CORPUS CHRISTI

By Glen Leo Mendonca, 

                                                                    Pastoral Associate

"THEOLOGY IS WHAT YOU KNOW; RELIGION IS WHAT YOU DO. NO ONE CAN TEACH RELIGION. ONLY THEOLOGY." 

Early Christian writer, Cyril of Jerusalem, in writing his Catechetical

Discourses around A.D. 350, said that communicants should be "fully convinced that the apparent bread is not bread, even though it is sensible to the taste, but the body of Christ, and that the apparent wine is not wine, even though the taste would have it so."  Transubstantiation was decided upon at the Fourth Ecumenical Council of the Lateran 1215 as the only term, which completely and accurately describes the mystery of the Real Presence.  During this week we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

One of the six precepts of the Church remains that Catholics attend Mass on Sundays and holy days, good Christians will want to do, what one is supposed to do, and would do it out of love of God - to worship one's Creator. It is one's personal realization of and personal commitment to God.

Through the meal (Eucharist, Mass) you and I share - in the present as

Jesus rose from the dead and now lives - in the very life of the Lord.

Catholics who have not broken their relationship with God by serious sin receive Holy Communion. We shouldn't receive communion just because everyone else seems to. Communion is not a social event, but an intimate union with God.

IN 1986 the National Conference of Catholic Bishops issued guidelines for receiving Communion. These guidelines are as follows:

For Catholics

Catholics fully participate in the celebration of the Eucharist when they receive Holy Communion in fulfillment of Christ's command to eat His Body and drink His Blood. In order to be properly disposed to receive Communion, communicants should not be conscious of grave sin, have fasted for an hour, and seek to live in charity and love with their neighbors. Person’s conscious of grave sin must first be reconciled with God and the Church through the sacrament of Penance. A frequent reception of the sacrament of Penance is encouraged for all.

For other Christians

We welcome to this Celebration of the Eucharist those Christians who are not fully united with us. It is a consequence of the sad divisions in Christianity that we cannot extend to them a general invitation to receive Communion. Catholics believe that the Eucharist is an action of the celebrating community signifying an oneness in faith, life, and worship of the community. Reception of the Eucharist by Christians not fully united with us would imply an oneness which does not yet exist, and for which we must all pray.

For those not receiving Communion

Those not receiving sacramental Communion are encouraged to express in their hearts a prayerful desire for unity with the Lord Jesus and with one another.

For non Christians

We also welcome to this celebration those who do not share our faith in Jesus.

While we cannot extend to them an invitation to receive Communion, we do invite them to be united with us in prayer.

Two things here especially need to be noted. First, one must be in a state of grace to receive Communion. If one isn't, one commits sacrilege, which is irreverence towards what is sacred (I Cor. 11:27). Unworthy reception of Communion, therefore not only doesn't give one any graces, but it gives one a bigger spiritual deficit - better to remain quietly in the pew.

A grave sin fulfills three conditions.

(1). It involves a serious matter,

(2). One gives one's full consent to it.

(3). One has time for sufficient reflection on its seriousness - even a few seconds.

If any of these conditions is absent, one's act is either a venial sin or no sin at all. The Bishops emphasis is on frequent confession. All recent popes have gone to confession weekly. Safe to say, they have lived better than most of us, which suggest we need to confess more often than most of us are accustomed to, perhaps at least monthly.

The Gospel in a nutshell is 'you get what you give". In my experience we hardly talk of our experience of the divine relationship - with the living God. We have plentiful talk of our business and social relationships.

During this feast could we make an act of faith without much grousing and sulky attendance, could we make our external act of attending mass less perfunctory and more joyful in form - thereby we could be tip the balance and do religion.

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