I want to follow up on yesterday’s post
with the next part of the Mass commentary. There is a unity between what I
wrote about yesterday—the impossibility of receiving the Eucharist in a state
of mortal sin—and what comes next in the Mass.
After the Lord’s Prayer, the praying of
which signifies the fundamental union with God made possible by Jesus Christ
which will be brought to perfection in the rite of communion, comes the ritual
Sign of Peace in which we express to those immediately around us some gesture
of peace and good will.
This has rich scriptural significance. We
can think of the Gospel passage where the Lord tells us to be reconciled with
our neighbor before we can offer our gifts on the altar.
The Eucharist not only brings to
perfection our union with God, but also brings to perfection our union with one
another in the communion of Christ’s Body, the Church. And as we cannot receive
communion if we are in a state of mortal sin (and hence not in union with God
to start with), so we cannot receive communion if we are not in union with the
Catholic Church, either.
This is a painful subject—disunity always
is, isn’t it? But we cannot wish painful subjects away. Now there is a
difference between these two types of union. The question of being in a state
of sin is something only the person can answer—conscience is inviolable, and
only God and the soul can make that discernment.
Union with the Church, on the other hand,
is a matter of the outer forum, visible to anyone who knows the facts of a
situation. If a person has made choices in their life that remove them from communion
with the Catholic Church, not only should they themselves not receive the
Eucharist, but the pastors of the Church have a duty to inform them of this
fact.
So, someone who is simply not Catholic,
but belongs to some other religion, or who has left the Church for some other
system of belief and way of life. People who have made moral decisions that
publicly declare that they are not bound by or under the authority of the
Catholic Church in any regard. Couples co-habitating without any form of
marriage, or people doing intrinsically evil things in their work lives (the
Mafia, for example, or the owner of a strip club). People who not only struggle
with a homosexual orientation but who are publicly living as gay men or women
in a same-sex relationship. People who have taken a public stand opposing the
Church in its moral or dogmatic teachings—politicians, say, advocating laws
that directly oppose the moral teachings of the Church.
And yes, (since this is the controversy
of the day) people who have not only been divorced but have entered into a
second marriage without having gone through the annulment process for their
original one. Any one of these people in any of these categories may or may not
be in a state of subjective sin—I would never dream of flatly stating that—but
they have indeed objectively removed themselves from the communion the Church.
This is painful, yes. We are all free to
choose what we will believe and what we will do in our lives. But our choices
bear consequences. If I freely choose to, say, write a blog post where I flatly
deny some basic matter of Christian doctrine, I am indeed free to do so. But I
am not free to do so and then continue to exercise my ministry as a Roman
Catholic priest. Freedom yes, but freedom without consequences? No.
So if someone has chosen to reject
Catholicism, they may do so. But they really must not present themselves in the
communion line, then. Reception of the Eucharist is not only about our union
with God; it is also about our union with Christ’s Body on earth, the Church.
It is not a question of having to be some
perfect Catholic who gets every answer right on a catechism test and never asks
a question or struggles with a doctrine. Of course not. It is a matter of the
public and manifest stands we have taken in our words and in our actions.
For example, you can really struggle with
the Church’s flat statement that sex outside of marriage is wrong. You can not
be at all sure that’s quite correct, and still choose not to move in with your
girlfriend because you nonetheless want to live your life as a Catholic. But if
you and your girlfriend do move in together, you have made a choice to publicly
reject the Catholic faith. See the difference?
And so in the Mass before we go to
receive communion we ritually express all this, first in our praying to God as
our Father and then turning to one another to express our unity as a body of
believers. And only then, in a spirit of deep humility and knowledge of our
unworthiness, do we come forward to receive the Holy Eucharist, the Body and
Blood of Jesus Christ, at which point the Mass and all it has signified becomes
our own mystery, our own life, and we are drawn into it in fullness and in
truth.
Let us pray to receive the Eucharist
knowing what we are doing and being vigilant to receive it worthily and well,
so that it’s fruits may be shown forth in our lives.
