Receiving the Lord: Holy Communion

Holy Communion is the act by which we receive the sacrament of Holy Eucharist.

A Separate article discusses the nature of the Holy Eucharist. This current article explains Communion, the reception of Holy Eucharist as asacrament:

• What is the purpose of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist?
• What effects does it produce in the soul?

The purpose of the Eucharist

We know that each of the Catholic sacraments produces its own special effect or effects. If the purpose of all sacraments were simply to give a single kind of grace, one sacrament would be enough; there would have been no need for our Lord Jesus to have instituted seven.

The sacrament of the Holy Eucharist was instituted as a food, a spiritual food.

That is why the outward sign of this sacrament—the appearances of bread and wine—is a sign of nourishment, just as in Baptism the outward sign is water, a sign of cleansing.

The action by which we as individuals receive the Holy Eucharist is an act of eating. We swallow the appearances of bread and wine under which Jesus is present. This is the action which we call Holy Communion.

As the Catechism's section on Holy Communion and the Eucharist says:

The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist: "Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." [Jn 6:53](Catechism, 1384)

Union with the Lord

Since the Holy Eucharist is a spiritual food, it does for the soul what physical food does for the body.

When we eat physical food, it becomes united to us—it is changed into our own substance and becomes a part of us.

In Holy Communion something analogous happens to us spiritually, but with a great difference: in this case it is the individual who is united to the Food, not the Food to the individual. The lesser is united to the Greater.

We become one with Christ.

This sacramental union of ourselves with Jesus is more than the mere physical union between our body and the Sacred Host which we have swallowed. More importantly, it is a mystical and spiritual union of the soulwith Jesus. This is produced in the soul by our physical contact with the sacred Body of Jesus.

This marvelous blending of the soul with Jesus is a very special kind of union. Obviously we do not become "part of God." It is much more than the "ordinary" union with God which the Holy Spirit establishes in us by sanctifying grace. Yet it is less than the ultimate and most intimate union with God which will be ours in the beatific vision in heaven.

This union is simply called Communion.

The Mystical Body

Being united with Christ in this close and personal union, we are necessarily united also with all others who are "in" Christ—all others who are members of His Mystical Body.

Union with Christ in Holy Communion is the bond of charity which makes us one with our neighbor.

When we grow in love for God through our union with Jesus, we also necessarily grow in love for our fellow man. If we have the right dispositions, our Holy Communions should produce fruits in ourselves that we notice over time: a lessening of racial and national prejudices, of neighborhood resentments; an increase in neighborliness, in compassion, in patience and forbearance towards others.

The very sign of the sacrament symbolizes our total oneness in Christ:

• Many grains of wheat have been compounded together to make the one bread which has become the Body of Christ.
• Many grapes have been crushed together in the press to make the contents of the one chalice which has become the Blood of Christ.

We are many in One—and that One is Christ.

"And the bread that we break," says St. Paul, "is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord? Because the bread is one, we though many, are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:17).

Communion's sacramental grace

It is characteristic of every sacrament either to give or to increase sanctifying grace.

Each of the other sacraments however has a specific purpose of its own in addition to the bestowal of sanctifying grace:

• Baptism cleanses from original sin
• Penance forgives mortal sin
• Confirmation strengthens faith
• Matrimony sanctifies marriage...

...and so on.

But in the Holy Eucharist we have the one sacrament whose principal purpose is to increase sanctifying grace, repeatedly and often, through personal union with the Giver of grace Himself.

That is why the Holy Eucharist is preeminently the sacrament of spiritual growth, of increase in spiritual stature and strength.

A state of grace is required

That also is why the soul already must be in the state of sanctifying grace when we receive Holy Communion—in other words, free from mortal sin.

Physical food cannot benefit a dead body, and the Holy Eucharist cannot benefit a dead soul.

Indeed, a person who knowingly would receive Holy Communion while in the state of mortal sin, would add a new dimension of guilt to his already sinful state: he would commit the grave sin of sacrilege. In the very act of outwardly offering himself to Jesus for the union-in-love which is the essence of Holy Communion, he would be opposing Jesus by that rejection of God which is inherent in all mortal sin.

A grace that protects

However, the reception of the Holy Eucharist will forgive venial sin—presuming of course that the communicant has sorrow for his venial sins.

Here again it is love that does the work. What we might call the "charge" of love which Jesus unleashes upon the soul in this moment of personal union, is a purifying force; it purges the soul from all lesser infidelities. Whatever accumulation of venial sin may encumber the soul, it is dissolved and annihilated (if repented) as Christ's love makes contact with the soul.

Another effect of Holy Communion is to preserve the soul from spiritual death, to preserve the soul from mortal sin.

The strength of our inclination to sin (called concupiscence) is also reduced each time we receive the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

A rich banquet of the Lord

Holy Communion unites us with Christ and intensifies our love for God and for neighbor.

It increases sanctifying grace. It remits venial sin, lessens concupiscence, and thus preserves us from mortal sin.

Finally, as good food should, it readies us for work. A frequent communicant who receives worthily and fruitfully cannot possibly remain wrapped up in himself. As love for Christ more and more fills his horizon, he feels the urge to do things for Christ and with Christ. Powered by the graces of Holy Communion, he becomes an apostolic Christian.

