What Voice Tells You to Avoid the Body of Christ?

The protesters' latest propaganda piece contains a stunning admission buried in triumphalist rhetoric: "They are not locked out, they CHOOSE to stand outside."

Read that again. They choose not to receive Holy Communion.

In Orthodox Christianity, the Eucharist is not optional. It is the very Body and Blood of Christ. The Holy Fathers teach that willful separation from the Eucharist is spiritual death. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote: "Take heed to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup." St. John Chrysostom warned that those who abstain from Communion without cause "slay themselves."

Yet here they boast of choosing a snowstorm over the Chalice. They call refusing the Eucharist "moral courage." They celebrate spiritual starvation as victory.

This is not Orthodoxy. This is Protestant congregationalism dressed in pride, the belief that my feelings, my interpretation, my preferred priest matter more than the sacramental life of the Church.

The doors are open. The Liturgy is served. The Eucharist is offered. And they stand outside by choice, then call themselves "the real Church."

What spirit whispers that staying away from Christ's Body is righteousness? What theology celebrates seven weeks without Communion as testimony? The same voice that said to Eve, "Did God really say...?"

The protesters have told the truth: nobody is stopping them from receiving the Eucharist except themselves.

And they think this makes them heroes.

Leave the cold, and come inside the Church, where the spring of life emanates, from the Eucharist.

Lord, have mercy.

Read the full series on the St. Sava Cathedral situation: Blog