Speaker 0 00:00:00 Without the Eucharist, we can live, you know, the Christian life, which is a sacrificial life by its very nature, right? And configured to Christ the crucified one. So Jesus gave to his bride his sacrifice so that our little sacrifices can be joined and offered together with his infinite great sacrifice.
Speaker 2 00:00:28 Welcome to the Catholic Theology Show, sponsored by Ave Maria University. I'm your host, Michael dk, and today I am, uh, so happy to be joined, uh, by a wonderful Catholic theologian, uh, Lawrence Feingold, who is a professor of theology at the Kenrick Lennon, uh, seminary in, uh, in
Speaker 0 00:00:48 St.
Speaker 2 00:00:48 Louis, St. Louis. Uh, that's right. And I was so excited to have, uh, Dr. Feingold on our show today, uh, because we're doing a series on really recovering and deepening our understanding of and devotion to the Eucharist as part of the Bishop's call for a Eucharistic revival. And, uh, Dr. Feingold, also known as Larry, uh, has, um, written a beautiful book. Uh, they came out in 2018, a huge one. It's probably weighs a couple pounds here, uh, at least about two inches, uh, thick, if not more. What, how many pages here about, I think what almost 700, 600, 600 or more pages called the Eucharist Mystery of Presence, sacrifice and Communion, uh, published by a mass academic. And, uh, so just what a gift. We have to have a write a professor of theology who has, uh, written a whole book on, on the Eucharist.
Speaker 0 00:01:39 Thank you so much for, for having me.
Speaker 2 00:01:41 Absolutely. And, and this book that you've written comes out of years of teaching mm-hmm. <affirmative>, correct?
Speaker 0 00:01:45 That's right. Yeah. So I teach, um, a course on the Eucharist for seminarians through the year seminarians. So you shortly before their diaconate ordination, yeah. Um, on the Eucharist. That's great. And that has been such a blessing. Wow. So I've been teaching that since 2011, I think, or 2000.
Speaker 2 00:02:02 Okay. That's wonderful. And so then that's, and so this
Speaker 0 00:02:04 Is my court. It started as my course notes Yes. For my class in the Eucharist mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then after teaching it, um, numerous years, it hopefully gets better because students ask good questions and they, I get the blank look sometimes is even more helpful. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 00:02:17 <laugh>,
Speaker 0 00:02:18 This did not communicate. I need more explanation here. I I, and then always what's practical, right. So form a beautiful thing about semi formation is you're forming future preachers. And, um, a big part of this formation is I'm their eucharistic preaching and their eucharistic devotion and piety, which gets communicated in their whole priestly life.
Speaker 2 00:02:37 Wow. What, what a gift. Yeah. What a gift, uh, to, uh, be able to participate in that, uh, with mm-hmm. <affirmative> really helping to teach, uh, the next generation of priests. And maybe, again, just thinking a little bit about your experience then, in teaching that course. You mentioned blank looks, <laugh>. Uh, what are some of the big questions, uh, that you think people have, either your students uhhuh, uh, have the seminarians or maybe the, the questions that they, that they think other people have, right. That they worry about how to answer?
Speaker 0 00:03:07 Well, I, before I answer that, is that okay? Yes. That's all. And that's actually what they're not. Um, so a, a bigger problem I find is, um, so I always like to start with the why question. Why did Jesus institute the Eucharist? And I wish there was more preaching about that.
Speaker 2 00:03:22 Oh, oh, I see. Instead of just saying like, what the Eucharist is, it's more so why the Eucharist?
Speaker 0 00:03:27 And of course, I, this, I learned from Thomas QAs every treatise. He starts with that question on the incarnation. Why did God become incarnate on the Eucharist? Why did Jesus institute the Eucharist mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and so, so I find that really the, that's the most important thing to get right. Yeah. Um, and so there, there's not just one answer. So I think a lot of people, um, might, a lot of people might say spiritual nourishment. And that's, that's absolutely right. That's from Thomas Aez kind of makes the analogy of seven needs of our spirit, of our physical life with our spiritual life. We need to be nourished. Um, we need spiritual nourishment in the supernatural life. Yeah. And that's obviously mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That's, but that's not the only thing. So to introduce this, I think it's really helpful to put it in the context of Christ, the bride groom and the Eucharist as a nuptial sacrament with his bride.
