Tag: Intercommunion

Restless Heart: 5 – “Intercommunion”

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Communion

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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Non-Catholics receiving Communion?

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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.

communion

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Justin Time!

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Justin MartyrYesterday I identified some of the common features recognizable by Catholics in St. Justin’s description of the Second Century liturgy. There were two other comments I wanted to make about the extract we studied last night in the JP2 Group from Justin’s First Apology.

Accept no imitations

It is popular these days to assert that Christianity just stole ideas from all the other religions around it. It is fortuitous, therefore, that we have the testimony of Justin asserting that it was the Mithras cult which imitated the Christian Eucharist and not the other way around:

“This the wicked devils have imitated, commanding the same thing to be done in the mysteries of Mithras. There, in the mystic rites of initiation, bread and a cup of water are placed amid certain incantations. This you already know or can discover”

Now, whether you choose to believe Justin’s assertion is another matter, but it is significant that we have a Christian writing to a Pagan Emperor trying to set the record straight.

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