Faithful of Southern Illlinois
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He said in reply,
“I tell you, if they keep silent the stones will cry out!” Lk. 19: 39-40
Vol. 5 No. 1 Fall 2009
SFto nOes CSr y I O Lut
Fellowship of Southern Illinois Laity
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he closing prayer service at FOSIL’s Women of the Word Conference in July acknowledged the
rich legacy of Biblical women along with women of our own age - our grandmothers, mothers, aunts and friends, who have passed on their faith to us out of their joy of living in God’s love. These women made it possible for us to be the women and men of faith we are today. In ways, large and small, they brought, and are continuing to bring, Christ’s love, mercy, justice and healing to a broken world. We are all witnesses of God’s love, just as Phoebe, Prisca, Eunice, Ruth and Mary of Magdala. Each day we share the Good News in everything we say and do. Participants were invited to weave a signed ribbon - representing their own witness - into a tapestry, as we prayed:
“Weaver God, we come as separate strands of colorful threads to be woven in and out, over and
through each other’s lives, into a marvelous tapestry of God’s beautiful design. We bring our
different gifts in splendid, varied ways, to weave a new church into being, one in faith and love and
praise. We celebrate the beauty of the tapestry we are together – one in Christ!”
T
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Last year, as part of their celebration of Mary of
Magdala’s feast day, Donna Evitts and parishioners
from Church of the Holy Spirit, in Carterville,
IL sewed, painted and appliquéd two impressive
murals. The murals reveal the figures of 20 biblical
women, with faces only sketched in lightly.
“Giving Them Faces” was a presentation within
FOSIL’s July 18th event in which these women
were introduced in all their effectiveness, daring and courage, and their empowerment invoked for all of us. As each was named, her handcrafted face was brought forward and applied to the mural. You see, as I heard a deeply-respected friend preach some 24 years ago, we cannot receive good from, or do good for, the “faceless” whom we pass or sit beside in our lives. We can only receive from, and give to, persons – human beings with faces,
uniqueness, full reality. So many women in the Scriptures have been represented badly to us or ignored altogether. There are Shiprah and Puah, whose rejection of a Pharaoh’s edict and cunning saved possibly hundreds of newborn Israelite boys (including, perhaps, Moses himself) from death. Deborah may be recognized as biblical, but her exploits in leading Israelite armies and wisdom in helping her people are downplayed. There is Mary of Nazareth, presented to us as patient, meek and passive. In fact, she was bold, daring and staunch in her faithin- action. She challenged a messenger of God successfully, and pressed Jesus into “going public” with his mission. Phoebe is clearly named a deacon by Paul but too often is spoken of as a “helper” to the “real” (male) deacons. These women and others are valued and important people in our faith history. Their stories and their reality are still as meaningful for all Christians as those of the male figures who dominate liturgy and biblical study. They, too, have “faces” – uniqueness, personality, reality. “Giving Them Faces” brought them to reality for those present – some of whom knew little or nothing of the women named. The work of the Carterville parishioners was a great and highly valued contribution to our event – and should be seen by people in many places. In giving faces to the women depicted, they give us healthy and vibrant models for our faith and our work for the future of our church. I was humbled, in giving the presentation, by their dedication and love; I am deeply grateful that their work empowered this experience for me and offered much “food for thought” to all those present. Like the women of Scripture they helped bring to life, the murals’ creators strong faith and undaunted courage. May we each learn from them. May we each live in vibrant, daring faith that refuses passivity in seeking the good and fullness of life for our Church and our world.
GIVING THEM FACES
by Ginny Kiernan Dahlberg, Ph.D.
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Feature
SUSAN B. ANTHONY:
A Model of Activism
by Penny A. Weiss, Ph.D.
“I’d like to tell the story of Susan
B. Anthony using her activism- a
tribute to the centrality of the
moral and political commitments of
her life - focusing on seven points
that we can learn from her.”
1. Know that issues are related, not
isolated.
