Friday Frivolity: Cheeky Eastern Catholic Kid
Tag: Communion
Restless Heart: 5 – “Intercommunion”
Unfortunately, this episode I’m flying solo! Nessa wasn’t able to make it so I thought it best to record on my own, rather than let another week pass without a new episode. In today’s episode I tackle the delicate subject of “Intercommunion” and explain why, under normal circumstances, the Eucharist is not given to non-Catholic Christians.
Episode 5: Intercommunion (Download)
— Notes —
* This episode was based on a two-part series I wrote a few years ago.
* I quote from two Early Church Fathers in this episode. The first is St. Justin Martyr:
“This food we call [the Eucharist], and no one is allowed to partake but he who believes that our doctrines are true, who has been washed with the washing for the remission of sins and rebirth, and who is living as Christ has enjoined… “
“…We do not receive these as common bread and drink. For Jesus Christ our Saviour, made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation. Likewise, we have been taught that the food blessed by the prayer of his word…is the flesh and blood of Jesus who was made flesh.”
– Justin Martyr, First Apology, Chapter 66 (~ AD 150)
* The second Father I quote is St. Ignatius of Antioch:
“They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess the Eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, in His loving-kindness, raised from the dead”
– Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, Chapter 7 (~AD 97)
* I also quote from a portion of one of St. Paul’s letters:
“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died”
– 1 Corinthians 11:29–30
* The Spiritual Communion prayer I quote is as follows:
“My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen”
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The Eucharistic Minister’s Words
Every now and then I have readers email me directly. Here’s one I received earlier this week:
“Last week my Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion was saying, “THIS IS THE Body of Christ.” It struck me as wrong. Is this ad-libbing, embellishing, inappropriate, or no problem?”
In case anyone is interested, here was my reply…
Non-Catholics receiving Communion?
Reception of the Holy Eucharist has recently been the subject of scrutiny in the media, prompted by some of the discussions taking place in the “Synod on the Family”. In my own life, Holy Communion was also the subject of a recent incident concerning a friend of mine.
You see, a friend recently went to a Catholic conference together with a Protestant. Being a Catholic event, there was, of course, the celebration of the Eucharist. When time for Mass came, the non-Catholic was upset that she couldn’t go up to receive the Eucharist. She couldn’t do this because, under ordinary circumstances, the Catholic Church does not allow non-Catholics to receive Holy Communion.
“…members of those churches with whom we are not yet fully united are ordinarily not admitted to Communion”
– United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Guidelines For communion”
In this post I would like to provide a summary of what I say when I’m asked why it is that the Catholic Church doesn’t allow anyone to receive Holy Communion (the Eastern Orthodox Churches have similar rules for similar reasons). As usual, this won’t be an exhaustive theological explanation, simply a rough outline of the kind of thing I personally say when I’m asked to explain this particular Catholic teaching.
Early Church and Receiving Communion
There’s a lot of discussion online at the moment about the conditions under which people may or may not receive communion. I have another post in draft on this subject, but I wanted to do a quick post outlining some of the earliest Church testimony on this subject.
In the First Century, the Didache teaches the following:
“On the Lord’s day, gather yourselves together and break bread, give thanks, but first confess your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. However, let no one who is at odds with his brother come together with you, until he has reconciled, so that your sacrifice may not be profaned.” – Didache (Chapter 14)
So here we see that unrepentant sin or in a state of disunity cannot receive communion. We find Justin Martyr in the Second Century saying something very similar:
“This food we call Eukaristia [the Eucharist], and no one is allowed to partake but he who believes that our doctrines are true, who has been washed with the washing for the remission of sins and rebirth, and who is living as Christ has enjoined” – St. Justin Martyr, First Apology (Chapter 66)
Here we find the three basic conditions to receiving communion: baptized, assent to Church doctrine and right living.
I’ve got a more substantial post in the works on the subject of interdenominational communion which I’ll publish next week…
Friday Frivolity: Maybe today just isn’t your day?
Mega Mass Meme
Last weekend we had the “Mega Mass” here in San Diego, where the Bishop celebrated the Eucharistic liturgy with approximately 600 Young Adults. Since I now only occasionally go to a Roman Rite Mass, I did find it a little strange. Among the things which now seem a little alien to me, in particular, is receiving the Eucharist from someone other than a priest.
Although I didn’t receive Communion from a priest, I received from the next best thing, the SWAT commando of Catholics, my friend Artzell. Art has a way of bringing out the uber-Catholic in me. The first time we met, we ended up having a huge argument as to which of us had the more powerful patron Saint and which of us most desired martyrdom 🙂
So anyway, to mark the occasion, I created a meme parodying the Dos Equis adverts:
The article Mega Mass Meme first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net