Speaker 0 00:04:17 And so that I think gives us the, um, the context for understanding the why all to see Jesus the bride groom if we want. So theology, I think I'm step back, theology in general is trying to look at the world through, from a god's eye point of view. Right. That's, and we've got his revelation to do that, but we also have to think through it. Right. And so, from the point of view of the bride room, what would he want to do? What makes sense to do to unite his bride? So first thing, obviously is presence. He's got a, right. So he's, this is a bride groom who's become president in the incarnation and then ascended. And we are in that time of the as, I mean, basically from his ascension till his second coming in, which we've lost his visible presence with his bride.
Speaker 0 00:05:04 He's left mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but, and so he's into the Eucharist to remain with us while leaving. Right. So that's like the first problem that the Eucharist answers mm-hmm. <affirmative> is, um, how can the bride room remain in a way proper to the bride who flesh bodily bodily bride, um, and our bride room who's taken flesh, but left with his visible body, um, wants to remain with the bride. Right. And so the real presence answers that. Right. So again, something that human flesh and blood couldn't do, our bride groom is able to do, to remain with us in his body and blood and everything, his whole personal reality, soul and divinity, um, while he leaves, and then a better kind of presence. Right. So, when you think of it, when he was in, in his in public ministry, he was only present in one place, I thought was Right. So you, you had to be a Nath. You had to be, it was
Speaker 2 00:05:55 Always crowded around him. That's right. Too, too, that's right. Yes. Yeah. People were
Speaker 0 00:05:58 Pressing where they had to go through the roof. Um, and so he's found a way, a better way to be present with his bride as, um, wherever his bride is. Right. And yet, so it's a better, because it's wherever we are here, H Maria University. Yeah. The Chapel <affirmative>. I mean, just where, where I teach this class from the seminarians is down the hall. Right. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:06:19 Yes. Yes.
Speaker 0 00:06:19 Right. And then again, comparing that to the old covenant. Um, so I have a whole section on the second chapter on the preparation for this in the old covenant, and God prepared for it by dwelling in a particular place spiritually, the indwelling presence in the arc of the covenant in the Holy of Holies, but again, only in one place. Right. The temple in Jerusalem. And then when the temple gets destroyed, that presence gets lost. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so Israel, I think, was nurtured with the reverence for that indwelling presence, because there was just one place. Right. And there was the sight of all pilgrimage, of all Jewish prayer to Jerusalem, still today, to the west western wall. But we've got not just a spiritual presence, we've got the whole bodily presence. Right. The human presence in his body and blood. And not just in Jerusalem, but right here.
Speaker 2 00:07:10 And even as a spousal Yeah. Intimacy to think about. Right. Christ as our mm-hmm. <affirmative> spouse as our Right. Intimate. Right. Um, love our intimate head, our intimate wholeness.
Speaker 0 00:07:22 Yeah. Yeah. So our, our head and our bride room stays here. So that, I mean, he's come to where we are, Uhhuh, of course, we have to go visit him where he's come to us here. Yeah. Um, yeah. So that would be the, and of course, that presupposes the reality of the, the substantial presence
Speaker 2 00:07:38 Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But again, putting it in the context of why, right, right. Christ is the bride groom. He wants to be with his bride. He's not with his bride in his, in his, like, glorified humanity as the visibly Right. Visibly. Right. Right. It's now under, right. The under
Speaker 0 00:07:55 Sacramental also is good for us in a way that's counterintuitive, and because that gives us the merit of faith. Right. So already in his, in Nazareth, there was the merit of faith, believing that, you know, the carpenter's son is the Messiah, the son of God, but here we get the double merit. We see neither his humanity nor his divinity and believing that mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so that also is a way, a form of presence suited to this bride who has to merit through his grace, obviously, that he gives to us, um, further intimacy. And now, if we continue the spousal analogy and presence isn't the only thing that, I mean, that would, so if I thought that dwell simply dwelling with my wife is enough, <laugh>, I'm soon going to find out that, um, there needs to be sacrifice. Right. So that's the second dimension.
Speaker 0 00:08:42 Oh, is that spousal, um, union requires sacrificing oneself for one's spouse. Right. So that would be the kind the human analogy. Yes. Um, and so Christ sacrificed himself for his bride Right. On Calvary, on the cross. And, and so it's a little, so the analogy doesn't entirely work. So husband's wifes sacrifice themselves for one another. Yeah. Here Christ is sacrificed himself for the bride, but to the Father. Mm-hmm. And thus he's giving, all right, so here's the second divine problem. Okay. So the first one is how to leave and remain present. Okay. The second one is how to give himself totally to the father for his bride, and to give that sacrifice to his bride to be hers. So now we can't again think of that. So I like to use here, um, an analogy like, um, I'm blanking out his name. The, um, the saint to the Holocaust, who, um, gave his life for the
Speaker 2 00:09:37 Maxim and Colby Max and
Speaker 0 00:09:38 Colby, so Saint Maxim and Colby mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right. Giving his life for someone mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and that person for whom he died. Right. So he, he gives his life in the castration camp for the, the 10th person picked at Ran Yes.
