Catholicism, Religion and Respect

In its attempts to be humorous, the Princeton Tiger magazine often crosses the line of decency and good taste. Its latest issue was no exception. In the October 2002 issue, the Tiger ran a "mock-ad" reading: "Want salvation, but don't want all those calories? Try New: I Can't Believe it's Not Jesus! Diet Communion Wafers." The ad had a picture of Jesus saying, "Hey, these things taste just like Me!" When one considers who Jesus is and what Christians both on and beyond our campus believe, it becomes clear that the mock-ad is not only disrespectful but is also wholly unacceptable in a pluralistic university community that professes tolerance and respect for differing points of view.

Christians believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. They believe that 2,000 years ago, God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, chose to become incarnate as a human being. Abundant historic and archaeological evidence proves that Jesus of Nazareth did indeed live and walk on the earth. He was born in Bethlehem to a humble Jewish woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit. While on Earth, Jesus carried out the mission of God the Father: by teaching the truth about humanity, He reconciled man with man; By teaching the truth about the world, He reconciled man with the cosmos in which he exists; and greatest of all, by offering Himself to be crucified and rising from the dead, Jesus reconciled man with God.

Because Jesus who hung on the cross was fully man and fully God, and because He lived a perfect and sinless life, He was able to offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice to God the Father to atone for mankind's sin. Three days after his death, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, as historic evidence confirms (many, many men and women saw and touched His resurrected body). In dying and rising again, Jesus defeated the result of mankind's sin, which is death, and as the risen Lord He now offers the promise of eternal life to all who believe He is Lord and love Him.

Catholic Christians recognize that, before Jesus offered Himself on the cross, He performed a great miracle. Jesus took ordinary bread and wine and transformed them into His body and His blood in what Catholics call the "Eucharist,", the Great Thanksgiving. By eating that which had the appearance of bread and wine, but which was in substance the flesh and blood of Christ, the apostles were able to grow in communion with Him. The sacrifice Jesus made on the cross was anticipated in that supper, and is represented as the perpetual eternal sacrifice on the altar wherever and whenever the Catholic Mass is celebrated. When a Catholic receives the Eucharist, he believes that the wafer, which has the appearance of bread, is truly the body of Christ. By taking and eating that wafer a Catholic receives Jesus Christ Himself, spiritually and physically.

The Eucharist is the source and summit of a Catholic's life. Catholics do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist because it is convenient or because they happen to like ceremony and ritual, but rather because it is true. Thus, each Sunday hundreds of Princeton Catholics gather for the Mass, to celebrate the eternal sacrifice and to receive the Eucharist. Every day at noon, 30-plus members of Princeton's Catholic community gather for Holy Mass in the University Chapel to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. In a side chapel of the University Chapel there is a small metal box called a tabernacle that contains communion wafers that have already been offered during a Mass to be transformed into Christ's body and blood. Members of the Catholic community spend time daily before the tabernacle in prayer, kneeling before Jesus who is physically present in the Eucharist. They desire for their lives to reflect the truth about human nature and the world: That we as spiritual beings are satisfied and fulfilled — we receive supernatural and perfect joy, hope and peace — by drawing nearer to our Creator and our Savior.

This is the Catholic faith in Jesus Christ and the Eucharist. In an age of "tolerance," "awareness" and "political correctness," anyone who addresses the tenets of a faith should do so thoughtfully and respectfully. There is, of course, a time and place for humor and satire. Yet while society seems to consider jokes about many minorities and religions out of bounds, why is mocking Catholics still fair game? The ad in Tiger magazine mocked the historical person of Jesus Christ, and it mocked the God incarnate in Jesus and the God to whom Jesus testified. It mocked Jesus' followers and the Catholic faith, and it mocked the lives of those who live for Him. Ryan Anderson is a music major from Baltimore, Md. who serves as a Religious Life Fellow on the Religious Life Council. He can be reached at randerso@princeton.edu.