Live the Eucharist more fully
To the Editor:
I always appreciate Father Ron Rolheiser’s columns and his recent “Bread and Wine” column (Nov. 14 issue) offers a beautiful reflection on the Eucharist. It offers a personal connection to the “real presence” that is powerful for me. The bread representing all the joys of life and the wine representing all the sorrows and sufferings of life. “… the two together make for one balanced whole, life in all its aspects.”
I am challenged to bring my whole life to the celebration of the Eucharist, lifting up with the bread all the joys in my life and with the wine, all the sorrows: making present again the “passion of Christ” with my life’s passion (and indeed the universal Church)!
Father Bud Grant, in his column on the Sacred Heart (Nov. 14 issue), quotes Pope Francis’ most recent encyclical, “He Loved Us,” noting that “the passion of Christ” is about suffering certainly but more importantly about God’s great love for us. God’s love has always been primary! Sacrifice is a product of love. May we embrace that Great Love and live the Eucharist more fully every day of our lives
JoAnn Snodgrass
Prince of Peace, Clinton
Protect Catholic values of community, humility and austerity
To the Editor:
The Nov. 7 Catholic Messenger carries an article that notes, “Catholics host Eucharistic procession opposite ‘black mass’” in Atlanta. This demonstration was in response to a group that intended the supposed black mass as “entertainment” and who admitted that they “possessed no consecrated host.”
It is great that Catholics are motivated to express their beliefs publicly. However, excessive concern about the possibility of black masses risks making us believe that the problem of satanism is about the actions of relatively insignificant groups. In protecting the Eucharist from theft by specific Satanists, we might forget the need to protect ourselves from the general “satanist” values that work themselves into our society.
Satanism is in large part a belief in individualism, egoism and power. Sometimes there is implicit or explicit support of an unrestricted capitalist system that encourages these things. Let us guard the Eucharist from theft from the altar. Just as importantly, let’s guard ourselves from excessive admiration of capitalism. Billionaires, for example, often get their billions through belief in unlimited individual wealth and a disordered desire for worldly power. Arguably, the mere fact that we have billionaires is a sign of perverted social values. Certainly, though, the fact that we admire them as political models is a considerable moral problem.
Perhaps satanists desecrate the Eucharist because they rebel against the Catholic values of community, humility and austerity. We need to protect these values.
Tadd Ruetenik
Moline, Illinois
Support care for creation
To the Editor:
Election Day has come and gone. Our responsibility to care for our common home remains. Military leaders in our country, independent of the party of a sitting president, speak to the importance of thoughtful foreign aid to help bring peace to impoverished countries and to bolster local stability and self-sufficiency. Such support can also help with climate adaptation for local farmers around the world.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is committed to helping people in more than 100 countries with agricultural adaptation. The Catholic faithful here in the United States are encouraged to communicate the importance of such aid to our elected officials in Washington, D.C. Remaining actively involved in global matters is part of the DNA of our faith tradition, which is composed of 1.25 billion Catholics around the world.
Such considerations and continued involvement in the global conversations is not a blue or red issue, but rather a humanitarian one. Urgently scaling up investments in climate adaptation can reduce the impacts of the changing climate and, in some cases, even prevent them. Adaptation saves lives and is fiscally responsible: every $1 invested in adaptation yields between $2-10 in economic benefits.
President-elect Donald Trump, Senators Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst, Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks: I urge you to act boldly to demonstrate continued U.S. leadership in supporting global climate adaptation efforts by remaining part of The Conference of the Parties (COP) and maintaining support for multilateral climate policy commitments.
Deacon Kent E. Ferris, OFS
Social Action Director, Diocese of Davenport