Speaker 2 00:09:46 His wife town
Speaker 0 00:09:47 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, um, and that person after Maximilian sacrifice recognize, I've got to live so that this gets remembered. Right. So that's the best we can do is remember the sacrifice. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> of the heroic de Jesus wants to do something better, to have that sacrifice be present to his bride for whom he gave himself, so that it could be hers, so that she can share in the offering of it. And I think this dimension is even less. All right? So obviously statistics show us there's a problem with the presence, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, lots of Catholics have trouble or simply don't believe in the real presence, but even fewer recognize this reality of the Eucharist, that it's Christ's sacrifice on Calvary made present on our altars here today, because we weren't there then. Right? So just as we weren't there in Nazareth Right. To, to meet his presence. To encounter his presence. And he wants to supply that. So we weren't there on Calvary, as Mary was, and John was mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so the mass enables us to be present on Calvary. We're gonna hopefully go to Mass after this podcast and be present on Calvary. Right. He doesn't want Yes. He's the head of a mystery. So the bride room is the head Yeah. Of the mystical body. The head doesn't want to be offered alone.
Speaker 2 00:11:00 So not only is then the Eucharist to sacrifice. Right. And is Christ present in the Eucharist a sacrifice. It's actually Right. It becomes in a way my sacrifice, right. Because it becomes, I enter into when I re when at, at the Mass mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I am mm-hmm. <affirmative>, a calvary represented mm-hmm. <affirmative> made present. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> for, for us, we actually then are, it's our sacrifice that is made possible because our sacrifice is no longer ours alone. Right. Because we're now the body with Christ as the head, but what my head does, my body does. Right. And so what Christ is doing, he now does in us, so that it's truly ours. I'd never That's right. That's a beautiful way of putting it. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:11:46 So in other words, without the Eucharist, we can live, you know, the Christian life, which is a sacrificial life by its very nature. Right. Um, configured to Christ, um, the crucified one. But, um, without the Eucharist, it would just, I could, where would I offer it in my God corner in my house. Right. So in Covid times, we made up a, you know, a corner of the basement Yeah. With the crucifix and the kneeler, um, but with the eu. So Jesus gave to his bride his sacrifice so that our little sacrifices can be joined and offered together with his infinite great
Speaker 2 00:12:20 Sacrifice. And so then we have, what we most deeply want is that intimacy with God. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right. The ability to, uh, be totally unveiled mm-hmm. <affirmative> before our bride groom mm-hmm. <affirmative> before God the Father. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, no longer to be ashamed Right. Or hiding. Right. Because we're negative. But I can only do that if I kind of, if, if somehow I sacrifice if I mm-hmm. <affirmative> let go of all that, which is Right contrary. Right. Contrary to that, I have to somehow let go of Right. My pettiness, my resentments, my Sure. Right.
Speaker 0 00:12:55 These are the sacrifices. Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:12:57 These, and, and I of course could never separate myself from them because I am part of, I'm the problem. Right. So
Speaker 0 00:13:03 That's gonna lead to, that's anticipating the third point. Okay. Lemme just dwell one more minute. Please, please. So that's it. So I have a whole chapter here. So first on why sacrifice, I think that's a huge problem for us today because we simply don't see religious sacrifices in the way that, so in the old covenant, I mean, the whole world offered God's sacrifice. I mean, that was just, and in the old covenant, God gave to Israel particular ways of offering sacrifice, and it made sense, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and the, the, the classical philosophy of it as a re religion, as a virtue, a virtue by which one gives to God his due or seeks to fall in Philly short. And one of the ways that we do that is by offering sacrifice, all right. That, that's already a totally foreign notion Right. To our contemporary.
Speaker 0 00:13:49 So this is a huge challenge, and this is why, whereas in the first millennium, this simply would've been taken by granite, taken for granted. Right. So we find in, in the fathers of the church, they, they all see it as a sacrifice. They cite a prophecy, the Old Testament, Malachi mm-hmm. <affirmative> one, four, uh, one 11 that speaks of, from the rising of the sun to the setting, a pure sacrifice will be offered to my name all. What's that about? Yeah. Right? In the Jewish context, that makes no sense, right? There's only one place where a perfect sacrifice is offered Jerusalem, but from the rising of the sun to the setting, a pure offering. Right. And so the, the fathers of the church see that as the Eucharist, is that pure sacrifice. And so it's a, and it's Christ's sacrifice. But again, as we were saying, he's the head of a body and it's not an decapitated head offering.
