Can I eat what I have already given away?

Not having been baptized with the Sacrament of Baptism, they could not be called Christians even if they were already disciples. So St. Paul proceeded to baptize them, and when he laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. [Acts 19:1-8]

Connect the dots. If you have not been baptized, you are not a Christian. And if you are not a Christian, you are not a member of his Church.

Connect some more. If you have not been baptized, you are not “ontologically” a child of God. And if you are not a child of God, you are not a member of his family, thus, you cannot call God, your Father in heaven.

A Born-again pastor Edmund Danton thought that Catholics were misguided. They have distorted the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were lost. They are destined for damnation. They need to be saved. The original teachings of our Lord were Born-again. They were taught that was just that and he was sure of that.

And then he started reading Church history. And found out, to his total bewilderment, that the early Church was Catholic through and through. Not Born again or protestant. They did not worship idols. Statues were not idols. They were representations that reminded them of God, his angels and his saints. That they did not worship Mary. They venerated her.

They have to receive instructions to become Catholic. They have to be scrutinized and make promises of their beliefs. To be baptized they have to reject the the Devil. Baptized, they could now join in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist on the Lord’s Day and receive communion.

Unquestionably, all of them believed in the presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist and all of them received Holy Communion. Holy communion was distributed to the sick and to those in prison. It was very dangerous. Just bringing the Holy Eucharist with you if found out by agents of persecutors would mean imprisonment or death.

And he studied some more. The Holy Eucharist was a reenactment of the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross. When he said, ‘Do this in remembrance of me,’ he was asking all the baptized not just to remember but to offer again that sacrifice with him to the Father. The Holy Mass is “their sacrifice” which they offer through him, with him and in him. They are not just attending a ceremony, they have come to offer an eternal sacrifice!

They are not just remembering. The ordinary bread becomes his Body. They are not just sacrificing, they consume the Lamb that they have offered in sacrifice. Can any other form of worship or sacrifice compare with that? You eat the Son of God and you become united with him.

Thus, in the Holy Mass, we sacrifice “the true Lamb” of God to the Father, and then, unworthy as we are, we eat “his true flesh and drink his true blood.” Both are very hard teachings. Both are his commandments that the Catholic Church has observed in hiding during persecutions and in the open when it is not disallowed, throughout the ages.

He was dumbstruck when he realized that the “Sola Scriptura” that they relied so much did not exist during the early Church. At least 10 books of the NT were written around the 2nd century, and that includes the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation. The Catholic Church was right. 

They were the ones who were wrong.

Born Again pastor Edmund Danton, like so many other pastors who studied Church history and the writings of the saints, left his protestant denomination, was baptized, and became Catholic, rejoicing that he now belongs to the holy and historical Church of our Lord, humbly offering the sacrifice he has required be done in remembrance of him, and consuming the sacrifice that was already offered to the Father.