Well,Holy Thursday has come and gone, we’ve read the Gospels dealing with it, and we’ve got to admit the truth. Thousands of theologians have studied it, but the truth remains the same. We’re stuck with it.

He was the Incarnation, and His last words provided a means of forgiving our sins and the Eucharist , which he insisted made a contribution to our actual physique, our own bodies in food and drink.

That’s all we know. We can’t know what consequences this may have for our lives. And in 2020 we’re not getting the chance to find out either. Call me an old fuddy-duddy, whatever that is if you wish. I’m just a simple old man. I have not studied theology at the Gregorian- in Latin, of course. I don’t expect theologians to put up barriers up to doing what He asked. I particularly don’t expect the current custodians of the Apostolic Succession in the West to object to theirs being the only possible way of doing what He asked.

Typing ‘2020’ a minute or two ago, I inadvertently typed in ‘3020’. Now there’s a thought. Suddenly we’re right into science fiction, futurism, or whatever you want to call the future of Canon Law(1917,rev.1983) I know I’m dealing with people who can’t see beyond the end of their crosiers. But 3020 ? Waow, as we used to say in the Fifties. Speculation, as sporting journalists like to say, is not merely rife but rather difficult with regard to 3020. The good old custom of burning St Augustine in effigy has long gone, and the world population now one half Chinese will have long ago made its contribution to accepting and living as the Incarnation wishes us to. Parishes will have elected some of their own to provide the Eucharist, under bishops from the many new orders,. It is an unimaginable world, build into your speculations as you wish more world pandemics, massive global warming, meteor strikes, no more Beatles articles in the press, no more press….

Who knows? But there is one thing we do know- again, call me an old fuddy-duddy- we will have the Incarnation and the two constructs which it left us at the Last Supper- forgiveness of sins and the Eucharist. Possibly a little insincerely, I wish those alive then well. ( I find myself echoing the famous 18th century politician who asked so passionately ‘Posterity? What has posterity ever done for me?’

Future historians may laugh- interestingly they almost invariably do at their past- at the insect-like scuffling of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church as it still refuses to accept that time has passed it by. I do not refer to the concept of a ‘priesthood’ denying the gifts of the Incarnation to the ‘laity’. for human reasons, despite paedophily. I’ll do that another time- I may even have done so. I do object to such a ‘priesthood’ distorting the Incarnation for any kind of human reason. (and there’s a thought for a future blog. Without being objectionable for it’s own sake, of course)

I want forgiveness for my sins. I want the Eucharist. I shall be blunt. I want them through the Apostolic Succession, and I- like maybe millions of us – want it now. In 2020. And Canon Law, by insisting on the double necessity of double forgiveness, is preventing us from getting it through the provisions of Canon Law(1917, rev, 1983).

If you are in one of the 50000 parishes without a priest, presumably you cannot receive General Absolution in a penitential service before every Mass, even if you can have a Mass. And if you are lucky enough to have a priest, you still can’t, even if you have been driven away from the current Roman Rite of the Church, and you want to come back. Even if you have what some feel are justifiable doubts about the priesthood. Even if you feel this way, you’re still entitled to forgiveness. Holy Thursday did say so. Holy Thursday, H

Why?