We can argue about what happens in communion, but the classic reformed position is precisely the same. The table is for the believers. To approach the table of communion in an unworthy manner is unwise at best and sacriledge at worst. One should examine oneself before the act.
The old kirk sent the elders around to ascertain the state of your sout and give you a communion token of you were worthy. Those who were in sin were invited to repent. It was not uncommon for people to not have a token for a time.
So they would repent.
And so, I am pleased to see that some Catholic Bishops have chosen to remove access to the sacraments… to those congressmen and senators who vote for abortion, and encourage degeneration.
It is far better than the modern Presbyterians, who have an open table: and the only examination a general confession of sins.
Fourteen Catholic senators voted against the bill that would have prohibited abortions starting at 20 weeks after fertilization, including Sen. Richard Durbin, whose residence is in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. In April 2004, Sen. Durbin’s pastor, then Msgr. Kevin Vann (now Bishop Kevin Vann of Orange, CA), said that he would be reticent to give Sen. Durbin Holy Communion because his pro-abortion position put him outside of communion or unity with the Church’s teachings on life. My predecessor, now Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha, said that he would support that decision. I have continued that position.
Canon 915 of the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law states that those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” In our 2004 Statement on Catholics in Political Life, the USCCB said, “Failing to protect the lives of innocent and defenseless members of the human race is to sin against justice. Those who formulate law therefore have an obligation in conscience to work toward correcting morally defective laws, lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good.” Because his voting record in support of abortion over many years constitutes “obstinate persistence in manifest grave sin,” the determination continues that Sen. Durbin is not to be admitted to Holy Communion until he repents of this sin. This provision is intended not to punish, but to bring about a change of heart. Sen. Durbin was once pro-life. I sincerely pray that he will repent and return to being pro-life.
Bishop Paprocki has chosen the diligent exercise of his episcopal office over the praise and adulation of the world. He is 100 percent correct that denying Durbin communion is medicinal, not vindictive. Had Durbin been allowed to continue receiving the Eucharist while in a state of grave sin, he would have compounded his guilt by committing sacrilege each time.
Of course, Durbin may ignore the warning–I pray he doesn’t–but Paprocki can rest easy knowing he’s satisfied Ezekiel 3:19.
The other pro-infanticide senators’ bishops have no excuse. It’s their duty to excommunicate all thirteen for the sake of their immortal souls. That should get them primed to do likewise with every Catholic lawmaker in open rebellion against the Church.
John Wright, Superversive Press
John Wright is correct. There is far too much evil made legal within the laws of our broken democracies. And those who do so, but say they are of the church, need to be held to account.
Though some ultra-tridentine people may be horrified, this reformed blogger is quietly cheering this bishop on.
Zwinglius has these quotes. From a time when people memorized prayers, sung psalms, prayed throughout the night, and generally lived their faith. The idea that legislators woud promote wicked laws would have been expected: but both the evangelical and catholic preists would have commented. And neither woould have offered communtion.
In Calvin’s Geneva:
Schoolboys were to practice the fundamentals of Reformed worship by reciting in turn Calvin’s prayer to be said before starting lessons, by engaging in an hour of psalm singing a day, and by taking turns saying the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Apostles’ Creed at the close of each day’s classes.
The Moravian reformers.
No one at Herrnhut is afraid of burglars in the night. This is partly because there’s always someone up praying, partly that the angels protect us and partly that we own nothing worth stealing. – Count von Zinzendorf
Those times were greater. We have lost our first love, and have fallen. May we take the example of the Papists and apply it.
And there’s a problem with big churches… who even knows who you are, much less how you’re living life? (Said from a woman in a big church). We are warned not to take communion in sin, but it’s left up to our own conscience.
Not just the big churches. You need enough elders — married men, preferably — and a habit of visitation and talking. Because in any church over 200, no one knows if you are a dog. Home groups are the modern version of this, but they lack the discipline required: the sheepdogs have been replaced with miniature poodles.
An old minister I know refused communion to a bloke that turned up one Sunday with his mistress rather than his wife. The minister’s view was that the man, a regular church goer, was flouting his sin and was unrepentant. The minister got called to Wellington after a complaint was made but there was enough rank and file clergy support for the refusal to back the relatively liberal Bishop into a corner and the discipline that had been proposed never got to take wing.