XXXI

MAKING A SPIRITUAL COMMUNION

Receiving communion is the climax of the Eucharistic celebration. Jesus said:  Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you (Jn.6:53).

If we cannot receive Holy Communion physically, either because we cannot make it to Mass or because we need to go to Confession first, we can pray an Act of Spiritual Communion, in which we express our desire to be united with Christ and ask Him to come into our soul. A spiritual communion is not sacramental but prayed devoutly, it can be a source of grace that can strengthen us until we can receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion once again.

As we saw earlier, the Eucharistic species is real presence of Jesus and not symbolic presence. He told his disciples, if you do not believe that it is true, you also can leave me like others did. He did not welcome any compromise on that belief. There had been several miracles over the centuries by which Jesus wanted to convince us that it is his real presence, his real flesh.

 A famous Eucharistic miracle took place in Lanciano, Italy, in the year 700. A monk who feared he was losing his vocation was celebrating Mass, and during the consecration the host turned into flesh and the wine turned into blood. Despite the fact that the miracle took place almost 1300 years ago, you may still see the flesh in a monstrance which is exposed every day and the blood in a glass chalice. The blood has congealed and is now in five clots in the glass chalice. In 1971 and 1981 a hospital laboratory tested the flesh and blood and discovered that the flesh is myocardium, which is heart muscular tissue, so we could say it is the heart of Jesus, the Sacred Heart, and the blood is of the blood group AB. In 1978 NASA scientists tested the blood on the Turin Shroud and interestingly also discovered that it is of the blood group AB. (The Sudarium, Face Cloth of Christ, in John 20:6 is also of the blood group AB.) Despite the fact that human flesh and blood should not have remained preserved for 1300 years, the hospital lab tests found no trace of any preservatives. One final interesting point about the five blood clots in the chalice is that when you weigh one of them, it is the same weight as all five together, two of them together weigh the same as all five. In fact no matter what way you combine the blood clots individually or in a group to weigh them, they always weigh the same.  (This shows that the full Jesus is present in a particle of the Eucharist no matter how small.)

There are at least over 100 Eucharistic miracles approved by the Vatican.  We will see a couple more of them next weekend.

XXX

Many Non-Catholics do not understand why the Catholics don’t share communion with other Christians while they are ready to share their Lord’s supper with the Catholics. They say the Catholics are very rigid and very unchristian in not sharing their Eucharist with them.

First of all, a priest does not have that power to do it as the Canon 844 says a Catholic Priest can licitly administer sacraments only to Catholics. Therefore he would be violating the law when he does give communion to Non-Catholics. The Eucharist belongs to the Church, not to the Priest. Therefore he cannot do as he wishes even though he may like to. If he thinks of being charitable with what does not belong to him he will be unfaithful to the Church.

Eucharist is the sharing of Christ and the Church. The Eucharist can be received only in the Church and not outside the Church. Therefore those who are not members of the Catholic church cannot share the Eucharist.

The Church is the bride of Christ as Apostle Paul clearly says. Receiving the Eucharist is having a spiritual communion. It is something like having sex between a husband and a wife. Sexual union is permitted only between a husband and a wife. It is not permitted between friends, even if they are the best of friends. Christians of other denominations are like friends or neighbors or relatives. Only those who are in the Church become the bride of Christ. Those outside, even though they may be having a very good relation with Jesus, are not permitted to have that spiritual sexual union with Christ. Not only Catholic mystics but even Hindu mystics say that human soul is feminine and the soul accepts God in Christ in the communion like a bride accept groom in sexual union. Bride takes the role of receiving which a member in the Church takes.  All through the bible God compares himself as the Husband of Israel, the wife. There are numerous references for that in both the Testaments. John the Baptist mentions Jesus as the bridegroom and him as the friend of the bridegroom. The book of revelation ends with the marriage of the lamb and his bride the church in glory.

For most non-Catholic Christians this deep level relationship understanding is not there. They think it is just a piece of flesh of Jesus and it is the symbol of the body of Christ. Therefore in most denominations after the Lords supper they put all the remaining hosts back with the old stock. And they consider it as like unconsecrated. This is not the Catholic understanding. Once consecrated it remains consecrated till the quality of the bread remains, a bread.

Therefore even if a non Catholic is holier than a Catholic he is not permitted to receive the Holy Eucharist from a Catholic Mass, because he does not believe what the Catholic Church teaches.

