Here is a letter – surprise, surprise – that wasn’t relegated to the trash can by its receipts. The The Lutheran Witness published it in the October 2017 issue.
August 3, 2017 A.D.
RE: “Holy Things for Holy People”, August 2017 Witness
Dear Editor:
In this very short, informative, and accurate article about receiving the Body of Christ, four times the author refers to the “Host.”
According to Catholic scholar Martin Mosebach’s book on Roman Catholic liturgy The Heresy of Formlessness “Host” means “sacrificial gift” (179). According to Oxford History of Worship it comes from the Latin hostia and means “victim or sacrifice” (849), According to the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church’s Host refers to “A sacrificial victim, and so the consecrated Bread in the Eucharist, regarded as the Sacrifice of the Body of Christ” (670). The Lutheran Cyclopedia entry for Host simply says, “Wafer, or bread, of the Lord’s Supper (see Grace, Means of, IV). I found nothing more at this location.
Let’s keep sacrificial terminology away from Lutheran sacramental theology except when speaking of a sacrifice of praise.
Pastor Paul Harris
Austin, Texas
