Healing Our Divisions

15 September 2026  1 Corinthians 12:12-14,27-31 

“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons….” (1 Corinthians 12:13) 

Since the Second Vatican Council Catholics have referred to Protestants as “separated brethren” – it’s a lot nicer than the earlier practice of just calling them “heretics.” Of course, it raises the question, “Separated from what?” Separated from the truth? Protestants, of course, would never agree to that, and if it were true, then just calling Protestants “heretics” would be accurate.

Is it too crazy to think that, if we are serious about healing the terrible divisions in the Body of Christ, we could start by saying all that out loud: “They are both true!” The Bible and the Eucharist are both of central importance for any who seek a personal, saving, healing relationship with Jesus.

Catholic theologians usually say that Protestants are “separated from full communion with the Church” mostly because Protestants do not recognize the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church (although Catholics and Protestants both recognize the legitimacy of each other’s baptism).

Catholics think it is a grave pastoral handicap not to recognize the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. To know that in the presence of the Eucharist we are in the actual presence of the Risen Christ makes the liturgy richer, and makes devotion deeper on both a personal and communal level; and to receive the no-kidding life of Christ in our hands and in our persons makes Christ near in a way that is simply unavailable any other way. Protestants don’t see it this way, of course, but Catholics point out that for the first 1500 years of the Church’s existence, the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist was the only game in town. Alternate theories didn’t appear until John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli during the Protestant Reformation, and Catholics reasonably assume that it is unlikely that the Apostles and Early Church Fathers, some of whom heard the preaching of St. Paul and St. John personally, were all wrong, and that the Church only began to get it right about the Eucharist in the middle of the 16th century.

Protestants, for their part, point out that Catholic neglect of the Bible is a similarly grave spiritual weakness, and a departure from the tradition of the Apostles and Fathers at least as serious as rejection of the real presence. After all, there are over 5400 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, about 10,000 in Latin, and another 9300 in languages like Syriac, Coptic and Ethiopic. There are more ancient manuscripts of the Bible than any other ancient document by far. The Apostles and Fathers were completely serious about writing down and preserving the Bible, so it is arguable that the Protestant churches that promote close reading and study of the Bible are more loyal to ancient tradition than others who neglect it.

Both of these positions have been capably argued for a very long time, and neither has defeated the other for a pretty obvious reason, viz., both of them are true.

Is it too crazy to think that, if we are serious about healing the terrible divisions in the Body of Christ, we could start by saying all that out loud: “They are both true!” The Bible and the Eucharist are both of central importance for any who seek a personal, saving, healing relationship with Jesus. Then we have to live like that is true.

Just saying.