My Daughter: On the Sacrifice of the Mass

I hope readers of SCE would realise by now that I have a couple of budding theologians for daughters. My oldest daughter, Maddy, commented to me today that she finds it strange that at her school the existence of other Christian Churches and other religions is not acknowledged (she knows she is a Lutheran – and has a friend at school who is a Sikh).

Is that surprising for a Catholic school, I asked?

No, but they should still recognise it, she replied.

Well, I answered, one of the things we are doing at work at the moment is asking the question of how religious pluralism is tackled at a primary school level in our schools.

But she went on.

I know I am a Lutheran, she said, because I don’t think Holy Communion is a sacrifice.

Really? How so?

Well, I know that the body and blood is Jesus’ sacrifice, but it’s God’s sacrifice for us, not ours for him.

Oh. Who have you been talking to about this?

No one. You just said the other day when I asked that one of the differences between Catholics and Lutherans is that Catholics think Holy Communion is a sacrifice we offer to God and Lutherans don’t.

Our conversation then went on to why it was necessary for us to offer sacrifices to God.

Well, she said, that’s just our idea. God doesn’t want us killing any of his animals to give to him.

But it was his idea originally, wasn’t it, in the Old Testament? (she hadn’t thought of that). A sacrifice has to be made for our sin, but animals aren’t enough. Not even our life is enough to pay for anyone’s sins but our own. So what if God wanted to give us the perfect sacrifice for us to offer to him for our sin? Wouldn’t he have to become one of us to make that offering back to God?

She thought she would think about that a bit more.

Please do, I said. And keep doing exactly what you have been doing. Anything I tell you, you think about it and try to work it out for yourself whether it is right or wrong. You have to do that with anything I tell you, or anything anyone else tells you, Lutheran or Catholic or otherwise. That’s how you will learn what is right for you to believe.

So why did you become Catholic, Dad? asks daughter number two who has been eagerly listening.

Because I found that my beliefs were closer to the Christian beliefs of Catholics than the Christian beliefs of Lutherans, I answered.

Yeah, I’m not sure yet, was her reply. And number one said: At the moment, I think I am a “Catholutheran”.

Keep working at it, my darlings.

Reading Between the Lines? At Least Someone Read the Text…

There is an answer to my letter to the editor in today’s edition of The Age. Someone at least was annoyed enough by what I wrote to go to the bother of finding an English translation of the Pope’s address and READING it!

Pope’s message between the lines

DAVID Schutz (Letters, 29/12) is either trying to deceive people or needs to brush up on his reading comprehension skills. While there is no official English translation of the Pope’s address to the Curia, there are English translations available. The one I found while searching for a translation was on Schutz’s own blog.

In this translation, the Pope clearly refers to homosexuality even though the word itself is never used. If anything, it is the reference to climate change that was taken out of context.

Nevertheless, the media reports and subsequent commentaries got the underlying meaning correct. Before telling people to check their facts, maybe we should learn to read between the lines.

Alex Carnie, Brunswick West

Hmmm…

“Trying to deceive people”? Nooo… not exactly. By pointing out that there was not even an official english translation available yet, I was simply trying to draw attention to the fact that the critics were generally relying on journalist reports of the speech rather than reading the primary source document. If Alex was able to find an English translation via my blog as he said he was, that means that a) he at least now has a copy of the source document, b) my blog has served a useful purpose!

Need “to brush up on [my] reading comprehension skills”? Nooo… I don’t think I have a problem there either. I wasn’t, of course, denying that the Pope “clearly refers to homosexuality [inter alia] even though the word itself is never used”. I was pointing out that to describe the Pope’s address as a “diatribe against homosexuality” was clearly inaccurate, since such a “diatribe” would at least have required the use of the word “homosexuality”. “Diatribes” do not usually require “reading between the lines”.

In fact, no deception exists nor is reading between the lines necessary. His meaning was plain enough to all who read the text as it stands. And anyone who does so will realise that it was NOT a “diatribe” against homosexuality.