Outside Reading -- Communion

Ashley Frost
Outside Reading
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" 
   
      There is a moment in these books that Harry and Draco Malfoy accidentally stumble across Voldemort drinking unicorn’s blood to gain strength.  Firenze, a centaur, rescues the two young boys from these sight and then explains to them why it is so terrible to drink the blood of a unicorn.  “It is a monstrous thing to slay a unicorn. Only one who has nothing to lose and everything to gain would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenseless to save yourself, and you will have a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips” (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone).  In comparison to this, see 1 Corinthians 11:27-29, which says “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy way will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. So a man should examine himself; in this way he should eat the bread and drink from the cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.”  While there is still much controversy and different beliefs about communion within the Church, most denominations are in agreement that if this sacrament is taken unwillingly or unworthily, then that person will bring judgement and a curse upon themselves.  Firenze’s prophecy is almost identical to that found in 1 Corinthians, leading readers to wonder if Rowling truly did not intend for her Christian beliefs to seep through the cracks of her stories.