Although she is best known for her
long and productive role in the suffrage
campaign, Anthony was an abolitionist, educational reformer, labor
activist, temperance worker and women’s rights campaigner. When
Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the Women’s New York
State Temperance Society in 1851, they advocated “women’s right to
vote on the temperance question and to divorce drunken husbands”
(ANB). For Anthony, temperance was related to women’s rights because
of the poverty and abuse that women suffered at the hands of
alcoholic husbands and fathers. Both abolition and suffrage work drew
from her understanding of every individual as a dignified, rights-bearing
citizen. Labor activism was connected to ending women’s damaging
economic dependence on men and eliminating the reality of people
we classify today as ‘working poor’. Issues are related; while we cannot
work on everything, we all need to work on something and learn
about and support causes linked both conceptually and practically to
our own. Anthony said, “many abolitionists have yet to learn the ABC’s
of woman’s rights,” still today, feminists need more education and more
commitment to anti-racism work, environmentalists need more feminist
consciousness, religious reformers need global perspectives, and
so on.
This work of connecting causes and solutions is as challenging as it
is critical.
2. Take risks and accept that activism always involves risk
Anthony was mercilessly harassed on the streets for everything from
her political positions on suffrage and divorce to her bloomer dress, a
costume she felt strongly contributed to women’s health and mobility.
She courageously challenged a convention of educators to educate both
white girls and black youths. In every new town she entered, she took
From the editors
We continually proclaim
our faith in a God of wonder
and hope, in a God who demands
justice for all people
and all creation. We understand
all of us are the people
of God and that the message
of Jesus was given to all, not
to just a chosen few or elect.
The Women of the Word
Conference got a powerful
boost of encouragement
and motivation from a
panel of men and women
who shared prophetic leadership
qualities, personal and
that of others.
Dr. Penny Weiss was a
member of this panel and
we share her presentation,
edited slightly, about
Susan B. Anthony and
the lessons of activism
and courage we can learn
from her in her life-long
commitment to rid this
country of oppression and
injustice towards women.
Our continuing efforts to
rebuild and revamp the
unjust structures of the
Church is not an easy task.
We look to present-day
leaders and to those who
have gone before us for
inspiration, strength and
courage as we continue our
efforts to build a just and
inclusive church. Like
Susan B. Anthony, we are
voices that refuse to be
silenced.
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risks, from encountering ministers who refused to allow her to speak in their churches, to challenging the
personal politics of her audience members. She started ventures, from a newspaper to a speaking tour, with
uncertain financial resources to back them up.
Anthony wrote, “Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social
standing, never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or
nothing in the world’s estimation.” Change will always meet resistance. It is self-deception and self-defeating
to think that if you say something with just the right words, in a polite and pleasant tone, in the perfect
moment, that everyone in the room will go, “Oh! I was contributing to injustice? Oh my goodness! I will
stop this minute! Thank you for pointing that out to me!” The reality of resistance doesn’t mean we can or
should be insensitive jerks, but it does mean that unless we are comfortable with making people uncomfortable,
we are destined to leave things as we find them.
3. Create and take advantage of opportunities.
In 1872, Anthony and 15 other women registered to vote in Rochester, New York, and became the first
women to cast ballots in a presidential election. All the women were arrested, and Anthony, as a leader of
the suffrage movement, was scheduled for trial. Freed on $1,000 bail, what did she do? She traveled the
country presenting her legal argument in lectures newly titled, “Is it a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?” In
fact, …”the trial gave Anthony the opportunity to spread her arguments to a wider audience than ever
before:…(wiki). Anthony’s arrest and indictment opened the opportunity to draw audiences and engage
them in the discussion of woman suffrage. At the conclusion of her trial, Anthony began work on a 200 page
book containing the indictments, trial transcripts, the judge’s ruling, the attorneys’ arguments and motions
and her own speech to the jurors. It took months to assemble. A local newspaper called it “the most important
contribution yet made to the discussion of the woman suffrage issue from a legal standpoint.” Members
of Congress received copies and Anthony continued to sell it and give it away for decades.
