Furthermore…

Back in the 60’s I happened to have a chat with a priest in Syracuse N.Y. about various authors such as Aldous Huxley who took religious beliefs seriously but weren’t very much in agreement with the Catholic view.  He referred to them as “ninety percenters,” that is, largely worthwhile but not meeting the test of full Catholic acceptability.

Lately I happened to be in a discussion about the Holy Eucharist. People were commenting on whether or not they believed in the True Presence. One gentleman expresssed the opinion that Jesus is truly present to those persons  in the congregation who believe He is, and is not to those who do not so believe.

This is fascinating! It has a kind of flexible universality, as though everyone has a spiritual iPod and can either turn it on to catch the show or not.  It seems to parallel the belief that if one is truly sorry for one’s sins, they are forgiven, but if not, no dice (that isn’t Latin, is it?). I’ll have to think about this some more…