There are some former Catholics who think they can receive communion whenever they show up at the Catholic Mass. For Instance when a Catholic who marries outside the Church because he or she does not want to go through the regulations of the Catholic church, he or she is not allowed to receive communion. I sometimes think of them as someone who refused to invite his mom for his wedding and then shamelessly show up next day at mom’s kitchen and eat the food what his mom prepared. He did not want his mom who gave him birth and brought him up to be part of his most important event in his life but he wants the food his mom prepared. Catholic Church has given this person birth in Christ by baptism and fed him with the Eucharist and strengthened him with other sacraments and when he got married he refused to have the Church a part of his life. Actually they are spiritually dead members of the Catholic Church. Such people can receive communion only after rectifying their marriage and making a confession and then can receive communion. But we sometimes see that at weddings and funerals just show up and receive communion. It is mostly due to lack of understanding of the real nature of the Eucharist. 

XXIX

Can a non-Catholic  receive Communion at a Catholic parish or a Catholic may take the "Lord's Supper" at a non-Catholic church?

Canon 844 of the Code of Canon Law makes it clear. That canon has five sections. The first says that "Catholic ministers may licitly administer the sacraments to Catholic members of the Christian faithful only and, likewise, the latter may licitly receive the sacraments only from Catholic ministers." But there are exceptions, and those are handled in the following three sections of the code.

Section 2 permits a Catholic to receive Communion in a non-Catholic church if that church has a valid Eucharist. Since no Protestant church, including the Anglican, has a valid Eucharist, Catholics who sit through the "Lord's Supper" at, say, a Baptist church may not partake of the bread and wine there.

The problem is that the bread and wine are just that bread and wine and not the body and blood of Christ. Protestant churches have no valid Eucharist because they have no valid priesthood, because the l6th-century reformers did away with the episcopacy.

By contrast the Eastern Orthodox churches have maintained a valid episcopacy and priesthood and thus have all seven sacraments. These are the non-Catholic churches at which a Catholic might receive Communion provided "it is physically or morally impossible" for the Catholic "to approach a Catholic minister." This could occur if the Catholic were living for a long time in an area, such as Siberia, where there are few or no Catholic parishes.

Section 2 is not applicable to Catholics in this country who simply want to "sample" another religion. The permission is given only when "necessity requires" and "provided that the danger of error or indifferentism is avoided. Almost no American Catholic will ever be in a position to take advantage of Section 2. After all, if a Catholic in the United States can make it to an Eastern Orthodox parish, he likely can make it to a Catholic parish.

Section 3 deals mainly with Eastern Orthodox who want to receive sacraments at a Catholic parish. It says that Catholic ministers may give penance, anointing of the sick, or the Eucharist "to members of the oriental churches which do not have full communion with the Catholic Church."

This holds also for members of other churches, which in the judgment of the Apostolic See are in the same condition as the oriental churches as far as these sacraments are concerned. 

Non-Catholics who qualify under Section 3 must "ask on their own for the sacraments" this means there can be no general invitation to them and they must be "properly disposed," which means in the state of grace.

The possibility of a Catholic receiving from the minister of another church, when the first three conditions are fulfilled, is limited to the Orthodox Churches, other Oriental Churches, Old Catholics, Polish National and others whose sacraments are recognized by the Holy See.

Section 4 applies mainly to Protestants. (Anglican, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist etc.), none of whom have valid sacred orders, and therefore, a valid Eucharist. This Section says that "if the danger of death is present or other grave necessity," and if the diocesan bishop approves, Catholic ministers may give the three sacraments to Christians who are neither Catholic nor Eastern Orthodox. Such people must not be able to approach a minister of their own community, must ask for the sacraments on their own (again, there is to be no general invitation to non-Catholics to "come up and receive Communion"), must be in the state of grace, and must "manifest Catholic faith in these sacraments."

This means their understanding of the Real Presence, for example, must be the Catholic understanding. Several Protestant churches describe what they have as the Real Presence though in fact none of them have it and they do not mean by the term the same thing we mean. This causes no end of confusions.

