Respect for the Eucharist
Q: “Why isn’t everyone allowed to receive Communion?”
A: Thank you for your excellent question! The first thing to say is to define what Communion is. By Communion, we mean the Body and Blood of Christ, the Eucharist. It is not just a symbol of the Body and Blood of the Lord; it is really His flesh and blood. He teaches this explicitly and thoroughly in John 6. The clearest verse from the Bread of Life Discourse is verse 51: “the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (underline added). At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist and commanded the Apostles (and us) to eat and drink His Body and Blood. So, the first requirement to receive Holy Communion is to believe what the Lord himself taught, that it really is Him in the flesh. Those who are raised Catholic (and Orthodox) are raised to believe this, so they are allowed to receive once they are prepared for their First Holy Communion.
The second requirement to receive Communion is to be in a state of Grace. We have this as one of our gentle reminders above the doors of our church. If a person has left the state of Grace through mortal sin, he or she needs Confession before receiving the Eucharist. St. Paul addresses this (as well as the situation of someone who doesn’t believe) in 1 Corinthians 11:27,29:
“Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord…For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself”.
These verses are the main reason for my announcement just before Holy Communion, “let all faithful Catholics come receive our Lord”. I say it to protect the Eucharistic Lord as well as everyone in the congregation so that they don’t “bring judgment” on themselves. It’s a mortal sin to receive the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin. One commentator said it’s like bringing our Lord into a chamber of death. One of the reasons I make Confession as available as possible is to avoid that. Respect for the Eucharist is our top priority with Communion.
If someone is not Catholic and wants to receive Communion, I am happy to pursue this with him or her. We offer a class (RCIA) for non-Catholics year-round in order to not delay their coming into the Church, and thus being allowed to make their first Holy Communion.When I first started blogging in 2004, the site was a Catholic Q and A. In the comments section below my posts, people asked questions about different parts of the Catholic faith. Unfortunately, it also included much spam and even inappropriate comments. It was because of the latter that I eventually took a break from blogging. I’m happy to be doing this again, but as you probably noticed, comments are closed here. You are invited to email me (gshaffer@olvp.org) with comments and questions.
