Friday, July 6, 2012

Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J. Verses The Real Presence

Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J.
In the sixteenth century the rise of Protestantism produced a crisis of faith in the Catholic Church. Whole nations were lost to the Catholic Faith mainly because Catholic leaders especially bishops and theologians were seduced by the so-called reformers. There never was a Protestant reformation, that is in plain Anglo-Saxon a lie, there was only a Protestant rebellion.
Thank God there was a Catholic reformation. Reformers like Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Ignatius Loyola – that is what the Church needs today. Dear Lord how she needs these saintly courageous reformers today. These bishops and theologians, I am now speaking of the sixteenth century, denied that Christ had instituted the Sacrament of Holy Orders and thus conferred upon priests the power to change bread and wine into His own body and blood, and this is the heart of the crisis in the Catholic church today. It is the sixth Chapter of Saint John’s Gospel but now on a global scale.
Pope Paul VI uses two words to summarize this Eucharist Crisis, they are transignification and transfinalization. These terms are a synthesis of the widespread radical ideas pervading once Catholic circles as we enter the third millennium – how well I know. What I will do now is identify the two principal leaders of this devastating Eucharistic error. The error of transignification. This is the view that Christ’s presence in the Eucharist means when the consecration at Mass is performed only a change of meaning or significance of the bread and wine takes place. Their substance do not change only a change of meaning or significance of the bread and wine takes place their substance does not change. The consecrated elements are said to signify all that Christians associate with the Last Supper. The bread and wine acquire a higher meaning than merely food for the body. But they remain bread and wine. 
We get some idea of how deeply this error has penetrated Catholic thought, when we read what Karl Rahner writes about the Eucharistic consecration. Rahner therefore is the first of the two master teachers of profound error on the Real Presence. I will quote now from Rahner’s language, not always so clear, I chose the clearest part that I could find. Quote Karl Rahner, “the more recent approaches suggest the following considerations, one has to remember that the words of institution indicate a change. But not give any guiding line for the interpretation of the actual process. As regarding transubstantiation it may be said, the substance, essence, meaning and purpose of the bread are identical but the meaning of a thing can be changed without changing the matter. The meaning of the bread has been changed through the consecration something which served profane use now becomes the dwelling place and the symbol of Christ who is present and gives Himself to His own.” unquote Karl Rahner. 
 From the Encyclopedia of Theology edited by Rahner and defining the meaning of transubstantiation. What takes place through the Eucharistic consecration the significance the meaning attached to the bread changes but the bread remains bread. Rahner’s ideas are permeating the Eucharistic theology of whole nations.
Link (here) to read the full talk by Fr. John A Hardon, S.J.

13 comments:

Maria said...

"It is no coincidence that the number of Catholic seminarians in the United States has dropped by ninety percent since the close of Vatican II. Nor is it a coincidence that, in one Catholic Church after another, many of the people no longer genuflect before the Eucharist. Nor is it surprising that tabernacles have been removed from so many Catholic Churches... We need to alert ourselves to the grave crisis through which the Church of Christ is going in our day.

There is only one solution. We must restore our faith in the Real Presence where it has been lost, and strengthen this faith where it still exists."


ON RAHNER

"I've been a Jesuit now, as I told you – if the Lord keeps me on this earth until the first of September - I entered in 1936 - it will be 60 years... Karl Rahner never, never was convinced that there is an infinite God. NEVER."

Servamt of God John Hardon SJ

Maria said...

Prayer

"Lord Jesus, we believe you are present in the fullness of your divinity and humanity in the Blessed Sacrament. We further believe that at the Last Supper you told the apostles, “This is my Body, this is my Blood.” We also believe that you told the apostles to, “Do this in commemoration of me,” by which you ordained them as priests and gave them the power to ordain other priests until the end of time. This we believe, and we are ready to lay down our lives for this faith. Amen."

Servant of God John Hardon SJ

Clement said...

The fact is women and men woke up to the reality of a liberating Christ that frees us from backward thinking

Maria - The numbers of nuns Drastically dropped as well what are your thoughts on that?

Maria said...

Transubstantiation is backwards thinking? Ditto for the nuns.

Anonymous said...

"liberating Christ"??? Are you kidding me?

Here's your liberation over the last 50 years: divorce, birth control, abortion, sodomy, child molestation, assisted suicide, the "liberation" is still continuing to grow. Clement, as Catholics, we don't worship that christ.

Maria said...

Clement: This if for you. Two parts.

Part I

"The simplest way to express what Christ asks us to believe about the Real Presence is that the Eucharist is really He. The Real Presence is the real Jesus. We are to believe that the Eucharist began in the womb of the Virgin Mary; that the flesh which the Son of God received from His Mother at the Incarnation is the same flesh into which He changed bread at the Last Supper; that the blood He received from His Mother is the same blood into which He changed wine at the Last Supper. Had she not given Him His flesh and blood there could not be a Eucharist.

We are to believe that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ – simply, without qualification. It is God become man in the fullness of His divine nature, in the fullness of His human nature, in the fullness of His body and soul, in the fullness of everything that makes Jesus Jesus. He is in the Eucharist with His human mind and will united with the Divinity, with His hands and feet, His face and features, with His eyes and lips and ears and nostrils, with His affections and emotions and, with emphasis, with His living, pulsating, physical Sacred Heart. That is what our Catholic Faith demands of us that we believe. If we believe this, we are Catholic. If we do not, we are not, no matter what people may think we are.

