Eucharist Or People?

[Nihil Obstat]

All right everyone, let's play a little game of truth or dare...
Except there's only one question.
So answer it.

Go ahead...

Ok, scenario question:

You're in the church. It's Eucharistic Adoration.
The church is on fire!
Oh no, pull the fire alarm!
There you go, the fire department is on its way. Now just get out of the church so you don't die.
...OH NO!
There's people in the church, and they're trapped!
There's a young family, two parents and two children in a room opposite the lobby.
...and the sanctuary is on fire.


Now... this question is a no-brainer to me, but I read a book that adressed a similar question, so I want to know what the consensus is.

Do you save the family, or the consecrated Hosts in the sanctuary?


...and I'd like to apologize ahead of time if the responses are entirely one sided. Like I said, I'm curious. Some opinions on a mostly unrelated topic led me to wonder what some other people think.

[Maggyie]

Of course the family.

[Nihil Obstat]

I made it a poll question just now.

[Nihil Obstat]

Oh, and if you'd like, I'd love to hear specific justifications for your choice. From anyone.

[Selah]

My family...I'd try to rescue the Eucharist if I could do so.

[IrishSalesian]

I would have to go with saving the family on this one. Christ told us that the least we do for our brothers and sisters, we do it for him. By rescuing the family we are rescuing Christ. The Eucharist may perish in the fire but the people will be saved. It is a sacrafice I don't think Christ would mind making. He did it once already for us. It is important for all of us to see the beauty of God in each and every person we see. The person is made in the Imange and Likeness of God. Also, If God is in us, then we are in Him. I think that it would be more prudent to save the people.





































So, what is the answer that your book told you?

You can PM me if you don't want to post it here yet.
Thanks!

[Autumn Dusk]

Isn't the eucharist in a monsterance made of glass and gold? wouldn't that protect it?

Obvously, I'd pick the human beings.

[Winchester]

Isn't Jesus a human?


I'd be able to rescue both, of course, but the family gets priority.

[icelandic_iceskater]

yea ^ but He's also divine. We're not.

[Winchester]

But He's fully human. That makes Him Human. My nitpicking is accurate.

[Nihil Obstat]

Ok, I've got enough responses now.
I also said save the family, and I'm glad most people agree with me.
...except for those two that voted the other way. What's up with that?

Anyway, my justification is that no matter what happens to the Eucharist (and yes, it's awful when anything bad happens to it) Jesus will still be alive and well. I have no doubt in my mind that he'd want us to save the family.

[Socrates]

This isn't a new scenario, and some "holier-than-thou" Catholics have used it to accuse those who would rescue the family first of not being "true Catholics."
However, this is nonsense.

While a pious Catholic would try to rescue the host if possible, as an act of piety, saving the human lives should take first priority.
The reason is that in such a case human lives would actually be saved, and saving human lives is an act of virtue of which Christ would approve.
While Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, if the Host burned in the fire, Christ Himself would not actually be killed, hurt, or destroyed in any way. He would simply no longer be sacramentally present in that particular church.
The person saving the family first would not be doing anything to deliberately disrespect Christ - he would simply be performing the virtuous tasks of saving human life. As long as no disrespect to Christ is intended, no sin is committed.
(If someone were to deliberately take a blowtorch to the Host, that would be a grave sin of blasphemy, but this scenario is a different matter entirely.)

[XIX]

LOL

a blowtorch...

[TeresaBenedicta]

People, most definitely. For the same reasons as have been stated before.

[CatherineM]

Family. We dispose of the Eucharist as sacristans everyday. We "bury" him in the ground when we clean the vessels and purficators using the special sink in the sacristy. Fire is another way of consuming the host. So long as the water used to clean the ash from that part of the fire is allowed to percolate into the ground, and doesn't make it to the storm drains, it is acceptable. I remember the discussions about the proper cleaning of the shell of our church after if was completely gutted by a fire when I was 9 years old.