Speaker 0 00:14:35 Ah, but a whole, whole Christ offering. And that's why the, so I have another chapter on the participation of the faithful in offering the sacrifice. And I think this is really crucial for living a eucharistic spirituality. And I think so many of the lady have very confused notions about this, if they do. Right. And so, but the, and part of the, what I do in that chapter is going through, um, well, scripture has something to say about this. So Romans 12, one is the, the key text where Saint Paul Exhorts all Christians to offer our bodies as spiritual worship mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and we should make as
Speaker 2 00:15:15 In a way Christ offered his body, you should
Speaker 0 00:15:17 Make the connection Yeah, yeah. Body, right. With Christ's body offered in the Eucharist. So our bodies with Christ's body mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right. He, it's left implicit like so much in St. Paul. Yeah. Father's a church developed that. And that's where the whole of the Christian life, all of the sacrifices we have to make of our selfishness in order to, to live, um, and the be attitudes, the commandments, but also our participation in Christ's mission. So our participation in his kingly and prophetic mission. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> is, um, offered, that's our priestly mission in the Eucharist mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so, so many of the prayers of the, um, of the liturgy highlight the fact that it's, um, not just Christ's sacrifice, nor just the ministerial priests sacrifice, but that of the whole church. Um, and so this is what we call the common or royal priesthood of all the baptized and confirmed lay faithful joining in the offering.
Speaker 0 00:16:11 Um, and so what does that mean to join in the offering? It's two things. It's consenting to Christ's offering, like Mary at the foot of the cross, consenting to her sons being offered to the father for the redemption of the world. And despite her in Right. Unimaginable grief, the rejoicing that our redemption is accomplished and offered. And, and so yes, for us it has less of a price. We're not his mother, although we have to put ourselves into her heart Yeah. To properly participate. So offering the son to the father. Right. So what are, what are we about to do when we go to mass? I mean, how many of the faithful can say I'm being called to join in offering God the Son to God the Father, but he wants something else with that. And that's so yes, the mass makes President Calvary, but it has to add something. Or how can somebody be added to Calvary? And that is our individual life.
Speaker 2 00:17:07 So we get to, we get to join at the foot of the cross. That's right. And in a way, consent consenting not only to offer ourselves, but in a way to consent in the offering of Christ to the Father.
Speaker 0 00:17:20 Right. Both things together. So that's our twofold participation in the offering. Yeah. Christ's consent to Christ being offered Yeah. And adding our own life in union with that together. And since this is the glory of the baptized Catholic, that we get to do that, and this is the tragedy of the whole rest of the world, is that yes, we're all called to sacrifice, but even Right. Our separated brothers and sisters not seeing the mass as a sacrifice in which we can.
Speaker 2 00:17:48 Right. In way, unfortunately, then we, we live our sacrifices on our own. Right. Right. Which is, uh, which, and they can
Speaker 0 00:17:54 Still put us to shame with
Speaker 2 00:17:55 Their sacrifice. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, the glory. Yeah, exactly. Or, you know, and, and in a kind of a modern, I think often mm-hmm. <affirmative> kind of a, uh, somewhat of a post-Christian secular context, I think there's a often a real anger over sacrifices and resentments mm-hmm. <affirmative> that can eat away, you know. So let's, um, let's take a quick break and then let's come back and talk about that third Okay. Uh, theme. Okay. Uh, great. That I know comes from your book.
Speaker 3 00:18:28 You are listening to the Catholic Theology Show presented by Ave Maria University. If you'd like to support our mission, we invite you to prayerfully consider joining our Annunciation Circle, a monthly giving program aimed at supporting our staff, faculty, and Catholic faith formation. You can visit
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Speaker 2 00:18:55 Welcome back to our show. Uh, we are pleased today to have, uh, Dr. Lawrence Finegold, uh, talk with us about the Eucharist and, and about his, uh, beautiful book, uh, that he's written, the Eucharist Mystery of Presence, sacrifice and Communion. Dr. Feingold, uh, please, please continue. I think we've gone through presence and sacrifice and Right, right.