Our faith is belief because we do not see what we believe. We accept on Christ's words that all of this is there, or rather, here in the Holy Eucharist. Faith must supply what, as the Tantum Ergo sings, "the senses do not perceive." And faith must reveal what the mind by itself cannot see. Let us never forget this phrase, first in Latin, lumen fidei, the light of faith. Faith reveals, faith discloses, faith enlightens, faith empowers the mind to see what the mind without faith cannot see.

Strange as it may sound, when we believe in the Real Presence, we believe in things twice unseen. We see only what looks like bread and wine, tastes and smells like bread and wine, and yet we are to believe that behind these physical appearances is a man. Faith number one. And we are further to believe that behind the unseen man is God. Faith number two.

Maria said...

Part II

"Is it any wonder the Church calls the Eucharist, Mysterium Fidei, the Mystery of Faith? Those who accept the Real Presence accept by implication all the cardinal mysteries of Christianity. They believe in the Trinity, in the Father who sent the Son and in the Son who sent the Holy Spirit. They believe in the Incarnation, that the Son of God became man like one of us. They believe in Christ's divinity since no one but God could change bread and wine into His own body and blood. They believe in the Holy Catholic Church which Christ founded and in which through successive generations is communicated to bishops and priests the incredible power of making Christ continually present among us in the Blessed Sacrament. They believe, against all the betrayals by the Judases of history and all the skepticism of Christ's first disciples, in an unbroken chain of faith ever since Peter replied to Christ's question whether he and his companions also wanted to leave the Master. What a chance Christ took. "Lord," Peter looked around, "whom shall we go to?" (And he spoke for all of us.)" You have the message of eternal life, and we believe, we know, that you are the holy one of God."

There is a prayer in the Coptic Liturgy that I think perfectly answers the first question we are asking. "What do I believe when I believe in the Real Presence?" The prayer goes as follows, a little long, but worth it:

"I believe and I will confess to my last breath that this is the living bread which Your only-begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, took from our Lady and the Queen of Mankind, the holy, sinless Virgin Mary, Mother of God. He made it one with His Godhead without confusion or change. He witnessed before Pontius Pilate and was of His own free will condemned in our place to the holy tree. Truly I believe that His Godhead was not separated from His manhood for a moment, not even for the twinkle of an eye. He gave His body for the remission of our sins and for eternal life to those who partake of this body. I believe, I believe, I believe that this is in very truth that body. Amen."

That is your faith and mine."

The Real Presence
Servant of God John Hardon SJ

Maria said...

Our Lord merits attention: yours and mine.

Anonymous said...

Fr. Hardon is not much read in theology departments. He was more of a right wing warrior.

The evidence also indicates that he engaged in illegal and immoral conduct. See: www.sfweekly.com/2012-01-11/news/mother-teresa-catholic-church-john-hardon-donald-mcguire-child-abuse-jesuits/

Maria said...

You indicate that "Fr. Hardon is not much read in theology departments."

Yes, I think we can most assuredly assume that this so ;)

The San Fracisco Weekly ,the free alternative rag you to which you refer, and the vision of their Editors seems rather truncated. To wit, see the titles of the following articles:

San Francisco Cops Release "It Gets Better" Video for LGBT Youth
Following in the footsteps of the San Francisco Giants

Evangelicals Speak Out in Favor of LGBT History Bill

S.F. Dating: Violence Higher for LGBT Teens


LGBT Equality: Bay Area Hospitals Are Leading the Country


Study: Gay-Straight Alliances at School Improve Mental Health for LGBT Teens

LGBT Contributions Could Soon Be Read in Textbooks

Help Craft Federal Policy on LGBT Housing Discrimination

LGBT History Bill Is Antifamily, Says Group Seeking Referendum

Dustin Lance Black, Milk Screenwriter, Asks LGBT Community to Tell Their Stories

You will find that our Lord works independently of the San Francisco Weekly :)

Anonymous said...

Maria--You keep running the titles of stories in the news weekly. I'm not clear: is this supposed to make their investigative story on Hardon invalid?

Please open your mind to the possibility that your guru was a significantly flawed person.

Maria said...

More from San Francisco Weekly

• LGBT Suicides: Aiyisha Hassan, Daughter Of Marin Non-Profit Executive Director, Takes Life

• Medical Cannabis Movement Becoming Less Gay

• On Harvey Milk Day, San Francisco Elementary School Kids Read My Uncle's Wedding

• Border Crossers - Long rap sheet? No problem. Transgender Latina hookers in S.F. are successfully fighting deportation by asking for asylum.

• Girl/Boy Interrupted - A new treatment for transgender kids puts puberty on hold so that they won't develop into their biological sex

Well…they do seem to sing in one rather monotonous key, don't they?

Here is what I think: I think Fr. Hardon shows you who you are and it is uncomfortable making.

Anonymous said...

"it is uncomfortable making."

Fr. Hardon's alcoholic ramblings are boring and unhelpful.

Wow Maria--you seem to like the SF WEEKLY! It's a completely legitimate news weekly.

Now, back to the evidence against your heartthrob. . .