Some Protestants who profess belief in the Real Presence have in mind a "really meaningful" symbolism. Others say Jesus is "really," though only "spiritually," present at their churches' celebration of the "Lord's Supper." Not a single Protestant church teaches the Catholic doctrine, though a few individual Protestants have come to accept the Catholic understanding on their own. It is for them that this Section makes provision. Section 5 says that no diocesan bishop or conference of bishops may institute general norms regarding the four preceding sections of Canon 844 "except after consultation with at least the local competent authority of the interested non-Catholic church or community."

We don't want to step on anyone's toes, and we don't want anyone to step on ours.

XXVIII

We are told in CCC 1377 that Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.”  It is not easy to grasp how this takes place but we can understand with different similes.

Some time ago, a preacher who knew how to make religious truths come to life was faced by a hostile crowd. One of them demanded, "How is it possible for bread and wine to become the Body and Blood of Christ?" The preacher looked calmly at the stout questioner for a moment and answered, "You have grown somewhat since you were a child and have more flesh and blood than you had then. Surely, if a human body can change food and drink into flesh and blood, God can do it too." "But how," countered the heckler, "is it possible for Christ to be present in his entirety in a small host?" The preacher glanced up at the sky and down at the street before them and answered, "This city scene and the sky above it is something immense, while your eye is very small. Yet your eye in itself contains the whole picture. When you consider this, it won't seem impossible for Christ to be present in his entirety in a little piece of bread." Once more the heckler attacked. "How, then, is it possible for the same Body of Christ to be present in all your Churches at the same time?" The preacher answered: "In a large mirror you see your image reflected but once. When you break the mirror into a thousand pieces, you see the same image of yourself in each of the thousand fragments. If such things occur in everyday life, why should it be impossible for the Body of Christ to be present in many places at once?

Another example could be, when a speaker speaks to a congregation each member listens to all of what the speaker speaks. Each listener listens to all of what he says in its entirety. The speaker had to speak only once. Or say, when a person comes on TV he is seen on all the TVs all over the world tuned to the channel. The person present in one place is present in all the TVs is an example how one glorified Jesus is present in all the pieces of the Eucharist in his entirety.

XXVII

Not only one hour fasting and interior disposition would suffice, but exterior reverence is also important to the Eucharistic Presence.

“The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.” (CCC 1377; cf. Council of Trent, Session XIII, Canon III)

From this doctrine, we know that our Savior is present, whole and entire (body, blood, soul, and divinity), in the whole Host. Further, we know that the whole Christ is present in each part of the Host. Hence, it is clear that the whole Christ is real and truly and substantially present in even a small particle of a Host or in a small drop of the Precious Blood.

And, we further maintain, no part of the Host is a mere part of Christ, but each part of each Host is the whole Christ present in his entirety.

Hence, if a Catholic believes in the Eucharist – that Jesus is truly present in the Host – then he is already acknowledging that a relatively small piece of what-looks-like-bread is, in fact, Jesus. Now, if a regular Host can become the whole Jesus, why would we doubt that a small Host can be the whole Jesus?

Therefore, those who are not careful with the Eucharistic particles, or who outright deny that Jesus is present in even small pieces of the Host, either do not believe in the Eucharist at all or are very foolish (since their own reasoning is self-contradictory).

A piece of the Host which is visible to the human eye (under usual conditions and without assistance) as what appears to be a piece of bread, is surely Jesus. However, those particles which are so small as to be invisible to the human eye, or to be indistinguishable from a particle of dust – these cannot any longer be the Eucharist. They do not have the bread quality in them.

The Church teaches that the Eucharistic Presence remains “as long as the Eucharist species subsist”. This means that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, so long as the Eucharist retains the accidental properties of bread and wine. Hence, if a Host is dissolved in water (as is done when the Host has become putrefied, as through vomiting after the reception of Communion), upon being dissolved it is not longer the Eucharist. Likewise, the Precious Blood, when the Chalice is purified with water is no longer the Eucharist.

In order to teach his disciples that the Eucharist is truly his own Flesh and Blood, he first instructed them to gather up the “fragments” which were left over from the multiplied loaves – if such care was taken for the mere symbol of the Eucharist, how much more must we care for the Real Presence!

Even in those cases where the particle is so small as to cause some doubt as to whether or not it is the Eucharist, the priest and the people ought to exercise extreme caution. This is one reason why communion in the hand was not permitted in the Church for so many centuries. If the minister of the body can feel any particle between the fingers, there is a bowl with water kept on the credence table to dip and clean your fingers before you leave the sanctuary. 

