Mass Hysteria
August 16, 2004
Following earlier statements by Cardinal Ratzinger, Bishop John M. Smith of Trenton recently declared that the first communion of Haley Waldman, an eight year-old, was invalid, since a gluten-free host (containing no wheat) was used at the insistence of the child’s mother. Mrs. Waldman declined the use of a low gluten host approved by the church as well as low-alcohol wine, since Haley has “celiac disease” or “celiac sprue,” which is described as “a genetic disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the lining of the small intestines in response to a food protein called gluten–found in wheat, rye, oats, barley, and related grains.”
A mother’s protectiveness is laudable of course, but something else seems to be at work in cases such as these, since the church’s low-gluten hosts contain only 0.0374 milligrams of gluten. The Italian Celiac Association says the low-gluten hosts “can be consumed daily with absolute tranquility.” Nevertheless, as a single parent, Mrs. Waldman said she relies on support from the church, and her idea of “support” appears to be “not contradicting one’s own opinions and wishes.” “The values I teach at home need to be reinforced elsewhere,” said Mrs. Waldman, who has told her daughter that the church needs to “work and grow” with its members.
Alas! Another Catholic who is a Protestant at heart. I am uncertain as to whether it is worth it in the long run, but perhaps a prudential compromise could be reached if the Waldmans were asked to take a step of faith that God would prevent the low-alcohol wine and/or 0.0374 mg gluten from harming Haley. I suppose the gluten must exist in the accidents of the host, but perhaps the transformation of its substance into the true body of Christ –and the grace imparted thereby–would be sufficient to offset the pernicious effects of the gluten. Here I am at a loss without further research. I am not certain that this is a metaphysical issue at all; it may be a mere procedural matter. But at bottom, there are deeper problems.
“When doctrinal truth becomes socially dominant, even the knowledge of the processes by which doctrine derives from the original account, and the original account from the engendering experience, may get lost. The symbols may altogether cease to be translucent for reality. They will, then, be misunderstood as propositions referring to things in the manner of propositions concerning objects of sense perception; and since the case does not fit the model, they will provoke the reaction of skepticism on the gamut from a Pyrrhonian suspense of judgment, to vulgarian agnosticism, and further on to the smart idiot questions of “How to do you know?” and “How can you prove it?” that every college teacher knows from his classroom… .” –The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, Vol. 12, “Immortality: Experience and Symbol,” p. 54.
It is theoretically impermissible to submit a ritual mystery, like the conversion, to an “interpretation” in terms of Aristotelian metaphysics, as was done in the doctrine of transubstantiation. Once this fallacious path is taken, it is only a question of time and circumstance before indignant metaphysicians will rebel against a substance without accidents and accidents without substance…. [The] ancestry [of this path] goes back beyond the Reformation into the metaphysical trespassing of the scholastic period. The enlightened misunderstanding of symbols, the Gnostic inclination to extend the operation of the intellect into the realm of faith and myth, begins for special problems as early as the twelfth century; and among the sinners we find, perhaps unexpectedly, even Saint Thomas. –Eric Voegelin, Collected Works Vol. 22, History of Political Ideas, Vol. 4, Renaissance and Reformation, D. L. Morse and W. M. Thompson ed. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1998), Ch. 1, “The Great Confusion,” pp. 226-28.
This is Mass Hysteria in The Japery, a part of The New Pantagruel. Previously: The “Religion Gap” Doesn’t Matter to Liberals in the Long Run | Next: The Purple Pen is Limper than a Noodle | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)
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