Apparently, the author of tawdry novels Joe Eszterhas not only claims to have had a profound (dare I say miraculous) conversion experience; he claims the Eucharist called him.
When Mr. Eszterhas visited a nondenominational megachurch, he heard a sensational sermon. But he felt empty afterward, missing Holy Communion and the Catholic liturgy.
"It may have been a church full of pedophiles and criminals covering up other criminals' sins … it may have been a church riddled with hypocrisy, deceit, and corruption … but our megachurch experience taught us that we were captive Catholics," he wrote. Mr. Eszterhas told The Blade that despite his mixed feelings over the church and the abuse scandal, the power of the Mass trumps his doubts and misgivings. "The Eucharist and the presence of the body and blood of Christ is, in my mind, an overwhelming experience for me. I find that Communion for me is empowering. It's almost a feeling of a kind of high."
The article describes him as being "nonconformist" because he wears jeans and a t-shirt to Mass, won't give money to the Church out of frustration over the pedophile scandal, and thinks that priests' homilies are, by and large, boring and thoughtless.
That all sounds pretty conformist to me.
If anything, I would say his greatest nonconformity is a love and understanding of the Eucharist. I just hope he can stick with it when the "high" is gone (hopefully, someone will give him a copy of Mother Theresa's letters to read by then).
Joe discussed his conversion and book with me last Saturday on "Catholic Radio 2.0!". Hear here: http://tinyurl.com/CR2pt0.
Posted by: Commander Craig | August 27, 2008 at 03:52 PM