The worthy reception of holy Communion is the fullest way to fulfill the divine call to consciously and actively participate in the Mass. It’s certainly not the only way. We are still obligated to attend holy Mass even when we cannot receive holy Communion due to grave sin. But all other ways point to and are fulfilled in the worthy reception of holy Communion, when that Communion is received and celebrated in the context of the public celebration of the Mass.
It’s important to understand what that phrase “worthy reception” means. It does not refer to any particular posture the faithful may assume when receiving holy Communion, or whether we choose to receive our Lord on the tongue or in the hand. We may choose to receive holy Communion on the tongue, but when we use that same tongue to defame our neighbor and spread gossip, do we really believe that our manner of reception is more reverent than anyone else’s? Likewise, when we receive holy Communion on the hand but refrain from extending that hand to the poor and needy, do we truly believe that God will be fooled by our amen? We can fool ourselves. We cannot fool God.
To receive holy Communion worthily and well involves a heart that is striving to be shaped and conformed into the very One we receive. As the old adage goes, we are what we eat. This is doubly true of the Manna from heaven. A reverent reception of holy Communion makes us into the One we consume, or rather consummates the grace of baptism, that most foundational of sacraments when we were first grafted onto Christ. The amen of holy Communion is more than just an affirmation of belief in the real presence of Jesus. It is an affirmation of a way of life that is radically centered upon the will of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a life of sacrificial love, forgiveness and courage unto death.
What is more, it is also to grow ever more attached to those things that Jesus is attached to — the poor, the penitent, justice and the Church. This last one may not be something we properly consider when we utter our amen at holy Communion. Jesus loves the Church. Scripture speaks of the Church as his bride. But don’t be fooled by those who make the distinctions between the institutional Church and the “real Church.” The Second Vatican Council explicitly rejects this easy divorce. We’re people of both/and. The Church is both human and divine, hierarchical and spiritual. You can’t separate the two any more than you can separate the human and divine natures of the Messiah. It is one thing with multiple realities coexisting in its mystery.
Scripture speaks of heaven as a wedding banquet, and the Mass begins this mystery on Earth. But weddings are not about two solitary individuals being joined in vows and life — it is a union of the totality of the other, which includes in-laws, the family history of the beloved and family trauma. So too with us — love of Christ necessarily means love of the Church, because he loves her. Put another way, to receive Jesus in holy Communion is to receive the whole Jesus, including his obnoxious friends.
None of us are fully conformed to this Jesus just yet. We fail constantly in love and that death to self that is the only road home. It is perfectly true to say that holy Communion is not for the perfect. But it does demand an effort and a choice — to become more like the One who is Bread for the world. And to love what he loves, including the Church.
Transubstantiation is a great mystery. How is it possible that the accidents of bread and wine remain and yet the substance has become Christ himself? And yet how greater still is the miracle of our own transformation into Christ, the awesome mystery of our own consecration. And so may the world look up and see only Jesus in us as we exit the church building and live the moment of holy Communion. May the Father, who sees the heart, recognize his Son in us on that day of judgment that will come to us all, whether we are kneeling or standing, with hand or tongue extended. May our very lives be a Eucharistic procession, challenging all who look upon it to question, to marvel and to follow.
Father Erickson is parochial vicar of Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul and interim chairman of the Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission.