Speaker 0 00:19:17 So lemme say one more thing about sacrifice. Oh,
Speaker 2 00:19:18 Good. I think we need a lot more, by the way, about sacrifice. I think
Speaker 0 00:19:21 A lot of the faithful miss something really important, and that is that, um, we're required to go to mass every Sunday. Right. So we know that that's a problem already, right. Only 25% mm-hmm. <affirmative> Catholics come, but why are we, we required, right. So we're only required to receive communion once a year. The re, the Sunday mass requirement is actually for our participation in the sacrifice. And I think the faithful, even good Catholics might not have put that together. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that's why the church is requiring us so that we can join with the bride groom in his self gift to the father and for our lives, even if we're not for whatever reason, um, receiving communion. Right. So it's something that we do, and it has fruits of its own. Um, so in addition to our participation, so I have a chapter on the fruits of the mass that come to the whole world, even independently of holy C communion. So lemme just say something about that. That
Speaker 2 00:20:14 Is, I think there's a lot of people kind of identify mm-hmm. <affirmative> going to mass and worshiping was receiving communion. Sure. But you're right. A beautiful thing. It's like, I think the Right, the, uh, the church does I, the precepts, I think there're like six precepts of the church or something. And one of them is to receive communion once a year, to, to go to confession, I think once, once a year, and then, but to go to mass every Sunday and holy and holy days. Yeah. Which is, you're right. And that just kind of shows that they really are distinct. Right. And so, and
Speaker 0 00:20:42 Actually it also shows which one is we think holy community is more important. Oh, right. But mm-hmm. <affirmative> by the church's precept in some way more emphasis being put on the offering.
Speaker 2 00:20:52 Yeah. So worship Yeah. Is first this rightly ordered sharing in the son's sacrificial offering to the father. Right. First.
Speaker 0 00:21:03 Right. And so this is an ascending movement, and again, I think a lot of the faithful tend to miss this, and architecture can help it. Right. So you wanna have a church building show that vertical dimension that what we're doing is we're offering something up. And then the Eucharistic prayers also point this out. Right. For example, the first Eucharistic prayer, well, even at the beginning, lift up your hearts. Right. And then, um, and then the Eucharistic prayer, the first one speaks of asks your holy angel to take it up to the altar on high.
Speaker 2 00:21:33 Yeah. Right. So the altar that we see is mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, is is the visible right sign of the invisible altar of heaven. Right. The heavenly liturgy. Right.
Speaker 0 00:21:43 Right. In the presence of God, the father, of course, who was omnipresent mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But, um, and so, and that has fruit. The offering has fruits in and of itself for mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that art, um, much, much bigger than we tend to think. Right. And so, and that also comes out simply in the Eucharistic prayer that we offered up for the whole world. And so this is a different than the other sacraments. Right. So all the other sacraments benefit the person who receives them. Yeah. This sacrament alone is also a sacrifice which benefits those who are far from the church. Right. Those who are, I mean, simply the whole world and even the faithful department purgatory. Right. So it's offered for this colossal, and St. Thomas in his treatise on the effects of the Eucharist, speaks about it. Um, it's simply the same effects. It's not different effects of calvary, but applied to the world today.
Speaker 2 00:22:38 Yeah. I think there's a line from Aquinas's commentary on John, uh, that, uh, where he actually says, right. That the, all of the Lord's passion is contained in the Eucharist mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and therefore all the effects of the passion mm-hmm. <affirmative> and the effects of the resurrection mm-hmm. <affirmative> are actually effects of the Eucharist. Right. And in a way, when he is describing that, what you're helping us to see is that that's present in the sacrificial mm-hmm. Nature of the mass. Right.
Speaker 0 00:23:08 Right.
Speaker 2 00:23:09 And that, that when the mass is celebrated mm-hmm. All those effects right. Are, are, are really born. Right.
Speaker 0 00:23:16 And in the whole world. So the ma every our participation in the mass has cosmic and universal throughout the world affects that we're never gonna see. And again, it's on that we do this in the level of faith and our participation is, so, even though in this offering, we've got two parts, an infinite and a finite. Right. So the infinite is Jesus is offering, and the fine is ours. Jesus wants our finite part to influence the graces that are showered onto the world. And again, Aquinas brings this out beautifully, and he makes the comparison with the widows mite. Right. So in, in the value of a sacrifice, God looks not only as the content of what's being offered all in the mass, Jesus, infinite, but on the subjective part of how much of a self-gift that represents. And, um, and so our participation mass or not has an effect on the graces that are showered on the world.
