“…I reserved them and saw to it they were consumed after the service. I think we got them all.” Yet, when “hosts, reserved from Sunday’s service,” turned out to be infested with weevils, Pastor Saltzman did not make any calls to the homebound “until a new order arrived.”
He does not relate what was done with the consecrated but weevil-infested hosts.
All of this because Saltzman had been forced to actually dig through things by taking a course on the Sacraments at a nearby Roman Catholic seminary.
“Lutherans and Catholics talk about the Lord’s Supper in almost identical language,” he claimed to discover.
To the contrary! Lutherans and Roman Catholics in dialogue manage to eliminate stereotypes and misunderstandings, but at most they arrive at “convergence.”
On real presence, yes, there is “increasing convergence”:
“Our conversations have persuaded us of both the legitimacy and the limits of theological efforts to explore the mystery of Christ’s presence in the sacrament. We are also persuaded that no single vocabulary or conceptual framework can be adequate, exclusive or final in this theological enterprise. We are convinced that current theological trends in both traditions give great promise for increasing convergence and deepened understanding of the eucharistic mystery.”[1]
There is, however, a huge “however”:
“Lutherans speak of the whole liturgical action as usus: the consecration, distribution and reception (sumptio) of the sacrament … Lutherans do not speak of Christ being present before or apart from ‘use.’” [2]
And that lets the air out of this ecumenical boomlet. Wafers that fall on the floor are not part of the “use.”[3]
Lutherans do, of course, treat the unused elements respectfully, but reservation and adoration are not actually Lutheran.
The whole discussion, to be sure, is moot because for Roman Catholics nothing happens without a valid priesthood anyway.
[1] The Eucharist as Sacrifice, Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue III, ed. Paul C. Empie and T. Austin Murphy (Minneapolis: Augsburg, [1967]) 196-97. Best of all, read the full agreement, pp. 191 – 97.
[2] L/RC III, 193, footnote 24.
[3] How the Lutheran Confessions actually write about the Lord’s Supper:
- Christ is truly present in doing what He commanded, in the use, the action. (Formula of Concord VII, ¶¶85-87; Book of Concord [Tappert], pp. 584-85. Also ¶73, pp. 582-83.)
- Christ is not truly present apart from doing what He commanded, apart from the use, the action—in the so-called reservation of the host or otherwise. (FC VII ¶108, p.588; ¶¶126-27, p. 591. Pastor Saltzman’s struggle with “exactly how long the Presence of Christ may last and to what degree it persists” is specifically rejected in FC VII, ¶127, footnote 4 [Tappert], p. 591).