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Unworthy
We all know that to be forgiven of your sins you must feel sorry for them and repent... We also know that when we are to take communion you must also feel sorry for your sins.. But where in the bible does it say that to be worthy you must feel unworthy???
Comments
Being worthy for partaking in the Body and Blood can be explained as the insistence at the time of communion on fighting against sin, although the individual might fall later in this sin. Somebody who is partaking in the Body and Blood while living a life of sin and insisting on/promoting it is unworthy.
"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (1 Pet v 5)
"If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (1 Pet. iv 18)
St John the Baptist (are we more worthy than he): "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I not worthy to stopp down and loose." (Mk i 7)
The Prodigal son who was redeemed when he said: "I am no longer worthy to be called your son."
We are to seek "the kingdom of God and His righteousness". How can we seek thus, if we already think we are worthy?
"For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself" (Gal vi 3)
In Romans, chapter 4, we often see "that faith was accounted...(to us)...by righteousness" and that "the righteousness might be impueted to those...who walk in the steps of the faith...." (Rom iv 11-12) "It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, and who delivered up beacause of our offenses and was raised because of our justification." "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"
Is it not written "For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom iii 9-10)
How can we accept the justification through Christ and have faith in it, and strive in it- to be worthy of the calling in which we were called (e.f. Eph 5:1) if we believe we are already worthy?
Even St. Anthony told the devil, "the weakest of you could defeat me."
I presume from the statement you make that precedes the one I have quoted above, that your question is concerned with the context of taking communion, and will proceed to answer upon that assumption. If your question is a general one however, then I do not need to add to the above posts:
1) Feeling unworthy is the natural response of one who recognises his sinfulness and recognises the holiness of God who is mysteriously present upon the altar. The absence of either of these two factors (which, as i've said, naturally give rise to a feeling of unworthiness) should disqualify one from communing, for the absence of the former signifies self-righteousness and the lack of a repentant disposition, whilst the absence of the latter signifies a lack of true belief in the Eucharistic transformation.
2) In the Liturgy, the priest tells us that the "holies are for the holy." In other words, one must be holy to be worthy to partake of the Holy Eucharist. Nevertheless, the congregation (you, me, all of us) respond, saying: "One is the All-Holy Father, One is the All-Holy Son, One is the All-Holy Spirit. Amen." In other words, we are responding to the priest with the sentiment: "If one must be holy to be worthy of the Holy Eucharist, then consider me unworthy, for there is but ONE who is truly holy, The Holy Trinity."
He also went on to say that many priest say... dont come close to this communion table because your a sinner (almost mocking our priests), and he also said you should not confess your sins because you hurt yourself everytime you do, the only thing you should trully confess is that Jesus christ payed your debt..
Ofcourse on the ride home my friends mother asked me what religion I was and i said Im coptic Orthodox, and she knew nothing about us. She said well what do you guys do in church, and i said, our entire mass basically focuses on the Holy Body and Preciouse Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. I also told her that we believe thats the bread and wine trully converts to the actual body and blood of Jesus. She was shocked and started saying, you know Meena, that when Jesus said take eat of my body he also said do this in rememberance of me which meant do this in memory of my death, remember my death through this. and I said to her, Jesus also said "my flesh is food indeed and my Blood is drink indeed, he who does not eat of my flesh or drink of my blood has no life in him".
She ofcourse didnt know what to say for a while but than shes like, but how can you eat his flesh arent your hurting him again. and the conversation went on and on, and so i told her, you know what Ill write you up something... which wis why im here now asking everyone for help because she seems like she really wants to understand the truth but cant seem to understand how the bread and wine really convert to body and blood of Jesus.
wow, those last two responses were amazing.. thank you so much Iqbal and Thomas youve really really helped me. You see, I have a friend and he is non denominational and his mother was going to there church, and i said i wanted to come, mainly because I wanted to see what there church is like. When I got there is was almost exactly like a protestant church and the preacher was talking about how everyone is worthy because Jesus died for us, and that instead of feeling sorry for your sins when you sin you should say "Jesus has forgiven my sins" and mean it.
He also went on to say that many priest say... dont come close to this communion table because your a sinner (almost mocking our priests), and he also said you should not confess your sins because you hurt yourself everytime you do, the only thing you should trully confess is that Jesus christ payed your debt..
Ofcourse on the ride home my friends mother asked me what religion I was and i said Im coptic Orthodox, and she knew nothing about us. She said well what do you guys do in church, and i said, our entire mass basically focuses on the Holy Body and Preciouse Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. I also told her that we believe thats the bread and wine trully converts to the actual body and blood of Jesus. She was shocked and started saying, you know Meena, that when Jesus said take eat of my body he also said do this in rememberance of me which meant do this in memory of my death, remember my death through this. and I said to her, Jesus also said "my flesh is food indeed and my Blood is drink indeed, he who does not eat of my flesh or drink of my blood has no life in him".
She ofcourse didnt know what to say for a while but than shes like, but how can you eat his flesh arent your hurting him again. and the conversation went on and on, and so i told her, you know what Ill write you up something... which wis why im here now asking everyone for help because she seems like she really wants to understand the truth but cant seem to understand how the bread and wine really convert to body and blood of Jesus.
check out this sermon by Abouna Bishoy Andrawes from St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church in DC, talking about this exact issue: http://www.orthodoxsermons.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=132&Itemid=26 the name of the sermon is: Deal or No Deal Part 4- "Is the Eucharist the REAL Body and Blood of Christ?"
or on video for you or the lady to watch: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9179662030501054173&hl=en