Healthier Hosts for the Mass

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from The National Catholic Reporter, January 18, 2002 with a headline: “Low gluten host approved for Italian celiac patients,” dateline: Italy.In a policy move that reflects differing medical opinion in Europe and the United States, Italy’s bishops approved a low gluten Eucharist host for suffers of celiac disease.The bishop’s liturgy office backed by the scientific community of the Italian Celiac Association said the amount of gluten in hosts specially made by a German firm met church law requirements, but would not provoke health problems in celiac patients.The Italian decision differs from the policy of the Bishops Conference of the United States where doctors advocate that celiac sufferers adopt a gluten-free diet.The US Bishops Liturgy Committee recommends that celiac sufferers receive Communion under the form of wine.Celiac disease is a genetic disorder that causes inflammation of the intestines whenever a person eats food with gluten in it.Gluten is a protein found in flours made from barley, oats, rye, and wheat.The hosts approved by the Italian bishops are made using wheat starch and contain .0374 milligram of gluten and can be consumed daily with absolute tranquility by people with the disease. The question was thrown into the spotlight into the United States early last year when the parents of a five year old Boston girl with celiac disease left the Catholic Church after their pastor would not allow them to substitute a rice wafer for the wheat host for her first Communion.

Tom:

Dave we ran the story about this five year old Boston girl and at that time if you remember we commented that for a Roman Catholic this was really tragic because it’s only through the Eucharist that they really—I mean this is a sacrament so critical to their life in Christ and without it I don’t know where they turn and these people had to leave the church.But here’s what I want to get at with regard to this article.This is a very detailed thing.The church is telling us, that is the Roman Catholic Church is telling us that (I assume) that this wafer, this host, piece of bread, must be bread and must have the elements in it that make it bread, so that’s why they could turn to rice or something else.So they are going really by letter of the Scripture and of course we’ve commented before that in John 6 where Jesus said that ye must eat my flesh and drink my blood, that’s one of the few verses that the Roman Catholics take literally.They accuse fundamentalists of taking everything literally; well fundamentalists don’t take that literally.They take that figuratively.Now my question here is Dave, all of these details, they are imputing to this piece of bread, something far more than the scriptures offer.Where would they get these ideas?

Dave:

You wouldn’t get the idea from the scriptures.The scripture does not tell us that the bread that Jesus broke at that last supper was wheat bread; it could have been something else.I don’t know.There are details—does it say it has to have a certain gluten content?No, the Bible doesn’t say that.Perhaps this is written in Catholic tradition.I don’t know, but certainly it’s an unwritten Catholic tradition and the bishops were standing firm.That’s naturalism I guess.This is the way it is and the way it’s always been and this is the way it’s going to be.

Tom:

But it also points up—I have the Code of Canon Law, 1700 rules, and regulations.The Catholic Church is a church of rules and regulations and there are consequences for breaking those rules.So they have to stay with this.But then that begs the question—well let’s move outside the Catholic Church to evangelical churches, Bible-believing churches and so on.They have certain rules and regulations as to who’s allowed to administer Communion, the make up of the bread—I’ve seen lots of differences, but it’s normally bread.But what about in countries, let’s say that maybe bread as we understand it wouldn’t be normal.Are they then to just stop celebrating the Lord’s Supper—or wine—wine may not be available?Some churches use grape juice.I mean how important is all of this Dave?

Dave:

Christ took bread and he took wine and he said that we are to do that.Now some people say that you have to mix a little water with the wine even to be accurate, because out of his side flowed blood.

Tom:

As a former altar boy that’s what we did.We gave the crucibles to the priest and he poured it into the chalice—a little water, a little wine.

Dave:

Yes, you see it’s not the symbol that saves us.

Tom:

Right.

Dave:

It’s not the bread or the cup.Jesus—we read that in John 6, we don’t want to go back over John 6, but he said “The flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak, they are spirit, and they are life.”So it’s the faith that a person has in Christ.This bread and this cup represents the body and blood of Christ.It was given for me; it was given for our sins upon the cross and when I recognize that—you see this is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11.The Lord has had to take people away.He has had to judge them because they don’t discern the Lord’s body.And I would say that would be thinking that this wafer was the Lord’s body is certainly not discerning the Lord’s body.His body is in heaven.He’s a resurrected glorified man at the Father’s right hand.So the wafer and the cup represent his body and blood poured out upon the cross for our sins.That will not save anyone—that physical element.Christ said, “The flesh profits nothing!”So now if I’m in some jungle area and I can’t get wheat to make bread, some of them make it out of manioc root, some make it out of bananas, whatever it is—maybe they don’t have wine, maybe I can’t even get grape juice, so I will take whatever I have that is closest to what I have, but the reason that the Bible says it should be bread and wine is because they symbolize something.They symbolize the body and blood of Christ.If I can’t get exactly what the Bible says the Lord is going to allow that.I need to come as close as I can.

Tom:

Right, because it’s our heart with regard to being in awe of what Jesus has done and we want to do that as well as often as we can to remember his incredible sacrifice for all of us.

Dave:

Yes, amen.