far too often delusional openly homosexual Robinson said…”

    “I believe that using Communion as such a manipulative tool surely profanes the sacrament. Perhaps these Catholic leaders should revisit their church’s theology of the Eucharist. Reception of the body and blood of Christ at Communion is God’s gift to God’s people, not a reward for right behavior. We receive Communion not because we are worthy of it, but because God’s offers us the body and blood of Christ despite our unworthiness.”

A “manipulative tool”?  Asking people to be in a state of grace to eat the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ is “manipulating” people?  Was Saint Paul manipulating people when he said…

1 Corinthians 11:27-29

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

Partaking of the Supper Unworthily

 ^"Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself."

Perhaps Robinson’s bible doesn’t include these verses… better bet is Robinson wants to wallow in his own homosexual abomination relationship so he deliberately attempts to ignore these verses. He not only waltzes himself down the road toward Hell, he also attempts to grab as many others as he can to take along with him. I suggest the feeble sin ridden minded Robinson read the bible and pray so that one day he can repent and get off the road to Hell that he is currently on.  Yes I said that.

Anyone- I don’t care who you are- anyone who continues in mortal sin, changing the Word of God in an attempt redefine what is or isn’t sin IS on the road to Hell. If you repent you get off the road to Hell, if you continue in mortal sin you continue down the road to Hell. Until our very last breath, we have the opportunity repent and ask God to forgive us our sins. It is my prayer that ALL sinners - Robinson included- will repent before reaching the end of that road.  Catholics: GO TO CONFESSION and mean it!

God did not ask for our input on what should be sin and what should not be sin.  God tells us what sin is and when we commit sin, we MUST repent of it.  We are called to repent of ALL sins- fornication,rape, murder, gossip, lust, homosexual relationships, adultery and so on.  Sin separates us from God.  Being truly contrite and repenting of our sins brings us closer to God.  Jesus Christ died for our sin- ALL our sins.  He then asked one thing of us… to repent and pick up our crosses to follow Him.

No one is following Christ, if they haven’t first repented and at the very least are attempting to “sin no more”.  The Act of Contrition says it best…

“My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good, I have sinned against you whom I should love above all things. I firmly intend, with your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. In his name, my God, have mercy.”

That is a key part of being contrite for sins… not wanting to commit them again. Not wanting to offend our Lord. What homosexuals in sexual relationships and their supporters want is to remove the “sin no more and to avoid whatever leads me to sin” part of being contrite and repenting.  They seem to think that if a secular government redefines marriage or makes a new law saying this or that is now legal, that somehow God is under a secular government’s authority and will suddenly stop calling sin a sin!  As if sinners then won't be held accountable for sinning!    Ridiculous!  They think they can stand before God on Judgment Day and whine "But God, it was legal".  God will probably say something like "Not by MY Laws".  You can't tell God what He declared sin is no longer a sin.  He's GOD!

The first Commandment is “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex.20) - that includes governments!  Our salvation does NOT come from any government- it comes from our Lord. We don’t get to pick and choose what sins we would like to redefine so that our sins are no longer sins.  I am sure there are lots of people out there who would like adultery, fornication and rape to be redefined so that they are no longer sins.  Secular society does not get to decide what a sin is or what is not.

What the profanely delusional Robinson doesn’t seem to grasp (either intentionally or cluelessly) is that ANY Catholic clergy who denies Holy Communion to a person in mortal sin is LOVING that person.  It is a GREAT act of love to withhold the Eucharist from a person in mortal sin.  Read again Saint Paul’s words to the Corinthians…  ^“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord” and “ For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.”

He says “guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord”- that IS serious!  How serious? Verse 29 tells us to do so is to bring “judgment upon himself”- what judgment?  ETERNAL JUDGMENT! It is a mortal sin!  This is what the Apostles taught and it is what the Catholic Church still teaches today.  Catholic clergy SHOULD deny the Eucharist to one and all IF they know the person is in mortal sin.  Not to use the Eucharist as a “manipulating tool” as Robinson declares, but rather to show PROFOUND LOVE and care for a person’s eternal soul.