Susan B. Anthony was politically savvy. In Albany, “she would schedule the best speakers for a meeting
to coincide with the start of the legislative session in order to attract politicians and the press” who would be
there that day to cover the politicians (ANB). Oppression and injustice are not seamless webs. Find the
cracks and push.
4. Organize
“In 1852, Anthony and Stanton founded the Women’s New York State Temperance Society,” and “in
1863 Anthony, again with Stanton, founded the Women’s Loyal National League to engage women in the
political debates prompted by war” (ANB). In 1869, the two co-founded the National Woman’s Suffrage
Association, of which she would later serve as president. “In 1893, she joined with Helen Barrett Montgomery
in forming a chapter of the Woman’s Educational and Industrial Union” (wiki). She founded the
International Council of Women in 1888 and a second international organization, the International Women’s
Suffrage Council, in 1904.
Political problems are not solved by individuals, but by political action. And, as times change, organizational
structures must adapt, as well.
5. Find sustenance
One cannot persist as long as Anthony did without belief that change is possible and without unending
support from other individuals and organizations involved in the struggle. Anthony believed that we need to
be, and should work to be, strong independent individuals. She said, “The true woman will . . . stand or fall
by her own individual wisdom and strength. . .Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but
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must be taught to protect herself.” I wore my Susan B. Anthony “Failure is Impossible” button when I took my
Ph.D. oral exam.
Anthony had support all her life. Her mother attended the Rochester women’s rights convention in 1848
and her father took her out of a school that refused to teach her long division because she was a girl and put her
in a group home school. She was supported by a Quaker religion that was the first to grant women shared
leadership with men. She was inspired by a speech she read of Lucy Stones’s. She had a long friendship with
Frederick Douglass and an intense, life-long partnership with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, also with Eleanor
Roosevelt, Tecumseh, Cesar Chavez and many others. I was even inspired recently when I met with the organizers
of today’s event and heard their stories of persistent faith and activism, of passionate commitment to
change in the name of justice. As Anthony said of Stanton, “I want you to understand that I never could have
done the work I have done if I had not had this woman at my right hand.”
6. Use a range of tactics.
According to Anthony’s most recent biographer, Kathleen Barry, “the core of Anthony’s . . . strategy: (was
to) take a concrete issue. . .; ananlyze the problem; formulate a specific demand. . . ; then urge women to take
practical, confrontational and effective actions that logically followed from her analysis of the issue. She was
determined not only to act on behalf of women, but to mobilize women to act for themselves. . . she was not
interested in merely cultivating followers.” No one tactic brings about political movement. Anthony lectured
giving some of the most famous speeches in American history. She also published pamphlets and a subscription
newspaper, the Revolution, for which she wrote passionate essays.
She went door-to-door a century before Barack Obama made canvassing famous, collecting signatures, signing people up to come to meetings and helping them start their own organizations. She was involved in petitioning the legislature, a member of the first all-women delegation to do so. She inspired and encouraged others to act. She co-authored, with Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage and Ida Husted Harper, the four volume,
The History of Woman Suffrage, so that this chapter of history would be remembered.
We all have talents and there is much work to be done.
7. Feminist activism is for everyone: both sexes, all ages.
Too often we think of activism as a young person’s job. Yet every stage in life offers us important perspectives
on social change. “In 1836, at the age of 16, Anthony collected two boxes of petitions opposing slavery,
in response to the gag rule prohibiting such petitions in the House of Representatives” (wiki). Anthony became
secretary of the Daughters of Temperance at the age of 29. She attended her first women’s rights convention
and made her first public speech for women’s rights at the age of 32. At 64, Anthony lectured at least once in
every one of New York’s 62 counties in the service of a suffrage amendment to the state constitution. One
month before her death in 1906, at age 86, she attended her last suffrage convention. At that time, four states
– Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho and Utah – allowed women the right to vote. She lived to see that. Fourteen years
after her death, her dream of equal voting rights for all United States citizens would come true. She said, “The
older I get, the greater power I seem to have to help the world; I am like a snowball – the further I am rolled the
more I gain.”
Activism comes in enough forms that we can all do something all the time.
