As the government begins to the lift the restrictions from the Covid-19 crisis, there are many discussions about what the "new normal" will look like. These conversations are impacting all areas of our lives, including our Sunday worship at Holy Mass for us Catholics. There are conversations about how many people can be allowed into the church buildings, about how we safely social distance ourselves and keep our churches clean.
There is another conversation about the manner in which people receive our Lord in Holy Communion. There are some who are coming up with all sorts of ideas on this topic, such as individually prepackaged hosts, using kitchen tongs or other devices to distribute so as to avoid coming into contact with someone, setting up plastic barriers such as they have in grocery stores, or even in some cases, eliminating Holy Communion all together.
Along the same lines, there is another debate where some want to prohibit people from receiving Communion on the tongue, as opposed to on the hand. Some bishops are evening trying to legislate this, going against the law of the church, (Redemptionis Sacramentum, 92 and GIRM 161 ) which says that someone ALWAYS has the right to receive on the tongue and can never be refused for receiving in this reverent, pious and traditional way. This is nothing new, this is an ongoing debate within the Church, a debate in which the Vatican has given clear directives on multiple occasions.
But this is not the conversation or debate that I think is most necessary right now as Churches begin to reopen. Don't get me wrong, we need to continue to uphold the law of the church and stand up against those pushing their progressive agendas. Clearly, I am a big proponent of people receiving Holy Communion on the tongue and I will just add one thought on this argument amidst the coronavirus crisis and that is that I can give Holy Communion on the tongue without touching someone's tongue (especially if they are kneeling, but I can NOT reverently give out Holy Communion without touching someone's hand - just a thought.
As people prepare to head back to Holy Mass, and many coming back with a tremendous desire and hunger to receive our Lord in the Eucharist, something which is truly beautiful, we should use this as an opportunity to remember that we should only receive Holy Communion if we are in a "State of Grace" meaning that we are not aware of any grave or mortal sins that we have not confessed. Holy Mass is not the only thing that people haven't had access to in these past two months, in many dioceses, people also haven't had the opportunity to "Go to Confession."
We read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that “The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive Him in the Sacrament of the Eucharist: "Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you"(John 6:53). To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: "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 (1 Cor 11:27-29) Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion. (CCC 1384-5).
There is an important distinction to be made here, namely that we are all sinners and unworthy to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, but there is a difference between being a sinner who recognizes they have sinned and repents and seeks for forgiveness and those who remain in a state of sin. We can never receive our Lord in Holy Communion in a state of sin, we must go to confession first.
This is the real conversation that I think we should be having as a Church, not just as we reopen our churches, but continually: to our children preparing for their First Holy Communion and to our Confirmation students; preaching about it regularly and offering many opportunities for confession and continually reminding our people of what it means to receive our Lord worthily and to go to confession regularly, namely of what it means to be a practicing Catholic.
For many people, being stuck home these past weeks have given them a real opportunity to look at different areas of their lives and hopefully to make some resolutions and reprioritize their lives, and I pray that some may even make the decision to come back to Church. The Church is here to welcome them back with open arms! The Church is here to welcome back those who have been here all along until the government shut us down, those who have been gone for years for one reason or another, and everyone in between. But let's not forget, its not just coming back to Mass, its coming back to confession too.
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