How does the world sin against Holy Communion?
Most of humanity sins by not obeying the command of Jesus, “Take this, all of you, and eat it, and drink from it.”
Christians outside the Catholic and Orthodox traditions sin by failing to recognise that Jesus wishes to feed us with his true body and blood by the hand of a priest.
Christians within the Catholic and Orthodox traditions sin
- If they personally don’t believe the Real Presence
- If they receive communion without examining their own sins
- If they don’t receive Holy Communion in a reverent manner
The teaching of the Catholic Church is that a communicant may receive Holy Communion in the hand or on the tongue. It is always permitted to receive on the tongue, and communion in the hand is authorised at a national level, not by individual priests.
I believe that reverence is fundamentally an attitude of heart. It is possible to receive Holy Communion reverently in the hand. For years, before my ordination as priest, I did so myself – I would take the Host, step to one side, make a short prayer in my heart of trust and recognition of the Lord who deigned to dwell in my hand at that moment, and then consume the host. I also believe it is possible to receive Holy Communion on the tongue irreverently – through a sinful lifestyle, immodest dress, or by an ostentatious display of piety in receiving communion.
I am aware that there are currents of opinion which say Our Lord or Our Lady have told certain visionaries that Jesus does not want communion in the hand; or that the official permission was only granted because of pressure from certain lobbies (possibly Masonic) within the Church; or that Mother Teresa of Calcutta, now Blessed, is alleged to have disapproved of the practice. But Our Lord entrusted Peter with authority over his Church, and there cannot be the case that anything which the Successor of Peter has formally permitted could be intrinsically irreverent. I applaud those Catholics who receive on the tongue because they believe it is “more reverent”. I also applaud those who exercise their choice, in nations where it is permitted, to receive in their hand in order to have a moment of reverent recollection free from the distractions of the movement of the communion queue and having already responded “Amen” dependent on the timing of the communion minister.
© Revd Dr Gareth Leyshon, 2010. Permission freely granted to copy this text as long as the content is unedited and the source attributed.
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