Dr. Penny Weiss is Professor of Political Science and Director of Women’s Studies at St. Louis University where she conducts
research and teaches courses in political theory and women’s studies with a focus on feminist theory and women political thinkers.
She received a B.A. from the University of South Florida and a M.A. and Ph.D from the University of Notre Dame. Previously she
taught at Purdue University, Wake Forest University and the University of South Carolina. Her most recent book,
Canon Fodder: Women Political Thinkers, was published in 2009.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Gus & Arlou Koch Award
Through the years, before their recent
deaths, Arlou and Gus Koch were two of
FOSIL’s most faithful members – participating
in every program and event, never fearful to
be on the front line of peaceful demonstrations
and expressing their reform beliefs to
Church authorities.
Arlou and Gus were strong proponents of
openness, justice, equality and inclusiveness
in the Church and provided many years
of service to the Church they loved so deeply.
FOSIL is grateful for their kind and enduring legacy.
In his homily at Arlou’s funeral, Fr. Steve Gira mentioned that he visited Arlou the day
before she died. He noticed Robert McClory’s book, As It Was in the Beginning, on her
nightstand and asked Arlou if she thought McClory’s prediction of church reforms and a democratic Church would actually come about one day. Arlou replied, “Yes, with all my heart, I believe they will happen.” Our lives were made richer with their friendship, their faith and their optimism. The award will be given annually to any person or organization who imitates Gus and Arlou’s persistence and dedication to establishing a renewed Church of openness, accountability, justice and inclusiveness. It is very appropriate that on July 18, Robert McClory became the first recipient of this award.
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Believing that the Church should be a model for
justice, openness and accountability, FOSIL is addressing
one serious justice issue – sexism – by educating,
enlightening and exposing the ways women
have been and continue to be suppressed and kept
in subordinate positions in the Church.
Impressed by the strength of FOSIL’s commitment
and activism, St. Louis University Professor,
Dr. Penny Weiss, invited several FOSIL members
to visit with students enrolled in her class, “Feminism
in Action.” On October 22, Mick Gibbar, Marg
Beckmann, Les Himstedt and Anne Harter shared
personal stories of growing up Catholic, how they
found a new Catholic identity in the Vatican II
church reforms and changes, and how their faith
has been transformed by the spirit of the Council,
openly embracing a fresh concept of being church.
FOSIL Visits Students at St. Louis University
The students did a variety of readings on feminism
and religious activism and are actively involved
in campus or community projects, bringing
their own message of equality and hope. One student
volunteers at Karen House, another has organized
a weekly prayer gathering on campus and
another student has established a coalition in his
home parish to help people better understand gays
and lesbians.
Students questioned why FOSIL members remain
in the Church when they disagree with the structure
and many issues in the Church. All replied that
they were guided by the gospel message of Jesus
for their unwavering commitment to justice and, as
Mick Gibbar replied, “If we don’t fight for what is
right and just, who will?”
