On The Eucharist

Every now and then I wish I was a parish priest. This never occurs out of any reasonable desire for such a life, but mostly because I with the parish priests we do have were better at their jobs, a job which I as a layman am incapable of fulfilling.

Understanding that, if I were a parish priest next Sunday's homily would be on the Eucharist. It's relevant for a few reasons: one, it means thanksgiving, and my parishioners would be fresh off their Thanksgiving festivities, likely to enjoy left over turkey after mass. Such a topic is a sermon on it's own, but more to the point, I'd address what's going on in Rhode Island, with our pro-abortion supposedly-Catholic Congressman Patrick Kennedy. If you haven't heard, here's the long and short of it: Bishop Tobin reminded Congressman Kennedy that his pro-abortion stance is in fundamental disagreement with the Church's teachings. Kennedy said "that doesn't make me any less Catholic"; Bp. Tobin said "well, actually it does... being Catholic means you assent to Catholic teaching. Because of this, it isn't proper for you to receive the Eucharist".

So today I went to the dreaded (unfortunately!) Newman Center, giving it one last chance to redeem itself by presenting Church history in a positive light, or impressing the necessity of the sacraments, or faithfully teaching Church teaching. Unfortunately I was let down on all three fronts. What got me most worked up was the comment "I have largely ignored the Bishops and The Pope. I have no time for anybody who is going to say that you cannot receive The Eucharist".

I have no doubt that this gentleman speaks out of an understanding of the love and community of The Church, which is a fundamental message of the Gospel, no doubt. I don't think he is as much of a schismatic as he professes, I think he's just uneducated. And furthermore I think the majority of Catholics are just like him; the majority of non-Catholics no doubt simply do not understand the Church. So as a parish priest I would rectify the situation.

See, The Eucharist is The Body of Jesus. That is central to the whole thing. He said "this is my body", and that explains it quite well... that fact, as you might have guessed, has some implications, to put it mildly. Firstly, The Eucharist ought to be treated with extreme reverence: its God after all. I would encourage my parishioners to receive the Eucharist on the tongue, rather than holding Jesus in their hands. It's curious that we will use a fork so that our mashed potatoes and gravy doesn't touch our hands, but we won't take a simple measure to avoid The Eucharist touching our hands. But more to the point, the individual receiving The Eucharist must be in a state to do so! It's not as if we can ever merit receiving Jesus, or merit anything he did for us, or merit the fact that he existed at all, but what we can do is at least show a little respect.

Perhaps a whimsical example would illustrate the situation: imagine a average looking high school nerd right around prom time. By some miraculous event he ends up going to the prom with the best looking (read "most modest"), nicest (read "most Christian") gal in the school! In preparing for the prom he surely realizes that he is not worthy of such a wonderful date, nor is anything he does in the duration of the night going to earn him any merit, so is he going to show up in jeans, without having showered? No! He's going to dress himself up nice, clean his car and use a spray of cologne! That's what the Eucharist is like! It's not as if you are ever going to impress upon God the necessity of him giving you Jesus; he gives it to you out of love, just like the girl goes with the boy out of love, not out of any self-interest.

Make sure that you are in a worthy state to receive, lest you offend the God who so lovingly gave himself to you. Bp. Tobin isn't being a jerk; he's actually being all the more loving: he doesn't want Congressman Kennedy to have the grave sin of a sinful communion on his soul! And it truly would be sinful, lest we believe that The Church does not express the will of God in it's teachings, at which point you're really unprepared to receive the Eucharist anyways.

Recently I convinced an (now former!) nonpracticing Catholic to being going to Sunday mass with me. Unfortunately he did not go to Confession before. Now, time comes around to receive the Eucharist, and he gets in line! I said "wait! Did you go to confession?" and he said "No..." with a mostly-confused, slightly-angered look on his face. Thanks be to God he did not receive the Eucharist, and he later thanked me for reminding him. But what's going on! I haven't been Catholic for a whole year yet, and somehow these kids who were raised in The Church aren't aware, or at least it's not a pressing issue, that they need to be free of mortal sin, as a bare minimum, to receive the Eucharist? I'm proud to report that he went to confession for the first time in 5 years and became the second person I have had a meal with at Eau Claire who is in full standing with the Roman Catholic Church! He confessed to 82 year old, nearly miniature, Monsignor Klimick, who, so the penitent reported, dropped his Bible when he reported that it had been 5 years since his last confession. I made sure to find an extra loving priest for his return confession, and aside from his slippery fingers, I'm sure Monsignor Klimick fit the bill: the crusty priests are the real softies.

Hopefully you could walk away from mass understanding why it is that The Eucharist is not fit for reception by anybody who is not in full communion with The Church. It's not an elite club, and it's not a superiority thing: it's an issue of gratitude for what you are doing, and ultimately the Church hierarchy is only interested in protecting it's members, and it's non-members, from grave sin, nothing more, nothing less. Like everything else in life, you have to do a little work to reap the rewards of The Eucharist, and what a reward it is!