A member of the University of Central Florida Student Government is fighting for his student government political life — for stealing a piece of Jesus.The Orlando Sentinel reported in June that Senator Webster Cook attended a Catholic mass held in the UCF Student Union.  During the mass, Cook was given a communion wafer as part of the Holy Eucharist ceremony.  Instead of immediately consuming the wafer, Cook tried to return to his seat so that he could “show it to a friend, who was curious about the Catholic faith.”  When he did so, Cook claims a woman attempted to reclaim the wafer from him forcefully.  Upon being confronted, he actually put the wafer into his mouth but removed it and placed it in his pocket. Cook brought the wafer home with him. He refused to return the wafer until he received an official apology and was allowed to meet with the clergy to discuss the church’s policies on physical force.The UCF Catholic Campus Ministry filed an official complaint with the University, claiming he was holding the wafer for ransom.Cook eventually returned the wafer after alleging he was threatened with physical violence. Now Cook is very likely going to lose his student government position. All but two of the 35-member student senate voted to impeach Cook — they claim he represented both Student Government and the university in an extremely negative way.  Although this does not automatically remove a senator from office at UCF, it does put into motion an official investigation of his conduct to determine whether he violated senate ethics rules. A nun was dispatched to the campus to oversee the next mass, and ensure that the following sacraments were consumed without incident. To a person not raised in the Catholic faith — such as myself — it seems absurd that this controversy could be started by the improper consumption of a small piece of bread-like substance.  So to better understand the situation, I referred to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the big book on church doctrine.”Sacrilege is a grave sin especially when committed against the Eucharist, for in this sacrament the true Body of Christ is made substantially present for us,” according to heading 2120 of the Catechism.The Catholic faith holds that, when a person accepts the wafer as a part of the Eucharist, the wafer is physically transformed into a portion of Christ’s actual flesh.This obviously raises the stakes.To the eyes of a Catholic, Cook absconded with a piece of flesh from the son of God.  Yet the question remains — why did he do it?  If he was actually trying to explain the faith to a curious friend, there are far less sacrilegous ways to go about doing so.  And even if the bread was integral to his faith lesson, why would he go so far as to hold it for ransom?The logical explanation is that the whole fiasco was a stunt pulled by the soon-to-be-former senator.  Whatever his motives, Cook managed to single-handedly turn a holy ceremony into a farce.  Threats of violence from church-goers, a commando nun being called in and pieces of Jesus being held for ransom hardly seem like a reflection of what is supposed to be a symbol of God’s forgiveness.  Though I understand the impetus behind the church’s urgency, this is absurd.  Had the church and Student Government simply turned the other cheek and behaved calmly, they could have avoided this becoming the laughable spectacle that it is today.I think it’s what Jesus would have done — even if somebody had stolen a chunk of his skin.—-contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]