Catholics at Communion
By Edward Foley,
Capuchin, Professor of Liturgy and Music
For Roman Catholics there are few if any religious acts as potent and powerful as that of receiving communion. In this singular ritual streams of revelation, salvation history, theology and devotion converge.
Central is the memory of Jesus, whom the New Testament represents as God's Son insistently revealing his covenant of love and message of reconciliation through table ministry, through daily eating and drinking with women and men of every station. He revealed himself in John's gospel as the Bread of Life and announced that those who feasted on him would live forever. The Jesus revelation in the New Testament culminates in a final meal with his disciples, a last supper, in which Jesus invites his disciples to take and eat his body, to take and drink of the covenant in his blood.
This focal ritual of eating and drinking what Roman Catholics believe is the sacramental presence of Christ was pivotal for the very development of Christianity. Some have argued that this meal activity that became to be known as Eucharist actually gave rise to the Church and that the "church was born around the table." Pope John Paul II's recent letter on the Eucharist acknowledges this tradition when the pope writes: "The Church draws her life from the Eucharist." This act of receiving communion -- of eating the consecrated bread and drinking the consecrated wine -- was the final act of incorporation in the community of believers. Even today, when adults enter the Catholic Church, they do so through an initiation ritual which culminates in communion.
Ironically, over the centuries Catholic Christians communed less frequency. Often because of an overemphasis on their sinfulness, believers were content with watching the host being raised, or making an act of spiritual communion rather than actually eating and drinking. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, popes and other church leaders began to emphasize more frequent communion. The age for making one's first communion was lowered to 7 or 8, what Roman Catholics consider to be the age of reason. Frequent communion was bolstered by the Second Vatican Council which in 1963 declared that norm for judging the reform of Catholic worship would be the active participation of the people and that the more perfect form of the people's participation was their receiving of communion.
Some have suggested that Roman Catholics share a particular form of religious or sacramental imagination which makes them comfortable employing material things in expressing their faith. A Catholic church is apt to have candles, and statues, and a display of holy oils. Of all the symbols of our faith, none invites more intimacy with God and identification with other baptized Catholics than the act of receiving consecrated bread and wine. Many do it every Sunday. Some do it every day.
Preventing someone from receiving communion is a very serious act, for it announces a break in their communion with Church which is also thought of as Christ's body. By withholding communion the church publicly symbolizes that rift between the person and the church by denying the person what the church believes to be a most intimate and gracious encounter with the God of Jesus Christ. It is not surprising, then, that there be concern, public discussion and serious reflection when Catholics are barred from the table.