Join the Conversation
Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn more
Whatever your politics, as Catholic Christians we should concern ourselves with helping our brothers and sisters in Cuba, many of whom are mired in poverty. Here is a great way to help build solidarity between our two peoples.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols went to London's most LGBT-friendly parish and delivered this powerful sermon. I think these words especially warrant the consideration of the Synod Fathers:
There is a lovely, disturbing saying attributed to St Augustine which relates all this to the Eucharist, as many are striving to do so at present.
He says, as I recall, 'See on the altar the sacrament of who you are and of what you are to become.' Yes, this sacrament is a recognition and an affirmation of who we are: the body of Christ, striving to live according to his heart, his will, in pursuit of that full vision of our destiny laid out in the Paschal Mystery of his death and resurrection. The reception of Holy Communion affirms us in this and is received with integrity when this is our desire and the pattern of life for which we are actively striving. But the Eucharist is more, so much more. It is also and always the sacrament of our transformation, the sacrament of what we are to become. We can never receive Holy Communion with a good heart and a right intention unless we are willing to be changed, willing to be converted. Holy Communion can never be reduced to a sign or badge of acceptability, for it is always an invitation and a challenge to which we have to respond. If we are to receive the Eucharist faithfully and worthily, then we must be willing to be different, to be changed, everyone of us, by him whom we receive.