Speaker 2 00:24:09 He has a beautiful, uh, line Aquinas where he speaks about that God gives his creatures the dignity of causality. Right. And he actually talks about that sense, like in terms of God's providence for his ordering of the universe, really ordering the universe home mm-hmm. <affirmative> and ordering his rational creatures home to him as his children. He says, it can be furthered by the prayers of the saints. Right. Not because God is not perfect and all powerful, but he's so powerful that he can create creatures whose actions and prayers so matter. That's so beautiful. So they give the dignity of causality. But I love that though. So in a certain sense, when we are at mass mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we have then the ability to kind of somewhat, we are, we are really at mass, we matter. Right. In a way. Right. Um, and therefore we can, um, I don't, it's just, it's, it's kind of odd. It's like we want to think in a way that just kinda like, oh, like obviously there's some ways in which we're we mess everything up. Right. And we're, we're kind of a disaster. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> largely mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I feel like I should introduce myself and say, hi, I'm, I'm Michael, I'm a problem. Uh, right. Uh, runaway. Uh, but there's a but, but that deep sense in which we are though, because we are actually his children mm-hmm. <affirmative> by grace, by adoption, then we can, we can offer genuine, we can contribute to Right.
Speaker 0 00:25:26 Exactly. To dis effect, to
Speaker 2 00:25:28 The
Speaker 0 00:25:28 Effect to the fruits of the passion being distributed to the world. Wow. It's the fruits of the passion. Right. It's not the fruits of our life, but it's, we're contributing to those fruits of the passion Yeah. Being distributed to the world more or less. And that ought to be really humbling. Right. That ought not to see here, I think Protestants think, oh boy, you, that's hubris. Right? That's pride. But no, it's exact opposite in practice, because that really humbles me, because that Right. I'm, I'm not just, as you said, I'm not doing this as well, and that offers us something else. So what we bring to this mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, lemme just say something about that to help in this event, it's our sharing in the other two offices of Christ. Right. So it's the kingly office mm-hmm. <affirmative> and the prophetic, and then it makes a unity.
Speaker 0 00:26:09 The kingly offices are ordering of things. So in other words', just simply our ordering of relationships, our ordering of ourself, first of all, our ordering of our human relations, family life mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Right. All of those friendships, um, our professional work, our volunteer work and everything, and all the aspects of service, all of that is our kingly mission. And that preaches. Right. And then of course, if we have a vocation of being a teacher, we add to that and all of that is what we bring. And then yes, there's this reality of sin that we can't bring, but that gives us the occasion of a great thing that we can bring. And that's our repentance for that and our desire. Yeah. And so that all of these are what we bring.
Speaker 2 00:26:47 So we bring in a way that sense of we're bringing that repentance. Exactly. Which is why we begin the mass with a certain sense, not just that we are repenting, so that then we're pure. It's more that we actually, what can we offer? Offer, it's our repentance.
Speaker 0 00:27:00 That's the best thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:27:01 And in a way we can offer our repentance sin and our accepted suffering.
Speaker 0 00:27:06 Right. And that suffering, again, is tapping into Christ. Now there's Christ's suffering mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right. So Christ on the cross, it opened. Right. So his arms outstretched open to all human suffering. And we can think of the mass in the same way because it's the same calvary made present mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's open to all of that, um, human suffering that otherwise, um, is the, the biggest problem. Right. That's why people reject God is the whole problem of suffering. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But it's, it again, it's that giving to his creature, a dignity of con causal of causality, being able to offer what to us seems just lack and inability to Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:27:45 And it's just a beautiful thing. We, we, we, we matter to God. Yeah. Right. It's kind of, it's, it's, it's a beautiful idea. Uh, so, so let's go
Speaker 0 00:27:52 The third
Speaker 2 00:27:53 Communion Yes, please.
Speaker 0 00:27:54 So you can see, obviously what we've just said is that the problem is what my offering falls short, right? Yes. Yes. And this is why there's this third dimension. Oh, okay. Well, it mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's not the only reason why, but that, let me take a step back. Sure. So back to our bride groom. Okay. The bride groom, the ultimate desire of spouses is total self-gift. Right. To totally. To give oneself totally. To the spouse. And so Jesus does that in this third aspect, giving himself whole and attire meaning his body, his blood, his soul and divinity to each of us in holy community. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> the problem though is here too. We are, um, he gives himself holy to me, but do I give myself holy back to him and therefore am I able to receive his gift to me? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and this is why frequent communion is such an important thing.