XXVI

The discipline of fasting before communion has a long history, as Pope Pius XII states in his 1953 apostolic constitution, "Christus Dominus":

"From the very earliest time the custom was observed of administering the Eucharist to the faithful who were fasting.

Abstinence from food and drink is in accord with that supreme reverence we owe to the supreme majesty of Jesus Christ when we are going to receive Him hidden under the veils of the Eucharist. And moreover, when we receive His precious Body and Blood before we take any food, we show clearly that this is the first and loftiest nourishment by which our soul is fed and its holiness increased. Hence St. Augustine gives this warning: 'It has pleased the Holy Ghost that, to honor so great a Sacrament, the Lord's Body should enter the mouth of the Christian before other food.'

Before the time of Pius XII the Eucharistic fast was from midnight onward and included water. This also meant that Masses were only celebrated in the morning.

Pius XII mentions some of the difficulties preventing many from receiving Communion. Among them are the shortage of clergy, especially in mission lands, and the pace of modern life in factories and offices which include night shifts. He also desired to open up the possibility of celebrating Mass in the evening on important feasts so that more people could attend.

Thus, among other things he established that water and medicine would no longer break the fast. He also mitigated the fast under certain circumstances. In 1957, with the document "Sacram Communionem," he changed the law again, to require only a three-hour fast.

Pope Paul VI brought in the present discipline in November 1964, and this forms the basis of Canon No. 919.

Canon 919
1. One who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain from any food or drink, with the exception only of water and medicine, for at least the period of one hour before Holy Communion.
2. A priest who celebrates the Most Holy Eucharist two or three times on the same day may take something before the second or third celebration even if the period of one hour does not intervene.
3. Those who are advanced in age or who suffer from any infirmity, as well as those who take care of them, can receive the Most Holy Eucharist even if they have taken something during the previous hour.

How many times per day can one receive Holy Communion?

One of the significant changes for the faithful in the Code of Canon Law which was promulgated in 1983 was the permission to receive Holy Communion more than once per day. In the past the law set certain conditions, such as participation in a funeral, marriage or ordination Mass. The new canon, however, simply states,

c.917 A person who has received the Most Holy Eucharist may receive it again on the same day only during the celebration of the Eucharist in which the person participates. 

920 §1. "After being initiated into the Most Holy Eucharist, each of the faithful is obliged to receive holy communion at least once a year."

920 §2. "This precept must be fulfilled during the Easter season unless it is fulfilled for a just cause at another time during the year."

In the past, people spent a lot of time in mortal sin, or at least in a state unworthy to receive the Eucharist. Therefore for someone to receive it was a major life event. This kind of culture was undone by Pope St. Pius X at the turn of the 20th Century.

(One probable reason why the Church prescribed the law to receive communion at least once a year may have been that due to long fast the faithful may have been unprepared for receiving communion most of the days of the year.)

Frequent Communion increases our love for God and for our neighbor, which expresses itself in action, which makes us more like Christ.

Venial sins are forgiven when we receive the holy communion with proper repentance.

Physically, frequent Communion relieves us of our passions. Priests and other spiritual directors who counsel those who are struggling with passions, especially sexual sins, often urge frequent reception not only of the Sacrament of Confession but of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. By receiving Christ's Body and Blood, our own bodies are sanctified, and we grow in our likeness to Christ. In fact, as Fr. John Hardon points out in his Modern Catholic Dictionary, the Church teaches that "A final effect of Communion is to remove the personal guilt of venial sins, and the temporal punishment [earthly and purgatorial] due to forgiven sins, whether venial or mortal."

XXV

Reception of Communion

RECEIVING THE HOST:

When you come up to receive the Host, you have the option of receiving in the hand or on the tongue. If you choose to receive in the hand, remember to hold your hands to receive the Host instead of taking the Host out of the priest’s hands! (It is the gift of God. Gift is received not snatched) St. Justin Martyr described receiving in the hand as “making a throne for the Lord,” your left hand over your right, so that you can then pick up the Host with your right hand to consume the Body of Christ. (If you’re left handed, you may want to reverse the order of the hands.) The priest or extraordinary minister holds the host in front of you and says, “The Body of Christ,” to which you will respond by bowing your head (not your full body) and saying “Amen.” No other gestures of reverence are necessary. And you immediately consume it before moving away from the station.

