CELEBRATING 14 YEARS OF THE BLOG, "CINOPS BE GONE" # 2 OF 2

CELEBRATING 14 YEARS OF THE BLOG "CINOPS BE GONE" # 2 OF 2

VERITAS - BLOG, CINOP BE GONE, FRIDAY, MAY 14TH, 2021

 

NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER, CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, APR. 25 TO MAY 8TH, 2021 P. 3

"PHOENIX BISHOP SAYS CHURCH TEACHING ON COMMUNION APPLIES TO All POLITICIANS"

 

    Bishop Olmsted emphasized that Christ "meant what he said" in the Bread of Life discourse."

 

"Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day: for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink."

 

    "Despite the uproar caused by His teaching, Jesus did not soften His claim."

 

    On the contrary, He strengthened it," said the bishop. "The Eucharist is the supernatural food that keeps us going along the difficult journey towards the Promised Land of eternal salvation."

 

    Bishop Olmsted compared present-day anxieties, uncertainties and doubts to those which faced the Israelites as they sought the Promised Land. "[T]he Church at large is experiencing a grave crisis of faith in the Eucharist," he said.

 

    "This crisis has inflicted additional significant implication for authentic Christian discipleship; namely, abysmal Mass attendance, declining vocations to marriage, priesthood, and religious life, waning Catholic influence in society. As a nation we are experiencing a torrent of assaults upon truth."

 

    "The Gospel message has been watered down or replaced with ambiguous worldly values," he continued. "Many Christians have abandoned Christ and His Gospel and turned to a secular culture for meaning that it cannot provide and to satiate a hunger that it can never satisfy."

 

    Added Bishop Olmstead, "In such troubled waters, our greatest anchor in these storms is Christ Himself, found in the Holy Eucharist." Reception of Holy Communion is to change us and transform us into another Christ, he explained: "Being assimilated by Jesus in Holy Communion makes us like Him in our sentiments, desires, and our way of thinking.

    In Holy Communion, His Heart nourishes our hearts; His pure, wise and loving desires purify our selfish ones, so that we not only know what He wants, but also start wanting the same more and more." The Eucharist also transforms those who receive it well into "one body, one spirit in Christ."

    He said, "If we receive the Lord with the right dispositions, God's grace will strengthen our resolve to follow, love and imitate Him. Our Lord Jesus deeply desires our union with Him in Holy Communion and through it He wishes to bring about our transformation into Him and the transformation of our society in which we live.

    "But we, on our part, must ardently desire this union with Jesus Christ as well. [the end]

 

George H. Kubeck

P.S.                                                                                                                                                                     St. John Paul II's "Gospel of Life" also applies to all politicians.

 

How can we pursue the truth?

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI does it this way. From the Preface of "Co-Workers of the Truth."

"The fulfillment of the promise implicit in the motto from the Third Epistle of Saint John, verse 8, that I adopted for my coat of arms: "Co-Workers of the Truth". For John these words signify the participation of all the faithful in the service of the Gospel and, by consequence, the "catholic" dimension of the Faith: the "elder", as he designates himself, calls upon the faithful to extend hospitality to all that come as messengers of the Faith."...