Speaker 0 00:28:44 So, well, even a step before that, in order for this third thing to, to work this self gift, I have to first of all want his self gift and want to give myself to him. And that's what we mean ultimately by being in a state of grace. Because a mortal sin is precisely preferring my satisfaction to what I know in conscience is God's will and grave matter. So if I'm in a state of mortal sin, I'm in a state of preferring myself to the bridegroom. And so I'm not giving myself to him. But the contrary,
Speaker 2 00:29:18 And so could you say a word here, by the way, about what is the role then of confession and communion?
Speaker 0 00:29:23 Right. And so confession, I mean, Jesus made a sacramental system, which is so marvi, marvelously united. And so, um, communion and penance are intimately related. They're both sacraments of mm-hmm. <affirmative> the cross. Right. And so the way to think of, of the sacrament of penance, um, again, kind of putting to what we'd said about our rep, offering our repentance, the sacrament of penance enables us to enter into Christ's penance. He had no sin. What are you talking about? Um, Christ, the head does penance for the whole body. Right. So that's calvary. So he who is without sin, puts himself in solidarity with the whole of mankind as our new head, our new Adam. Yeah. And offers himself in satisfaction for, um, so the sacrament of penance is the sacrament of, um, well, it's sacrament of healing. Right. It's the healing of grave sin. It's the, and it's in all the sacraments, there's a, um, so in, in three sacraments, there's a character in which we have Christ imprinted on us mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, um, so in the sacrament of penance, we're in being configured to Christ's own penance over sin. And that's the disposition we need to receive his self gift in the Eucharist. That's
Speaker 2 00:30:40 Such a beautiful way of showing that it's really that they're, they're actually kind of the same reality mm-hmm. <affirmative> in which we're participating in Christ's repentance in a way for arsons mm-hmm. <affirmative> first in the sacrament of confession mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and then in, uh, write the sacrament of the Eucharist.
Speaker 0 00:30:55 Right. And again, it's that spousal, I think the way for the mm-hmm. <affirmative> faithful to think of this mm-hmm. <affirmative> is imagine, you know, um, spouses and there's been some grave rift in the relationship mm-hmm. <affirmative> say an act of adultery, infidelity mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And you can't just then come together as if nothing has happened. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there has to be reconciliation first
Speaker 2 00:31:12 And even even little things. Right. If you kind of were just short the day before. That's right. Right. You should, you know, you apologized the, the next morning. And so mm-hmm. I guess there you have not only the idea of confessing Graysons, but confessing, even ve like confessing this regular practice. I think it was John Paul vii who, uh, would go to confession twice a week and, and was a saint, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it's like, how do we even a certain sense of frequent confession. Right. I think the churching, you know, even encourages regular monthly confession. Right, right. As a way of, that would be a fantastic thing growing mm-hmm. <affirmative> in this relationship. But again, seeing that confession, not because I want to be better, because I'm gonna like make, I'm gonna take Michael's self-improvement as a big goal. Right. And I wanna become Michael 2.0 or like the, i, the, the Michael 14 or something, but Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:31:58 That's leaving Christ out of it.
Speaker 2 00:31:59 Exactly. But it's really that certain sense mm-hmm. <affirmative> like, no, I just wanna be more configured to my bride room. I wanna be more configured to Christ, and I'm sorry, Lord, I did it again. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, in a way I think that kind of is mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it, it's, it becomes less that project. Cuz of course, the problem with that project is that project often fails. Yeah. And then we become, then
Speaker 0 00:32:16 Is the discouragement. Right.
Speaker 2 00:32:16 Discouraged and embarrassed. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and our sins make us sad. Not because we're sad about offended Christ, but because we're embarrassed that we're actually like mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, you know, that, that I'm, I'm not as good as I thought I was. Right.
Speaker 0 00:32:29 Embarrassment isn't contrition. Right. They're two
Speaker 2 00:32:31 People. Yeah. Nicely put. So, um, yep. Just want, do you wanna say another word about just the communion to finish up this triptic? Right.
Speaker 0 00:32:37 So here in, I mean, so I have a chapter on the effects of communion. Okay. And Thomas Aquinas, um, goes on at some length in this summer on that, marvelous. And again, it's, it's somewhat inexhaustible what the bridegroom gives us. So he, the first thing is he gives us himself, but he carries in him all grace. Right. He, and so Aquinas speaks of the capital. Christ has the grace of headship and he participates that grace in us, his members. And that's first of all sharing in his life. Right? So we say sharing in the divine life. So that's the first effect of holy community is that we receive an increase and there's no limit to the increase. Think of Mary Rece. So Af Mary after Pentecost, what was her life like? We don't know anything except we can imagine it would've been a eucharistic life.
