The Real Presence

Do you believe in immortal life?

Don’t ask me.

Do you believe in eternal punishment?

Don’t ask me.

Do you believe you eat the body of Christ?

Don’t ask me.

Ask Ann Askew.

She said that Bread was bread: “… for proof thereof let it lie in a box three months and it will be moldy.”

Ann Askew was a woman of common sense. She was a woman of common sense from a nation that is built on common sense.

Common sense has produced the best political system in the world.

Common sense has produced the best legal system in the world.

Common sense has produced the best poetry in the world.

Common sense is incompatible with the mysteries of religion.

It is against common sense that Christ rose from the dead.

It is against common sense that sin is redeemed.

It is against common sense that the sick shall be healed, the blind made to see, the hungry be filled, the last go to the front of the line.

It is impossible to live without believing at least some of these things.

Common sense believes that life is nasty, brutish and short.

The strength of all desire is for life to be otherwise;

for it to be joyous, replenishing and untouched by death.

Replenishing it is.

The Eucharist is the instrument of replenishment.

The blood and flesh of Christ replenish it.

Is it replenished symbolically?

Can a symbol replenish me?

Ahhhhhhhhhhh me. I don’t know.

I doubt it.

But don’t ask me.

Ask Ann Askew.

She at least knew.

They burned her for it.

They racked her for five hours; then they shaved her head, tied her to a stake, piled up the faggots, and set her flesh on fire.

She died for common sense

not for the rational mind

not for things unseen

but for the fruits of experience.

Her presence in the world was real.