Eucharist: Food for the Sick, Not a Prize for the Perfect” INTRODUCTION (To Be Followed By Parts 1, 2, and 3)
Dear Friends: I wanted to take this space and this opportunity to reflect briefly with you on a specific aspect of our Catholic faith; namely, that of receiving Holy Communion. These thoughts are based on 3 aspects of my life and ministry: 1. my role as a presider at liturgy, 2. my interaction with several young Catholics and older as well, and 3. my understanding of Catholic Church teaching. Each time we celebrate Mass, after the “Lamb of God” and what we refer to as the “fractioning rite” (the breaking of the Hosts), the priest elevates a broken half of the large Host and proclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the Supper of the Lamb.” The assembly then responds, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.” The previous translation read, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.” The current translation is taken from the Gospel of Matthew 8:8 and the Centurion’s request that Jesus heal his servant. I want to share with you what that response means to me personally. In my mind, how can any of us truly “be worthy” of such great love. In that moment during Mass, my prayer and dialogue with God is simply this, “Oh God, I am not worthy of all that You, in Your goodness, have done for me. Still, you invite me to come to You. I know you accept me in my imperfection. Please strengthen me by this sacrament. I thank You for loving me in this way.” In no way do I feel, in that moment, “beat down” or scorned. I feel just the opposite, God looking down at me and saying, “Come to me. Let me feed you.” I guess my concern at this point is what appears to possibly be an overemphasis by some on the letter of the law, leading to an unhealthy scrupulosity, when it comes to “receiving communion.” My perception, however, is just that—a perception, which means I could be flat-out wrong. I would pause here to suggest that another way to word it would be to say that we, “enter into communion.” We enter into communion with Christ present in the community, in Word, and in sacrament. So, it is much more than simply “going to communion.”
I wanted to use 3 separate articles to speak briefly to 3 aspects of our relationship with Jesus Christ in Holy Eucharist: First, being what we term “properly disposed” to receive Eucharist; second, the physical manner in which we receive communion; and third, all of this as it relates to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, also commonly known as Confession. I will take up the first aspect in next week’s column. For now, though, I will leave you with the words of Father Richard Rohr, OFM, an American Franciscan priest and writer, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church in 1970. He writes, the Eucharist is, “not a prize for the perfect or a reward for good behavior, rather food for the human journey and medicine for the sick. We come forward not because we are worthy but because we are all wounded and somehow ‘unworthy.’” (The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe. Rohr, Richard. 2019. Convergent Books.)
Next week’s topic, “Part I: Should Anything Keep Me from Receiving Eucharist?”