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Les Himstedt, left, presents award to Robert McClory
On July 18, a crowd of 150 people came
together in O’Fallon, Illinois, to participate in the
13th annual international celebration of the feast of
St. Mary of Magdala with a day of education, reflection and empowerment, entitled Women of
the Word. The keynote speaker, Sr. Christine
Schenk, csj, Executive Director of FutureChurch, an organization which has, under her leadership, brought to public and hierarchial attention, the effects and hardships caused by the priest shortage, championed alternative options to clustering and closing of parishes, succeeded in bringing the issue of priestless parishes before the Synod on the Eucharist held in Rome in 2006 and, again in 2008, with the glaring absence of the stories of women in the Sunday lectionary. Sr. Chris has almost single-handedly rescued the tarnished good name of St. Mary of Magdala and made her the flagship of the effort to bring women into equal partnership in church circles, especially at the level of priesthood and governance. Sr. Chris’ presentations on the roles of Biblical women as apostles, teachers, leaders and patronesses featured power-point displays of archeological artifacts: murals, frescoes, statues, and architectural friezes. The story of humanity from the beginning of written history until very recently has been recorded by men. Everything we have received was filtered through the lens of male observation including their presuppositions and misconceptions about women. On the rare occasions when women were mentioned, it was never based on their own experiences nor their own words. Women scholars have begun to redress this imbalance to lift the stories of women out of obscurity and fleshing them out by placing them in their geographical and sociological contexts. Non-inclusive language and inaccurate translations in our sacred books have caused a lot of misunderstanding. For example: few people realize that women accompanied Jesus through Galilee during his ministry and traveled to Jerusalem with him. In Luke 8:2-3, we are told that Mary of Magdala, Joanna and Susanna financed the ministry of Jesus and the Twelve. We assumed that ‘the disciples’ meant the Twelve (men). Some inclusive terms like ‘brethren’ - meant to include everyone - were translated into male terms like ‘brothers’. Terms used for ‘apostles, teachers, deacons and presbyters were rendered in the inclusive masculine plural, similar to ‘man’ in our usage to mean humanity, but were translated as referring only to males. As an example, Sr. Chris cited Phoebe of Cenchreae who was called ‘diakonos’ – a male form of the word, deacon (servant). Jesus thought of himself as a prophet for a new time of God breaking into the world to proclaim God’s love and special care to all - rich/poor, slave/free, women/men – thus Jesus’ inclusive treatment of people. The most marginalized people of the world, then as now, are women and children so Jesus was careful to include them in his works and in his care. In three of the four gospels, the resurrection experiences of Mary of Magdala are never read on Easter Sunday but are relegated to the Tuesday after Easter! The commission given to Mary by Jesus to go and tell the others that he had risen is never heard on ANY Sunday – an astounding example of the ‘disappearance’ of a woman’s contribution to the key event of our Christian faith. The audience was treated to beautiful archeological depictions of early women leaders such as Phoebe of Cenchrae, Sophia the deacon, Prisca
WOMEN OF THE WORD
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continued on page 8
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FELLOWSHIP OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS LAITY
P.O Box 31, Belleville, Illinois 62222
Telephone: 618-277-7594 Website: www.FOSILONLINE.com
and her husband Aquila. Lydia, Lois and her
daughter Eunice (omitted from the lectionary even
though they are the grandmother and mother of
Timothy who has two books in the Christian
scriptures bearing his name), the Samaritan
woman and many others including Junia whom
Paul calls an outstanding apostle (Rom:16:7) and
who until recently was called Junias (the male
form though no one by that name has ever been
found). Apparently translators could not imagine a
woman apostle.
The effort to restore these women to their
rightful places in the lectionary will affect more
than the Catholic world since our lectionary is
used in many non-Catholic churches.
The afternoon session, What Happened to
Women Leaders After Paul, concerned the workings
of the emerging Christian Church centered on house churches, a main arena for women since women’s leadership was expected and accepted in homes. Women opened their homes for use as meeting places for teaching, study and Eucharist. They functioned as patronesses, prophets and, according to frescoes, as presiders at Eucharist. They donated ancestral lands for use as cemeteries for burial of Christians. Many were martyred for the faith though only males were entered into the martyr lists before 400 AD. The women of Jerusalem ministered to crucified people. Frescoes and friezes showing women with scrolls testify to their ministry as teachers. Several scenes depicted women being ordained by a bishop; one mural in a church featured a woman called ‘bishop’; grave markers named women as presbyters. Crispina was named a teacher; Bitalia as patroness; Kale as presbyter; Olympias as deacon and Theodora as bishop among many others. Mary of Magdala, of course, outnumbered all the other images. Mary of the Magnificat disappeared in favor of the sacred maternal image; it was easier to sell to the Roman world a traditional mother and wife than a feisty teen who sang a song of justice and liberation. According to the cultural norms of the day, women could not lead worship in a public place, so when the worship space moved out of houses into public places, when churches and basilicas began to be constructed, everything changed. The taboos concerning menstruation prevented women from appearing in public because contact with them caused ritual uncleanness. They could not go to church nor to communion. They were required to undergo purifying rites after childbirth. Still women found ways to proclaim the good news - without titles or commissioning. Jesus gave women their due – a fact that was lost but is coming forward now as we learn how the greater majority of those joining the infant church were women, slaves, the poor, the marginalized and the dispossessed. We have those women, and men, to thank for the faith we have today.
