2022/11/28

67. The Holy Communion

Recently, I had the opportunity to see people kneeling to receive Communion at the Mass. The Mass was celebrated by a religious priest, so the way may have been the policy of the congregation to which he belongs. Prayer kneelers were set up at the end of the aisle by the wall of the chapel. The faithful who wish to receive Holy Communion on their tongues with their lips open in front of the priest go there and kneel to receive the Eucharist. Those who receive Communion with their hands line up in the centre aisle and receive the Eucharist standing up. This division of the way of receiving Communion made me realize something I had never thought of before.  

I have heard that the reason why the congregation receive Communion on their tongues opening their lips is that not a single particle of the Eucharist, the body of Christ, should fall to the ground and because some impious people may take the Eucharist home without eating it, and also, I heard the priest is responsible for these things. But the following words of Jesus testify that these concerns are needless. "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's will. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore" (Matthew 10:28-31). 

In addition, as discussed in the last issue, if every communicant proclaimed before the Eucharist, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16), the responsibility to receive the Eucharist correctly would rest with the communicant himself. It is a matter of course that communicants recognized by the Church, even children, are expected to behave responsibly before God. And they must be trained to do so (cf. Blog № 37). Once this is in place, it will become no longer necessary to receive Communion with open lips. The danger would rather lie with the priest himself, who sees people kneeling before him at every Mass with their lips open and tongues out. The priest who stands and looks down on these people is in danger of mistakenly thinking that the authority of the "priesthood" as "spiritual shepherds" who "are representatives of Christ" (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 37) is his own. 

The lips are one of the most delicate organs of the human body. Therefore, any method of Communion in which the priest's fingers may touch the communicant's lips should be abandoned as soon as possible. Furthermore, among the congregation who receive Communion are women dressed with a plunging neckline and young people and children who innocently open their lively lips. These realities pose a graver danger to some priests. In his memoir, Daniel Pittet, whom I introduced in the blogs № 61 and № 62, prefacing his account by saying, "My words may be offensive at times," wrote: "[The priest] pulled his enlarged 'thing' out of his underwear and forcibly forced it into my mouth. It happened so fast. It was as if I was dreaming. Uncomfortably warm liquid overflew out of his 'thing,' and that was the end." The Church has an obligation to show its sincerity by removing all seeds of danger from its whole body in the face of these enormous numbers of victims.

Maria K. M.