Ritual

My browser was on the youtube site when I sat down to it after dinner. That's left over from last night. At night, I go to youtube and start a video an hour or more in length that plays instrumental hymns, and generally by the time it finishes playing I'm asleep.

One of the suggested videos that came up after the hymns finished was for an episode of "What's My Line?" This one said a guest was the Trapp Family Choir, so I took a look. It was the same number and style of children as in the movie, but not the same actors. Turns out they were the kids from the Broadway play, starring Mary Martin. The "What's My Line?" episode was from 1960.

There were three other what's-my-liners on the show, each time a set of twins, although their twinness had nothing to do with their "line," except for the coincidence that both twins were in the same line of work. Anyway, what I noticed was that all the women on the panel and who were guests wore pretty dresses—mostly with flared skirts—and at least one set of girl twins wore gloves. Every time the panelists either guessed the line, or failed to guess in the allotted number of tries, then, as they left, the guests shook hands with each panelist. The emcee stood up as the guests stood to leave, the two male panelists (Tony Randall and Bennett Cerf, by the way) stood to shake hands, and the two female panelists remained seated while shaking hands. I liked that there was a correct way to do it and that everyone knew it and did it. I liked the formality; it was a cordial, courteous formality.

I once worked with a lawyer who told me that part of the reason she liked practicing law was because of the ritualism of court proceedings. You stand, you sit, you use certain forms of address, all according to ritual. She said that if she ever joined a church, it would be the Roman Catholic Church for the sake of the ritual.

I also have a Facebook friend who is a Catholic, who said that he joined that church because he is religious, but not spiritual. I like that.

I am tied to my church by ties of belief, affection, family, and culture. If I ever did change churches, it would be to Catholicism. What draws me is the sacramental nature of it. I am powerfully drawn by the doctrine of trans-substantiation.

I belong to the "holy catholic church, the communion of saints," the "holy catholic and apostolic church," from within the Christian Reformed Church. I am thankful for Article 35 of the Belgic Confession, which says:

Christ has instituted
an earthly and visible bread as the sacrament of his body
and wine as the sacrament of his blood.

He did this to testify to us that
just as truly as we take and hold the sacrament in our hands
and eat and drink it with our mouths,
by which our life is then sustained,
so truly we receive into our souls,
for our spiritual life,
the true body and true blood of Christ,
our only Savior.
We receive these by faith,
which is the hand and mouth of our souls.

Now it is certain
that Jesus Christ did not prescribe
his sacraments for us in vain,
since he works in us all he represents
by these holy signs,
although the manner in which he does it
goes beyond our understanding
and is incomprehensible to us,
just as the operation of God’s Spirit
is hidden and incomprehensible.

Yet we do not go wrong when we say
that what is eaten is Christ's own natural body
and what is drunk is his own blood—
but the manner in which we eat it
is not by the mouth, but by the Spirit
through faith.

...we say that we should be content with the procedure
that Christ and the apostles have taught us
and speak of these things
as they have spoken of them.

He said "Take and eat....Take and drink," not "take and understand, take and explain, take and debate."