On Being A Sponsor.....

This young lady is going through Confirmation classes. I am going to be her Confirmation sponsor. Fr Ben is our priest and we were listening to our bishop talk to the canidates about Sacraments tonight. I often disagree with my bishop on theological matters. But this was one of those times that he had a lot of important and inspirational things to say.

I liked how he explained the word symbol. With the Greek roots it means thrown together. Symbols throw us or bind us together. Water, rings, st. names, collars, bread and wine, etc.... are all outward symbols of an inward grace.

An interesting idea was that Jesus is the one and only Sacrament with a big S. All the others are with little S's and are the ways we join with the one and only living Sacrament. Baptism is when we use water to symbolize, death so we can be resurrected with Hope, Love , Purpose. I like that he said those who are Baptized know they are loved and marked as Christ's own, those who are unbaptized are loved just as much they just don't know it. Not exactly the way I would put it, but close. Knowing that we are loved and have a purpose with the hope to see it through is all we need to be happy according to him.


Then he talked about the Eucharist. The most important thing he said was that when we accept the Eucharist we have to accept the whole body of Christ....not just the head (Christ), but each and every other person who also accepts Communion or who has ever accepted Communion. We all become part of the bread and the body, meaning we are all tied together for better or worse. He brought up my favorite part...Communion happens out of time, that when we are in Mass it is the same "time" as Jesus and the disciples. The Real Presence is present in and through us.

He mentioned the other sacraments, but didn't have enough time to really go into them with much detail. He did make it a point to talk about how confession--reconcilliation is an Anglican Sacrament and one that more Episcopalians should take advantage of.