Communion not the same in all Christian churches

by Bob Zyskowski, The Catholic Spirit

In his encyclical on the Eucharist, Pope John Paul II focuses at length on the apostolic nature of the priesthood, stressing the importance of the Catholic belief that the continuity with the practice of the apostles gives integrity and validity to the Catholic celebration of the Eucharist today.

The Catholic Church, he says, keeps and hands on the "good deposit" of Catholic teaching that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus truly present when consecrated by a validly ordained priest. It is this consistent teaching, the pope says, that gives validity to Catholic thinking and teaching - this is what we’ve always believed and always taught.

Other churches and traditions whose members also receive Communion "have not preserved the genuine and total reality of the eucharistic mystery," the pope writes in "Ecclesia de Eucharistia" - ("On the Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church").

Some other Christian traditions fail to see Christ as truly present in the Eucharist, St. Paul Seminary professor Thomas Fisch noted. Others do not believe in the sacrificial nature of the sacrament or see Eucharist as a symbol or a spiritual presence. Some lack clergy whose succession goes back to the apostles.

The pope says, therefore, that Catholics should refrain from receiving the Eucharist at non-Catholic churches "so as not to condone an ambiguity about the nature of the Eucharist." The pope called it unthinkable that an ecumenical celebration or service of common prayer could substitute for Sunday Mass.

The Holy Father says that the Eucharist "cannot be the starting-point for communion," but that we should be able to "presuppose that communion already exists" among those who are receiving the sacrament. That bond between Catholics has both visible and invisible dimensions, the pope says.

In terms of the invisible, it presupposes a life of grace among the recipients and the practice of the virtues of faith, hope and love, he notes. The pope quotes both St. John Chrysostom - "I beseech, beg, and implore that no one draw near to this sacred table with a sullied and corrupt conscience" - and the Catechism of the Catholic Church - "anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of reconciliation before coming to communion" - in urging us to examine our consciences to see if we are worthy to receive, and, if not, to be reconciled through penance. The pope also examines the concept of public sin.

"The judgement of one’s state of grace obviously belongs only to the person involved, since it is a question of examining one’s conscience," he writes. "However, in cases of outward conduct which is seriously, clearly and steadfastly contrary to the moral norm, the church, in her pastoral concern for the good order of the community and out of respect for the sacrament, cannot fail to feel directly involved." The resulting action in response to an obstinate persistence of grave sin is that the perpetrator is not to be admitted to Eucharistic communion, the pope says.

As far as the visible dimension of eucharistic communion, the Holy Father says that, to attain that communion and be in communion one must accept the whole structure of the church framework, governing authorities, bonds and sacraments. Therefore, he says, "It is not possible to give Communion to a person who is not baptized or to one who rejects the full truth of the faith regarding the eucharistic mystery."

What the pope is saying very simply here, the seminary’s Fisch said, is that those who receive communion in the Catholic Church ought to believe in the same things and be in communion with the pope and the bishops.

Writing to us about the divisions that are polarizing the church today, the pope notes that, in the early days of the church, St. Paul himself warned the faithful of Corinth that the divisions in their eucharistic gatherings contradicted what they were celebrating. The great evangelist urged the Corinthians to reflect on the true reality of the Eucharist in order to return to the spirit of fraternal communion, which is primarily what John Paul II is doing with this encyclical.

The pope says that all Catholics are responsible for the "safeguarding and promotion" of church unity and communion, but specifically called it a task of the church’s pastors to be sure that the church’s norms are followed "both at fostering the frequent and fruitful access of the faithful to the eucharistic table and at determining the objective conditions under which communion may not be given."

The Holy Father speaks very directly about the ecumenical ramifications of the church’s teachings about the Eucharist.

Unity of the Christians churches is a worthy goal, the pope writes, but sharing of the Eucharist would not advance that initiative.

He says: "Precisely because the church’s unity . . . absolutely requires full communion in the bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments and ecclesiastical governance, it is not possible to celebrate together the same eucharistic liturgy until those bonds are fully re-established."

The pope says that any intermingled celebration of the Catholic Mass with those of another tradition would not be valid, "and might well prove instead to be an obstacle to the attainment of full communion by weakening the sense of how far we remain from this goal and by introducing or exacerbating ambiguities with regard to one or another truth of the faith."

However, John Paul does allow for exceptions. Under special circumstances - which the Holy Father describes as "to meet a grave spiritual need for the eternal salvation of an individual believer" - Eucharist may be given to a person who belongs to another faith tradition. This exception, he says, is not to be used to justify intercommunion between Catholics and those of other churches. Intercommunion, the pope writes, "remains impossible until the visible bonds of ecclesial communion are fully re-established."