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I, Too, Don’t Know How To Love Him
How the rock opera ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ helped me answer all my theological questions
Faith is not the absence of doubt. Faith is doubt with a positive attitude.
When the nun explained to my class the sacrament of Communion I had many questions, especially about the miracle of transubstantiation, which occurs when you eat the Holy Eucharist during the climax of the Mass.
She endured my inquiries without emotion. My questions were generally ignored.
“Will my dad go to hell if he isn’t Catholic?”
“Jesus said love thine enemy but was that just a suggestion?”
“Does God hear all my prayers or do some go to voicemail?”
Eventually, I wore her down. The usual answer to complex Catholic mysteries is “have faith.” And transubstantiation is one of Catholicism’s greatest mysteries. But I managed to get an answer from the nun that wasn’t the usual boilerplate.
Once you’ve eaten the sacrament, you see, Jesus is part of you. That is the miracle. The bread and wine transform into His actual, literal body and blood. “Communion.” Like magic. We were told that this was a time to really, really pray to Him, because he was inside of you.