Robinson has a mill stone around his neck and he’s too delusional to see it.  He reminds me of Jesus’ teaching about the speck in another eye and the log in your own and not giving what is holy to those who aren’t clean (state of grace)…

   

“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. “Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you.” [Matthew 7]

So when you see Episcopal Bishop Robinson contradict Holy Scriptures by saying, ”We receive Communion not because we are worthy of it, but because God’s offers us the body and blood of Christ despite our unworthiness”…and Saint Paul in the Bible say… ”Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord” be sure to listen to Saint Paul in Holy Scripture rather than a man who wishes to redefine sin to suit his own perversions.  The mill stone around such a person's neck is sure to bring down others with him.  For more on the likes of such people, read 1 Corinthians 5 and pay close attention to verse eleven.
REPENT!  Robinson and others who believe like him need to REPENT so they can have eternal salvation with the Lord.  If they don't, they ARE going to end up in Hell.  Mortal sin sends people to Hell if they do not repent.  Repentance leads to Heaven.  It's really that simply. I will pray for you Gene Robinson and those who believe as you do.

link that set me off: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/catholic-leaders-using-communion-as-a-weapon-in-the-culture-wars/2013/04/24/fd4f60d2-acdf-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_story.html

MSNBC's "United in Godlessness" Up w/Chris Hayes show

Catholic Catechism #2124 The name "atheism" covers many very different phenomena. One common form is the practical materialism which restricts its needs and aspirations to space and time. Atheistic humanism falsely considers man to be "an end to himself, and the sole maker, with supreme control, of his own history." 59 Another form of contemporary atheism looks for the liberation of man through economic and social liberation. "It holds that religion, of its very nature, thwarts such emancipation by raising man's hopes in a future life, thus both deceiving him and discouraging him from working for a better form of life on earth."

I don’t often sit home on Sunday mornings watching Sunday news programs on television- most of it is just rehashing news from the previous week which was depressing enough the first time I heard it. But this Sunday morning, my family and I were attending the 10:30 am mass so I had time to kill and happened upon a title that caught my eye. The show was MSNBC’s “Up with Chris Hayes” and the Sunday feature show was entitled “United in Godlessness” – a show about Atheism in America, in politics, in science, in social society and even in church.

The guests were all atheists including the show’s host Chris Hayes (an exCatholic), Susan Jacoby (author), Jamila Bey (Washington Post blogger), Jamie Kilstein (comedian), Richard Dawkins (author), Steven Pinker (scientist), Robert Wright (author) and Nondenominational Christian church Pastor Mike Aus who “came out” Sunday morning on national television as an atheist leading a Christian nondenominational church. [I’d be interested in hearing how his congregation took this ‘coming out’ news.]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

My initial response to hearing what these people were saying was to be offended by them, most especially the mockery of belief in the Eucharist being the actual Body of Christ and the Cup being the Blood. So as I start this, I am going with my initial reactions… being offended and my knee jerk reaction (yelling at the TV and calling them ‘hypocrites’ and ‘liars’.) Yet after the show, all I really felt was extreme pity for them. And I am not saying that to be condescending, I truly feel pity for any human being that has no belief in anything other than themselves and/or their science. The hopelessness of being an atheist (in my opinion) is incredibly sad. But back to my initial rant… (for now).

Richard Dawkins…, I am used to hearing his tirades on Christians, so I wasn’t surprised by what he was saying, but rather the laughter, giggling and entertainment the other guests found in Dawkins remarks calling Christian beliefs “ridiculous beliefs” and referring to Christians as “nutcases”. Apparently I was giving them more credit for having a respectful discussion on belief vs. no belief than they deserved. I won’t make that mistake twice.

Then Richard Dawkins made one comment that actually got me thinking. He was talking about religious people in politics and the discussion was about giving your vote to a “nutcase” that believes in Christ’s Second Coming or in the Eucharist. He stated that he thinks people of faith in politics should be put to the test- force them to defend their beliefs publicly. He wants politicians to answer for their faith before people vote them into any political office. He was presumably referring to Rick Santorum or perhaps Newt Gingrich when he hypothetically gave an example saying: “Do you truly believe the wafer turns into the Body of Christ?” –his idea of putting a politician in a place of defending the belief they claim to hold. I wonder if Mr. Dawkins would like progressive (a word they all oozed with love over) liberal Nancy Pelosi to answer that same question? Or perhaps President Obama? How would he answer Dawkins’ question about his personal faith and beliefs? Do "progressive" atheists refer to Nancy Pelosi or President Obama as "nutcases" or is that just reserved for nonliberals? Dawkins then went on to attack the Mormon faith without naming Romney as the politician whose faith he was taking pot shots at.

