Transcription
Why is it so important to receive communion worthily? Why can failure to do so lead to such dire consequences? Let's get into [Music] it.
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The Second Vatican Council describes the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Christian life, but not everyone understands why. In fact, people have a lot of questions and even objections to Catholic teaching and practice regarding the Eucharist. For example, some wonder why the Catholic Church doesn't practice open communion like some churches and invite any and all baptized Christians to receive. Communion isn't given to absolutely everyone in a Catholic church. And the church stresses the need to receive it worthily. So, let's review some of the basics about the Eucharist and its importance in Christian life.
Anyone who attends mass regularly knows that the Eucharist was instituted by Jesus on the night he was betrayed just before the crucifixion. However, its roots go deeper in history. The foundational event of Israel's national life was the Exodus when God took his people out of Egypt. At that time, God instituted the Passover meal in which the Israelites sacrificed a lamb, painted it their doorposts with its blood, and consumed its flesh in a sacred meal. The blood on the doorposts caused God's wrath to pass over the Israelites and the flesh of the lamb strengthened them for their journey to the promised land.
On the way, God made a covenant with the Israelites. This covenant was instituted with sacrifices and to signify the union of God and his people. Moses applied part of the blood to the altar and part to the people, describing it as the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you. But the Israelites were unfaithful to the covenant God had made through Moses, like when they worshiped idols and foreign gods. So God sent the prophet Jeremiah to announce a new and better covenant. The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke.
Jesus combined these themes when he instituted the Eucharist. The context in which he did so was a Passover supper. At the beginning of the meal, Jesus tells his disciples, "I've earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." The Eucharist is thus the Christian equivalent of Passover. While the first Passover meal pointed forward to the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, the Eucharist points forward to Christians deliverance from sin. Christ himself takes the place of the Passover lamb. The Gospel of John describes Jesus as the lamb of God. And St. Paul even says that Christ, our pascal lamb has been sacrificed.
During the last supper, Jesus took bread and said, "Take, eat. This is my body." The flesh of Christ as the new Passover lamb thus strengthens Christians for their journey to the heavenly promised land. He also took a chalice and gave it to them to drink, saying, "This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Like the original Passover lamb, Christ's blood causes God's wrath to pass over Christians because their sins are forgiven. Just as the blood of the covenant instituted by Moses was applied both to the altar and the people, so is Christ's blood. It is poured out for many on the altar of the cross and it's applied to the people when they drink from the chalice.
Jesus also is instituted in the new and better covenant prophesied by Jeremiah. This is made particularly clear in Luke's gospel where Jesus says that the chalice signifies the new covenant in my blood. The Eucharist thus sums up the themes that God established with the people of Israel and elevates them to a new level. The original events involved the delivery of a single nation from slavery, the creation of a national covenant, and a journey to an earthly promised land. Now, with the coming of the Messiah, we have the deliverance of all people from all nations from slavery to sin, the institution of a universal covenant, and the journey to the ultimate promised land, heaven.
The Passover meal was not a one-time event, but something God's people did regularly every year to commemorate what he'd done for them. Similarly, Jesus did not mean the Eucharist to be celebrated just one time. He told the disciples, "Do this in remembrance of me and it became a regular feature of Christian life. In fact, it was celebrated far more frequently than the Passover which was held only once a year."
But St. Paul told the Corinthians that because of abuses they were committing when you come together it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. We'll come back to the idea of committing abuses when receiving the Eucharist. But the important thing to note at for the moment is that Paul speaks of celebrating the Lord's supper as a regular part of Christian worship whenever the Corinthians came together. Later in first Corinthians he indicated that they met together on the first day of every week or every Sunday. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians around AD53. So the Sunday Eucharist became a regular feature of Christian life very early.
Just as the Israelites were unfaithful to the covenant established through Moses and could celebrate the Passover unworthily, Christians can be unfaithful to the new covenant and profane the Eucharist. After commenting on how Jesus has been sacrificed as our pascal lamb, Paul immediately says, "Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leavenven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." He says, "The Eucharist is not to be received indiscriminately. Instead, an examination of conscience is needed." Paul writes, "Let a man examine himself and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup."
Receiving communion unworthily can have dire consequences. Paul tells the Corinthians, "That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died." A sin he particularly warns against is idolatry, explaining that what pagan sacrifice they offered to demons. It was thus a mortal sin to partake of both pagan sacrifices and the Lord's supper. Paul says, "You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?" But idolatry is just one mortal sin. Earlier in 1 Corinthians, Paul listed a bunch of moral vices and indicated that if a person committed any mortal sin and didn't repent, he will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Why is it so important to receive communion worthily? Why can failure to do so lead to such dire consequences? Jesus revealed the reason when he instituted the Eucharist and said, "This is my body. This is my blood." The Eucharist is Jesus himself. And so you need to be in a state of grace to receive him.
Paul makes the same point. He says, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Consequently, whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaining the body and blood of the Lord. And anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself."
As these passages make clear, the Eucharist is Jesus himself. He is both the source of the Christian life and the summit towards which we're journeying. By contrast, mortal sin is a state in which one has rejected God. Mortal sin means turning your back on him. To receive communion in mortal sin is a contradiction. It's to embrace Jesus while simultaneously playing Judas and spurning him.
And that's why the Catholic Church does not practice open communion and invite any and all baptized persons who want to receive to do so. In the first place, not all Christians believe in the real presence of Christ. They would eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ and thus drink judgment on themselves. And in the second place, not all Christians are in a state of grace. Unfortunately, some are in a state of mortal sin and they would be guilty of profane in the body and blood of the Lord. So the practice that the Catholic Church uses is actually based on biblical principles and designed to protect. It protects Jesus from being profigned by those who would receive him improperly and it protects those who would receive him properly from God's judgment.
If you like this content, you can help me out by liking, commenting, writing a review, sharing the podcast, and subscribing. If you're watching on YouTube, be sure and hit the bell notification so you'll always get notified when I have a new video. And you can help me keep making the podcast, and you can get early access to new episodes by going to patreon.com/jimmypodcast. Thank you, and I'll see you next time. God bless you always. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Applause]