Take, Eat

This week, a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in New York publicly criticized Rudy Giuliani's receiving of the Eucharist (Holy Communion).

Regular readers of this blog are probably beginning to recognize that one situation that sickens me more than normal is when someone actively seeks to promote disunity and hypocrisy within the 'Body of Christ'.

Cardinal Egan's reasoning is that Giuliani is a supporter of abortion rights, which is a "grave offense against the will of God". With that in mind, the Cardinal seems to have a very high (perhaps rightly so) standard of behavior (or thought life, since Rudy has never had an abortion). With a standard that high for receivers of Communion, how much higher must the standard be for those serving Communion. I wonder, under Egan's belief system, how many Priests, Pastors, Bishops, Reverends or Cardinals have ever committed a "grave offense against the will of God".

To guess, we must first have a measuring stick for the will of God. This sounds like an exact description of the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible says, in Proverbs 6, that God hates haughty eyes, lying tongues, hands that shed innocent blood, hearts that devise wicked schemes, feet that rush into evil, false witnesses and men that stir up disagreement among brothers.

I doubt strongly that Egan and his colleagues have never been proud or lied. I would not feel comfortable saying that the Roman Catholic Church has never been involved in the shedding of innocent blood. I sense that there have probably been a clergy or two who devised wicked schemes and looked forward to sinning. I can even name at least one Cardinal who has stirred up disagreement among brothers.

Orthodox Christianity is a religion made of of people who recognize that they have committed great crimes against the will of God. It is a religion of people who recognize that no one will ever deserve to receive Holy Communion.

A good word for Cardinal Egan, myself, and anyone who strives to follow after Christ would be to "First remove the planks from our own eyes" (Matthew 7:3-5).