SAINT PAUL’S INSTRUCTION ON HOW TO RECEIVE COMMUNION

 

SAINT PAUL’S INSTRUCTION ON HOW TO RECEIVE COMMUNION

The first instructions which the faithful received about how to receive Holy Communion is found in the eleventh chapter of St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.  Apparently, there was inappropriate behavior by some of the Christians in Corinth when they would gather for prayer.  He writes, “I do not praise the fact that your meetings are doing more harm than good.”   This is an important point.  Poorly celebrated liturgy does more harm than good.  Receiving Christ unworthily also does more harm than good. 

It appears that the Corinthians would gather together for a meal before they celebrated the Eucharist.  There were no churches at that time and the liturgy would be celebrated in someone’s home, which would make for a less formal seating arrangement than what we have today.  Paul heard that the people were divided, with the wealthier sitting apart and not sharing their food.  You can feel his frustration when he writes, “Do you show contempt for the church of God and make those who have nothing feel ashamed?”  He instructs them to wait for one another.  Chances are, the poorer members had to come in from work – Sunday was not a day off – while the richer ones could arrive early and eat and get drunk.  “When you come together to eat, wait for one another.  If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that your meeting might not result in judgment.”  We see here the beginnings of the happy movement to separate the Eucharistic celebration from being preceded by a common meal. 

Paul provides a beautiful account of the institution of the Eucharist: “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’  In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.”  Then Paul provides a warning: “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.  A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.  That is why many of you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying.”  This discipline from the Lord has a saving purpose, “so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”

We need to keep St. Paul’s admonition in mind.  When we approach the altar, as Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, if we are aware that a brother or sister has something against us, we should leave the gift at the altar and go seek reconciliation (Mat 5:23-24).  We must not harbor prejudice or ill thoughts towards a fellow believer when we go to Holy Communion.  We must also discern the body, as truly the Body of Christ, which is celebrated by holy Church, which is also called the body of Christ.  I believe that Paul is speaking here of the Eucharistic elements as well as the communion which must exist among the faithful if they are to worthily receive Christ’s Body.  This is why we must go to a priest to confess our sins if we have sinned gravely, because our sin separates us not only from communion with God, but also with his Church.  In the Sacrament of Penance the priest is Christ when he says the words of absolution: “I forgive you of your sins.”  He is also a presbyter, an “elder” of the Church, in the succession of the apostles, with the power to welcome sinners back into communion with the Church. 

Thus, according to the apostolic teaching, to receive the Eucharist we must recognize it as the true Body and Blood of Christ, and at the same time be in the full communion of the saints.  That is, we must be united sancta et sacra, “in holy things” and “among holy persons,” sharing the same faith, the same Sacraments, and the same worship.  We also must be united in fraternal charity with God’s people, obedient to the fatherly authority of the Pope and Bishops, and submissive to the sacred Tradition.  For in the celebration of the Eucharist, as the Second Vatican Council taught, “the unity of believers, who form one body in Christ, is both represented and brought about” (Lumen Gentium 3).