|
BY RITA McINERNEY
Staff Writer
ATLANTA--It might be expected that people preparing to become Catholic
through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults would find
transubstantiation hard to accept. Even for cradle Catholics,
transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ
isn’t the easiest church mystery to understand.
Perhaps newcomers to the church show others that faith is the answer to
joyful acceptance of this sacred banquet the church offers all its members.
Brenda Steele “almost felt discriminated against” when her OCIA
class at St. Oliver Plunkett Church in Snellville was excused from Mass after
the Liturgy of the Word.
“I’m a Christian. Why can’t I stay and receive
Eucharist?” she wondered. After all, she had taken communion, grape juice
and unleavened bread, in Protestant churches for many years.
“I didn’t know that I didn’t understand.”
As the Easter Vigil drew closer, her hunger and longing for the Eucharist
became “more and more powerful” as she came to “understand the
full meaning” of Catholic teaching that the bread and wine are really
changed into the body and blood of Christ.
She had difficulty with transubstantiation, the church term for the real
presence of Jesus under the appearance of bread and wine, when it came up in
class. It was strange to her, but she realized that “as a Christian I had
accepted Christ as the way, truth and word. If he said, ‘This is my body,
this is my blood, I knew I could understand and accept it on faith alone.”
Now a Catholic for two years, she approaches weekly Eucharist reverently.
For her preparation is important. “I’m preparing for this feast at
the Lord’s table. What have I done (the past week), that was really
un-Christlike?”
She thinks of the way she should dress for this important celebration.
“Out of respect I need to dress appropriately.” After receiving the
Eucharist, she feels “renewed, clean and equipped to lead a more
Christlike life.”
Every time Steele receives the Eucharist she recalls the ultimate sacrifice
Christ made for her salvation.
“Each time I go to the table of the Lord and receive the body and blood
of Christ tears fill my eyes,” she said. “The sacrifice he made on my
behalf is still so overwhelming. It is something I will never take for
granted.”
Steele, a fourth-grade teacher at Pharr Elementary School in Snellville, was
50 in 1997 when she became a Catholic at St. Oliver Plunkett Church. Raised a
Presbyterian, she married John Steele, a Baptist, and together they joined the
Methodist church. Both were very involved and raised their three daughters, now
adults, in the church. She taught Sunday school classes for 15 years.
With “absolutely no Catholic background,” her interest in the
church began about 12 years ago. Studying at Mercer University, her professor
of philosophy, a Catholic, sparked her interest in the writings of St.
Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.
A few years later she tried the OCIA, joining a class after it was well
underway. “No one seemed interested. I dropped out. I didn’t blame
the class.”
One day at school she mentioned her interest in Catholicism to a
student’s mother, a parishioner at St. Oliver Plunkett. A few days later,
the woman’s daughter delivered a notice about the parish OCIA to her.
She called Peggy Brooks, OCIA director at St. Oliver Plunkett, and was made
welcome. “The Lord has blessed that church,” Steele says of Brooks.
“One of her gifts is being able to bring such a sense of trust. She helped
us to bond ... to say what we felt.”
The unity of the family was apparent in the class. “Everyone had
someone.”
That wasn’t her situation. “My husband was adverse to this.”
He offered to come to the Easter Vigil, but she felt he might be uncomfortable.
Two of her grown daughters attended; the third was out of town.
“He’s a wonderful man. But he doesn’t share in my joy.”
Since then, he has accompanied her to Mass several times. So have her
daughters, although they are still “somewhat puzzled” at her action.
“But they see how happy I am in the Catholic faith.”
The year she became Catholic she joined the OCIA team for the growth
experience it provides. This year her “cup was too full,” making
weekly trips out of town to see her ailing parents.
Her love for the Eucharist continues to grow. “During Mass now I feel
part of the community ... It feels like family. We are all there for the same
reason.”
Terry Scardasis was no stranger to St. James Church in McDonough. His wife
of 17 years, Sally, and their three children, Ashley, 15, Amanda, 13, and
Nicholas, 11, were parishioners.
He assisted his wife with her Sunday Scripture class, took part in RENEW and
helped with the parish program to make Christmas brighter for needy families.
Raised in the Methodist tradition, church attendance had not been regular.
His parents divorced when he was about eight years old. His mother died a few
years later.
Shortly after Amanda was born, a priest led the new parents in an informal
catechism class “so we could have our marriage blessed in the
church,” he said.
Sally’s friends kept urging him to become Catholic. But he knew he had
a lot of painful memories to deal with beforehand.
“I didn’t want to go in with any reservations. I wanted to do it
the best way it can be done. I don’t want to be a hypocrite,” he
insists.
He’d been “hanging onto grudges, issues from years back” and
had undergone counseling “to learn how to deal with my anger.” When
his amends had been made, when he was able to forgive and be forgiven, he knew
he could start the journey.
He first joined the inquiry class at St. Philip Benizi in Jonesboro, later
transferring to the OCIA class at St. James.
When the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the body and blood of
Christ was the class topic, Scardasis had no problem accepting this belief.
“It was covered and discussed several times.”
He grew anxious for the Easter Vigil, “waiting and praying for the day
I could feel part of the church.” Now, at Communion, he feels “part
of a big family. I actually feel part of everything. Before I felt like an
outcast.”
Sunday mornings are “great,” a wonderful change from sitting at
home for two or three hours while the rest of the family was busy at church.
He says taking Eucharist together is drawing them closer in faith and love.
Now his children share with him, his wife and he discuss what they read. He
likes Proverbs because the verses are “short and to the point.” He
even tries his hand at writing poems with a religious message.
“I had a unique situation coming into the church,” Scardasis says.
“A woman was my sponsor.” Debbie Megrue had the role. She, her
husband, Jeff, and their children, are close family friends.
“She was a really big support. There were a few times when I
wasn’t so sure of myself. There’s a lot she helped me through.”
|