Women of The Word. . . continued
FOSIL meets the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM
Meeting places vary - please call 618-277-7594 for location.
We welcome your comments and suggestions.
Telephone: 618-277-7594 or visit our website: www.fosilonline.com
FELLOWSHIP OF
P.O
Telephone: 618-277-7594 Website: www.FOSILONLINE.com
THE APOSTLE’S EUCHARIST
by Roger V. Karban
When our bishops claim to be guardians of the apostles’ teachings, there’s one apostle and one teaching that has slipped through the cracks. Not only do they consistently ignore the Apostle Paul’s teaching on the Eucharist, they consistently legislate against it. All students of Scripture know the earliest references to the Eucharist are found in Paul’s letters, not the gospels. Paul was martyred about ten years before Mark composed the first gospel. Normally Paul writes only when there are problems in the community to whom he addresses his letter. In each situation in which he brings up the Eucharist, the problem is the same: unity. In his earliest I Corinthian reference to the Lord’s Supper (10:16-17), Paul mentions, “Because the loaf of bread is one, we though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” Contrary to our common “poker chip size” individual servings, Paul sees the participation of all in one broken loaf as the outward sign of the oneness all are expected to achieve in the Eucharist. But it’s in the next chapter that Paul really zeroes in on the Corinthians unique Eucharistic problem. Starting in verse 17, he immediately slams the way the community is celebrating the Breaking of the Bread. “In giving this instruction, I do not praise the fact that your meetings are doing more harm than good.” In other words, if the celebration isn’t done correctly, it’s better not to have a celebration. From what follows, it’s clear the earliest Eucharists consisted in more than sharing just a piece of bread and a cup of wine. Those celebrations revolved around participating in an entire meal, something on the order of our pot-luck dinners. Everyone was expected to bring a dish or drink, combine them with everyone else’s food and share a common meal. That’s the ideal. But it wasn’t working out that way in
Their problem springs from the fact that those who can afford to bring food to the table refuse to share with those — like the poor and slaves — who can bring little or nothing. From Paul’s later comment about waiting for one another, it seems the well-to-do tell the poor that the Eucharist will begin at 7:30 while they themselves gather at 7:00. By 7:30, little or nothing is left for those who brought little or nothing. The apostle can only remind this inauthentic community of an essential element of early Christian faith. Whenever he begins with “For I received from the Lord what I handed on to you . . .“ Paul is declaring, “This is essential; it isn’t negotiable. You can’t be a follower of Jesus without this!” What follows is the earliest account of Jesus’ Last Supper words and actions we possess. Though Paul writes this letter in the late 50s, many scholars contend these next three verses date back to the mid—30s, within five years of the actual event. Lest we picture Jesus’ words and actions in the context of our modern celebration of Mass, one small phrase tells us we’re hearing about a normal, whole meal, not just a brief, symbolic gathering. “In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying…” This implies there was at least an hour or so interval between Jesus’ words over the bread and his words over the cup. As in
In each set of words over the bread and cup, Jesus gives the same command: “Do this in remembrance of me.” As with anyone on the verge of death, Jesus is worried about being forgotten; he fears that what he thought essential to his life and ministry will be either trivialized or forgotten by his followers. Jesus not only longs to be remembered; he wants his ministry to be carried on beyond three o’clock the next afternoon. That logical fear also seems to be why, instead of saying the better known, traditional words, “This is my blood!” over the cup, Jesus proclaims, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood!” Though scholars like John Meier presume the word “new” was added by Jesus’ later followers, the idea of covenant is essential to Jesus’ teaching and ministry. All Jews look at their relationship with Yahweh as a covenant relationship: an agreement that demands specific responsibilities from both parties. Each commits himself or herself to carry through on demands they have freely accepted. Jesus was committed to the covenant we find in the Hebrew Scriptures, including the 613 responsibilites his ancestors accepted on
