ASK THE ACOLYTE

Mark Biolo

I have noticed that some people receive Holy Communion on the tongue. Wasn’t that done away with after Vatican II?

No, in fact, receiving Holy Communion on the tongue remains a perfectly valid option. Your question does raise the issue, however, of proper decorum in receiving the Eucharist.

We must begin with the quiz, however, so your question for the day is, what is Ordinary Time??

On to Holy Communion. First, let me put in a plug for Pope John Paul II’s recent encyclical letter, Eccleisa de Eucharistia, or "On the Eucharist in Its Relation to the Church". This very powerful encyclical was released on Holy Thursday of this year and is a magnificent dissertation on what the Vatican II Fathers called the "source and summit of Christian life". You can find the text for this encyclical at the Vatican website (www.vatican.va), the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website (www.usccb.org), or you can purchase it in booklet form from Pauline Books and Media. The purpose of the Holy Father’s encyclical is to rekindle, as he puts it, the "Eucharistic amazement". And it will certainly do so for all who read it!

What Jesus did for us at the Last Supper is almost incomprehensible. Pope John Paul II says, "When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of Our Lord’s death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and the work of our salvation is carried out. This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after he had left us a means of sharing in it as if we had been present there. Each member of the faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly share in its fruits." With the words of consecration bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. And we are able to receive Him, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in Holy Communion. How awesome is that?!!

In order to receive Christ in this most incredible sacrament we must, of course, be in a state of grace. That is, we must not be in a state of mortal sin. That should go without saying but I often wonder about that when I see parishes of 1500 or more families where every one seems to go to communion on Sunday – several thousand people – and yet barely a handful find their way to church for confession. Maybe they have a congregation full of folks ready for canonization. Or maybe there are people who fail to understand the great gift of the Eucharist and what constitutes a "state of grace". Mortal sin may be a good topic for another discussion but it bears remembering that things like fornication, missing Mass on Sunday, taking the Lord’s name in vain, and so on do preclude one from being in proper disposition to receive the Eucharist.

So what is "proper decorum"? First, a profound sense of reverence is the basis for proper action in receiving communion. We must never forget that in Holy Communion we receive the Body and Blood of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. [As a sidebar, it is very troubling to know that there are some folks who call themselves Catholic yet do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. They think of the Eucharist as merely a symbol of the Body and Blood of Jesus. This is a wholly Protestant theology!! Of course for Protestants, a symbol is as good as it gets. Since they do not have a valid priesthood, their ministers cannot confect the Eucharist. In Catholicism, however, each and every priest can trace his ordination back to the Apostles. This "apostolic succession" of Holy Orders provides our priests with power to consecrate ordinary bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.] Well, since we do receive the Body of Christ, we should always perform some sign of reverence before receiving the host. In the United States, a bow of the head is the most usual sign (and the most practical). When receiving in the hand, the left hand should be placed over the right (vice versa for lefties), palms up, and the communicant should wait for the minister to place the host in the palm of the receiving hand. Since the gesture is one of receiving Our Lord, IT IS NEVER PROPER TO GRASP OR TAKE THE HOST FROM THE MINISTER. When the Blessed Sacrament is presented with the words "The Body of Christ", the required response is "Amen". This response is an affirmation of one’s faith and one’s belief in the real presence of Christ. It is an integral part of receiving the Eucharist and must not be neglected. Self intinction (dipping the host in the Precious Blood) is NEVER permitted. Only the priest may provide communion by intinction. Similarly, self-communication (taking the host from the ciborium) is NEVER permitted.

So there you have it – proper decorum in receiving that most magnificent gift, the Eucharist. In short, be reverent, use a gesture of reception (either on the tongue or in the hand and do NOT take the host from the minister), give some sign of reverence (a bow of the head is good), and always answer "Amen"!

P.S.

Ordinary Time constitutes the "numbered Sundays" where we come to know Christ in our midst through the synoptic gospels. Ordinary comes from the Latin "ordo", meaning in methodical order. As always, check out the previous column for all the details.