Speaker 0 00:33:24 Yeah. And so she would've actually, you know, receiving her son been growing, she who was full of grace at the enunciation is growing in Grace Day by day at an increasing, so what we're growing in grace, but then again that sounds abstract. So what does that mean? So it's faith, hope, and charity flow from grace. Right? So every increase in grace is gonna give us an increase in the virtue of believing God's word, hoping and above all loving Right. In the way that the new commandment Right. To love one another is I've loved you, how do I can't do that? Right. And so he nourishes us. So it's spiritu nourishment and faith open charity, and then the gifts of the Holy Spirit get nourished. We tend to associate that just with confirmation, but that's again, a one-time thing. The way that that gets nourished practically in our life.
Speaker 0 00:34:10 And so, and then the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity. Right. So again, we tend not to think enough, I think about the Holy Spirit in receiving community, but we're receiving an increase by increase of charity, an increase of the intimacy that we have with the three divine persons. And then, um, a strengthening of our divine affiliation. So again, we tend to think on, off, yes, no, I'm a son of God or not, but no, we're, we become sons by sharing the, that divine nature sharing in charity. The more we share, the deeper we grow in that mystery, and then it works the forgiveness of sins precise. Say again? Charity is the kind of the key for all of this, unifying all these effects by growing in charity that strengthens us in our resolve to avoid mortal sins and to break with our habits of vial soon.
Speaker 2 00:34:57 Yes. Well, that's, um, just, uh, wow. What what a what a beautiful, uh, overview of, uh, 650 page book, I believe. Uh, and, uh, and a great way of thinking about Christ the bride groom who, uh, wants to be present with us, who sacrifices himself to the father and wants us to share in that sacrifice and then wants to be in communion. Right. Right. To dwell with us and to have us dwell with him. I wanna ask you a three quick questions Okay. Before we leave, but what's a book you've been reading?
Speaker 0 00:35:28 A book that I've been reading. Yeah. I've got lots of books that I've been reading. Uhhuh Well, one thing I've been reading for this conference is, um, so Pope Ben just passed away. Yes. And he's one of my heroes. And, um, he has treasures. So I would, I love his encyclical hope. Yes. But with regard to the Eucharist, his sacrament caritas is a masterpiece. Oh,
Speaker 2 00:35:47 That's great. Um, that's great. Uh mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And second, what's a practice you do? Just maybe just one practice you do on a daily basis. It helps you to grow closer to God and find meaning
Speaker 0 00:35:57 Well, yeah. Daily masses, one of those mm-hmm. <affirmative> practices mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, to couple that with, um, with mental prayer, in other words. So liturgical prayer mm-hmm. <affirmative> and simply, um, personal one-on-one. I mean, I think that those two things together are, um, essential for a plan of life for
Speaker 2 00:36:16 That's great. And, uh, what's a belief, last question. What's a belief you held about God that you found out you discovered was, was wrong, was false? And what was the truth you discovered? <laugh>. I used
Speaker 0 00:36:27 To be an atheist. Right. So I was brought up an atheist for 29 years. My dad was Jewish atheist. Wow. And so maybe this mm-hmm. This is maybe something too obvious, but if you're an atheist, you don't believe in providence. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there's no providence. Everything is chance. Okay. And what really brought me to conversion was seeing Wow, what would that imply about the people I love, my wife, my son, that can't be. And, and so seeing, so the change from seeing the world as an atheist chance, including persons mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and then seeing persons as the fruit of a divine project of love from all eternity, and therefore all the events of our daily life as having a, a meaning in that.
Speaker 2 00:37:07 That is so, that is so beautiful. Well, thank you so much, uh, professor Feingold for being on our show. And again, uh, for people that are interested, it's a, a great book. It's called The Eucharist Mystery of Presence, sacrificed and Communion. Uh, and, you know, perhaps maybe, uh, you know, give it to a friend, uh, anyway, if you're interested. And I said Professor Feingold's, a professor of theology at, uh, Kenrick Lennon, uh, seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, uh, we're so glad to have you on the show today. Thank you.
Speaker 0 00:37:38 Thank you for having me. Great pleasure.
Speaker 3 00:37:41 Thank you so much for joining us for this podcast. If you like this episode, please write and review it on your favorite podcast app to help others find the show. And if you want to take the next step, please consider joining our Annunciation Circle so we can continue to bring you more free content. We'll see you next time on the Catholic Theology Show.