If you choose to receive on the tongue, the priest or extraordinary minister holds the host in front of you and says, “The Body of Christ,” to which you will respond by bowing your head (not your full body) and saying “Amen.” After saying “Amen,” immediately open your mouth wide enough for the priest or EM to place the Host on your tongue. Make sure that the priest’s or EM’s fingers are out of your mouth before closing your mouth.  Some people say “thank you” instead of Amen. Don’t thank the priest, it is not his gift for which he is to be thanked. It is the body of Christ and ministers are only custodians.

RECEIVING THE PRECIOUS BLOOD:

At Masses where communion is also distributed from the cup, you have the option of receiving from the cup as well. Receiving from the cup is never required, as the complete Body and Blood of Christ is present in both the Host and the cup. When you receive from the cup, the deacon, acolyte, or extraordinary minister holds the cup in front of you and says, “The Blood of Christ,” to which you will respond by bowing your head (not your full body) and saying “Amen.” When consuming the Precious Blood, take only a sip, so that there is enough for all to receive. If you choose not to receive from the cup, you should stop and bow as you pass the cup out of reverence for the Precious Blood.

If you receive with your hands, you run risk of tiny particle, which still is Jesus Christ, falls from your hand is trampled upon by yourself and everyone else in Church. Christ died for our sins and gave us Himself in the Eucharist to be our food, not to be trampled again by the negligent.

(Pope Benedict’s preference for receiving Holy Communion on tongue: “I am not opposed in principle to Communion in the hand; I have both administered and received Communion in this way myself. The idea behind my current practice of having people kneel to receive Communion on the tongue was to send a signal and to underscore the Real Presence with an exclamation point. One important reason is that there is a great danger of superficiality precisely in the kinds of Mass events we hold at Saint Peter’s, both in the Basilica and in the Square. I have heard of people who, after receiving Communion, stick the Host in their wallet to take home as a kind of souvenir. In this context, where people think that everyone is just automatically supposed to receive Communion — everyone else is going up, so I will, too—I wanted to send a clear signal. I wanted it to be clear: Something quite special is going on here! He is here, the One before whom we fall on our knees! Pay attention! This is not just some social ritual in which we can take part if we want to.")

The prerequisites for the reception of Holy Communion are 1) being in the state of grace, 2) having fasted for one hour (for the sick 15 minutes if possible, no fast if fasting is not possible), and 3) devotion and attention.

2.State of Grace. As St. Paul notes in his letter to Corinthians, reception after examining oneself is a prerequisite for worthy reception, otherwise Communion has the opposite effect from the desired union with our Lord. The scripture tells that Judas received the holy communion and Satan entered into him and he went out of the upper room immediately to betray the Lord. If you’re planning on committing a mortal sin in the days ahead, then you can’t repent. Holy Communion should not be received by people who are objectively contradicting the truth of Christ."

If our mind is still intent on doing the evil, and not ready to repent and the resolution not to sin any more we will get confirmed in the evil intention and the reception of the communion is going to fire back. God does not work against our will. If our will is to commit sin that will is not be changed to change by the reception of the communion.

This is why, out of respect for Christ and our own good, the Church obliges us to be in the state of grace when we receive. It should be noted, however, that some Catholics have the mistaken notion that they cannot go to Communion unless they go to Confession first. This is incorrect. Both the theology of the Church and her law oblige Confession ONLY when there is mortal sin. Confessions of devotion, however, are highly recommended. Thus, two errors are to be avoided, liberalism and rigorism.

If there is a grave sin and there is a practical impossibility to make the confession before receiving the communion, one may with true contrition receive the communion with the condition that one will make the confession at the earliest opportunity.

In "Ecclesia de Eucharistia," St. John Paul II teaches,

Along these same lines, the Catechism of the Catholic Church rightly stipulates that "anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to Communion."

Canon 915 forbids Holy Communion from being given to people who live such sinful lifestyles without repentance. "Those who have been ... obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."

But the Church in forming Her disciplines never judges the interior heart of man, which is known to God alone. Rather, Catholic discipline has always focused on the external and public acts of man, which can be judged as being in accord or not with Church teaching. And when man's external actions are gravely at odds with the Church's unchanging moral truths, then Holy Mother Church bans such men from receiving Holy Communion to prevent them from spiritually harming themselves by making a sacrilegious Communion.