Susan Jacoby showed herself to be a snobbish hypocrite, in my honest opinion. She clearly stated at the start of the show that her atheism is “central” to whom she is and stated that it “shapes her views” in other areas of her life. She then went on (along with the others) to attack Christians for allowing their faith to “shape their views” and for Christianity being “central” to a Christian. I call that hypocrisy. She further offended me by saying (in so many words) that believers of religious beliefs were uneducated and that because of this “lack of education” 80% of conservatives were part of the “religious right” having little education passed the 8th grade. Personally, I found nothing of worth in anything Susan Jacoby had to contribute to the show so I won’t waste anymore time on her here.
Comedian Jamie Kilstein, a proud atheist, had the biggest ego of the bunch. He was on Jacoby’s bandwagon about how smart atheists/progressives were and how dimwitted people of faith are. Besides declaring “the religious right has over stepped it’s bounds” (what bounds and where/when did said over stepping happen, he never said) he went on to say...

“If you’re having a conversation with a religious person, I would start with something like gay rights or something like women’s rights that they could maybe relate to as opposed to saying ‘Everything you’ve been taught as a child is incorrect because I think you’re dumb’.”

Really Jamie? That’s how you approach people of faith? And liberals dare to call Christians “narrow minded” and “intolerant”!

A whopper of a lie came from Jamila Bey a blogger for the Washington Post when she declared that if she were pregnant and the pregnancy was going to kill her that a Catholic hospital would say “fine, let me [Jamila] die” because (according to Jamila) the Catholic Church has legislated that all Catholic hospitals let pregnant women die rather than providing life saving care. The fact is the Catholic Church forbids DIRECT abortion, not indirect abortion to save a life. That is to say, an abortion for the sole purpose of not having a baby is a sin- its murder. The Church does NOT forbid INDIRECT abortion to save a mother’s life.

Directive #47: "Operations, treatments and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child."
Source: http://usccb.org/about/doctrine/ethical-and-religious-directives/

After listening to these atheists and watching Pastor Mike Aus “come out” on television as an atheist leading a Christian nondenominational church a profound sadness hit me. These people were missing so much and they didn’t even know it. Some of them weren’t just missing out; they had rejected what they once had. What a horrid blasphemy to reject God! They were so wrapped up in college degrees, science and their own superior attitudes that they could not see that it was them lacking, not religious people. They are void of faith.

What a terrible thing to have no faith. Believers have a duty to share what they know with unbelievers and to pray for them. We must pray and ask God to have mercy on unbelievers, to gift them with the grace they need to have faith. What a terrible thing for believers not to share their faith with unbelievers! Souls are precious to God, every single one of them. A Christian’s soul is no more important than an Atheist's soul. A lost soul is a horrible crime…made worse if there was something a believer could do and he/she failed to act. If believers don’t share their knowledge and faith with unbelievers are we not guilty of concealing the Truth and keeping them from the joys and fulfillment we’ve found in God? We do not need to beat people over the heads with our bibles, we need to be willing to share our faith when we can and when we can’t, we must pray for unbelievers. Pray that they will have the grace needed for faith to grow.

Catholic Catechism #2125 “Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the virtue of religion. The imputability of this offense can be significantly diminished in virtue of the intentions and the circumstances. "Believers can have more than a little to do with the rise of atheism. To the extent that they are careless about their instruction in the faith, or present its teaching falsely, or even fail in their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than to reveal the true nature of God and of religion.”

Prior to this show, I honestly hadn’t put much thought into Atheism. It was just there…a silent, sad state of being. After listening to this show my eyes have been opened to just how hopeless these people are. I was horrified to imagine an atheist at the moment of their death coming face to face with the Truth of God’s existence and the horror they must feel in that instant of knowing they were wrong in their willful rejection of God.

I truly don’t want a single human being to die an Atheist, to that end, I will pray more than ever for the conversion of souls. What a joy it would be, to witness unbelievers becoming believers!