torture and eucharist

so i've edited this post about a gazillion times and decided, forget it, i'm postingit...so here it is...hopefully not full of too many crazy thoughts

i wanted to write a post about the book that i just finished...i thought this would be a good practice of being able to work through what i just read, my thoughts on it, what i learned...you know, all that stuff you are supposed to do in order to get an A in middle school, but you never wanted to do, because you never saw the point. you know, i'm beginning to think it was cause the teachers wanted to be sure we were learning something, or maybe, teaching us how to learn...this is ground-breaking for me...and before we go any further, these are my thoughts, i'm still thinking them, and they might be wrong...just a lil warning :)

anyway, my dad and i started last Christmas by picking books that we would read together and then chat about...just to help each other continue to think...dad's turnin 50 this year...so we gotta keep that ole brain working! we haven't had the chance to chat on this book yet, so i'm sure my thoughts will be challenged when we do, but i wanted to post on it...this was the first book, my choice, based off of a few, "nick, you need to read this" from my seminary friends...

torture and eucharist (great title, huh) is a book written about the reign in Chile of Augusto Pinochet and his regime of torture and the response of the Catholic Church to his regime. this book was deep...i found myself reading paragraphs and sentences and even words over-again to make sure i was grasping them...and well, i'm not sure i grasped it all very well.

William Cavanaugh's book was full of ideas and thoughts calling to the church to be an alternative social body to the state...it was a challenge to the idea that it was the state that would offer protection and safety for the people, that it was the state that provided them with their identity. Cavanaugh seemed to view the imagination of the state as a false imagination...as if the world the state has created, a world in which the state has the authority and power, is false and only sustains power because we allow...i think... (for those who've read the book, please stop me if i'm misspeaking, i'm sure i will at some point). for most of the book he wrote much of the what occurred during Pinochet's reign, and since i'm not much of a history buff and reading about people being tortured for 'the good of state' kind of rubs me the wrong way, i preferred the second part of the book...his discussion on the Eucharist.


this section helped open the Eucharist up in a new way for me. Cavanaugh was able to show the depth of unity and the powerful statement and meaning behind the eucharist. i say get this book, just for that fact, the rest of the book was phenomenal and will take months for me to wrestle and figure out what to do with it...but his section on the eucharist was phenomenal.

it is at the eucharist where the Body of Christ becomes reality, when people of different races, cultures, social status, gender, nation...when all people are equal and one under Christ...this is extremely profound and powerful and scary for a world that relies on keeping people being referred to, kept separate and labeled as black, poor, woman, gay, American, insurgent, infidel...the eucharist eliminates those distinctions and calls for, demands unity under Christ...if we are all one at the eucharist than the insurgent becomes a person with a face, a name, and a 'loved by God' status...what do we do about someone who we have been taught is our enemy but is also one who comes to the table...

...again, i'm not sure what this all means, or what i'm going to do about all this, or how it might change how i live...but, this was a great, thought-provoking book nonetheless...