Paul argues that if the Corinthians drink from the cup, they’ve committed themselves to experience the same death Jesus experienced. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” Drinking from the cup isn’t for “extra credit.” It’s an essential action of our Christian faith. Jesus asks, “Who will join me in the covenant I made with Yahweh? Who will share in my ministry?” Taking from the cup shows our commitment to do this. Sadly, in many parishes today, a minority of people take from the cup. In some ways, taking the bread first simply gives us the courage to take the cup later. Paul’s frustration revolves around his community’s hypocrisy. Though they go through the external actions of the Lord’s Supper, they refuse to commit themselves to the dying/rising covenant of Jesus which the Eucharist embodies. It leads Paul to give one of the most severe of his biblical warnings: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.” As a child, I was horribly conscious of receiving communion unworthily. Not only did I fast (under pain of mortal sin) from midnight, I was drilled in lists of those serious sins that, if committed and unabsolved, would result in a more humongous sin once I consumed the sacrosanct little, white wafer. Fortunately during most school Eucharists, the associate pastor heard confessions, precisely to absolve any of us little kids who might have slipped into mortal sin during the night or on the way to school. The surprise to us catechism-formed Catholics is that none of those lists of sins included the unworthiness of which Paul warns the Corinthians. Not only was it omitted in my second grade communion and confession preparation, it was only several years after ordination and achieving a licentiate in theology before I learned of its existence. “Those who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment on themselves.” In this context, discerning the body doesn’t refer to the bread - it refers to the community. We must recognize the body of Christ that is among us. Only those who acknowledge that everyone participating in the Lord’s Supper make up the body of Christ are worthy to receive the body and blood of Christ. Paul presumes it entails a death to recognize the risen Jesus in all those gathered around us during the Eucharist. (As I sometimes jokingly remind my parishioners, there have been occasions when I’ve noticed a Republican in the community.) Seriously, such recognition happens only when we die enough to accept and become one with everyone present, something the non-sharing Corinthians refuse to do. Only those who agree to share in the poverty of the community’s poorest member will actually become one with the risen Jesus present and alive in that person. Our relationship with others is a key element when we gather for the Eucharist. I can only speculate how frustrated and angry Paul would have been at the solution later Christian communities came up with to solve their sharing problem: they simply eliminated the meal! Everyone eventually consumed just a minute piece of bread and (for a brief period) a small sip of wine. Through the centuries the church has not only rid itself of the dying/rising elements of oneness in the community, it’s actually legislated the opposite: setting up separation and distinction of persons as the Eucharistic ideal. I had an article published a few years ago in which I mentioned that during my 44 years of ministry, about the only times I’ve been able to surface the risen Jesus in the Eucharistic community have been on those occasions when I’ve not been the presider; those times when I’ve taken off my distinguishing vestments, passed through the sacrosanct confines of the sanctuary and actually become an ordinary member of the Eucharistic body of Christ. It’s possible, but scary, that a huge percentage of priests, bishops and popes have never experienced what Paul presumed all Christians would normally experience. Because of today’s liturgical regulations, we’re prohibited from doing what the Apostle expected all Christians to do. I can only imagine the ear-full such regulators will receive from Paul at the pearly gates. After attending St. Henry’s Seminary, Belleville, IL and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, IL. Fr. Roger Karban completed his studies for the priesthood at the
His ministries have been various: Associate pastor at St. Mary’s,
Secretary of the
Religion teacher at St. Teresa’s Academy, Religion teacher at
Chair of Religion Department at Mater Dei High School, 1969 — 1973 Director of the Deaconate Program for the
Chairman of Board of United Cerebral Palsy of
In residence at various parishes in completing studies towards doctoral degree in Scripture at
Teacher of the Marriage Course at
Taught Scripture courses at Southern Illinois University, Presently the Administrator of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish,
Teacher of Scripture classes at Teacher of Bible As Literature at
Louis, 1964 — 1967Louis, 1964 — 1967
Louis, 1964 — 1967Louis, 1964 — 1967
Louis, 1964 — 1967