Holy Communion is indeed the Bread of Life, a banquet overflowing with grace and richness.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation

Rising Again to New Life

Many Catholics treasure the sacrament of Reconciliation.

The peace of mind and soul which this sacrament imparts to us is one for which there is no substitute. It is a peace that flows from a certainty, rather than from an unsure hope, that our sins have been forgiven and that we are right with God.

Although many converts to the Catholic Church initially fear it, they quickly come to love the sacrament of Reconciliation once they get over their nameless fears—fears which come from a misconception of what the sacrament really is.

Confession, Penance & Reconciliation

The sacrament of Reconciliation is also known as Penance and Confession, among other names. (There is an explanation of some of these names in the Catechism's section on the sacrament of Reconciliation.)

Although often called Reconciliation in common usage, the term "penance" best describes the essential interior disposition required for this sacrament.

In fact, there is a virtue of penance. This is a supernatural virtue by which we are moved to detest our sins from a motive made known by faith, and with an accompanying purpose of offending God no more and of making satisfaction for our sins. In this sense the word "penance" is synonymous with "penitence" or "repentance."

Before the time of Christ the virtue of penance was the only means by which people's sins could be forgiven. Even today, for those outside the Church in good faith, not possessing the sacrament of Penance, it is the only means for forgiveness of sins.

Continuing the work of redemption

The sacrament of Reconciliation is a sacrament in which the priest, as the agent of God, forgives sins committed after Baptism, when the sinner is heartily sorry for them, sincerely confesses them, and is willing to make satisfaction for them.

By his death on the Cross, Jesus Christ redeemed man from sin and from the consequences of his sin, especially from the eternal death that is sin's due.

So it is not surprising that on the very day he rose from the dead, Jesus instituted the sacrament by which men's sins could be forgiven.

A power granted by Christ

It was on Easter Sunday evening that Jesus appeared to his Apostles, gathered together in the Upper Room, where they had eaten the Last Supper. As they gaped and shrank back in a mixture of fear and dawning hope, Jesus spoke to them reassuringly.

Let St. John (20:19-23) tell it:

Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, 'Peace be to you!' And when he had said this he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore rejoiced at the sight of the Lord. He therefore said to them again, 'Peace be to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.' When he had said this, he breathed upon them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.'

To paraphrase our Lord's words in more modern terms, what he said was this:

As God, I have the power to forgive sin. I now entrust the use of that power to you. You will be My representatives. Whatever sins you forgive, I shall forgive. Whatever sins you do not forgive, I shall not forgive.

Necessary after Baptism

Jesus knew well that many of us would forget our brave baptismal promises and commit grave sins after our Baptism. He knew that many of us would lose the grace, the sharing-in-God's-own-life which came to us in Baptism.

Since God's mercy is infinite and unwearying, it seems inevitable that he would provide a second chance (and a third and a fourth and a hundredth if necessary) for those who might relapse into sin.

A power of the priesthood

This power to forgive sin which Jesus conferred upon his Apostles was not, of course, to die with them; no more so than the power to change bread and wine into his Body and Blood, which he conferred upon his Apostles at the Last Supper.

Jesus did not come upon earth just to save a few chosen souls, or just the people who lived on earth during the lifetime of his Apostles.

Jesus came to save everybody who was willing to be saved, down to the end of time. He had you and me in mind, as well as Timothy and Titus, when he died on the Cross.

It is evident then that the power to forgive sins is a part of the power of the priesthood, to be passed on in the sacrament of Holy Orders from generation to generation.

It is the power which every priest exercises when he raises his hand over the contrite sinner and says, "I absolve thee from thy sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." These are called "the words of absolution."

Countless benefits

It may be that at one time or another we have found the sacrament of Reconciliation a burden. Perhaps we even can remember an occasion when we said, "I wish I didn't have to go to confession."

But certainly in our saner moments we find Reconciliation a sacrament that we love, a sacrament we would not want to be without.

Just think of all that the sacrament of Reconciliation does for us!

First of all, if a person has cut himself off from God by a grave and deliberate act of disobedience against God (that is, by mortal sin), the sacrament of Reconciliation reunites the soul to God; sanctifying grace is restored to the soul.

At the same time, the sin itself (or sins) is forgiven. Just as darkness disappears from a room when the light is turned on, so too must sin disappear from the soul with the coming of sanctifying grace.

When received without any mortal sin on the soul, the sacrament of Reconciliation imparts to the soul an increase in sanctifying grace. This means that there is a deepening and strengthening of that divine-life-shared by which the soul is united to God.

And always, any venial sins which the penitent may have committed and for which he is truly sorry are forgiven. These are the lesser and more common sins which do not cut us off from God but still hinder, like clouds across the sun, the full flow of his grace to the soul.

Crime & punishment

The restoring or the increasing of sanctifying grace and the forgiving of mortal and venial sins—is there anything else that the sacrament of Reconciliation can do for us?

Yes indeed!

If it is a question of mortal sin, Reconciliation wipes out the eternalpunishment which is the inevitable consequence of mortal sin. It also remits at least part of the temporal punishment due to sin.

The temporal punishment due to sin is simply the debt of satisfaction which I owe to God for my sins even after the sins themselves have been forgiven. It it a matter of "repairing the damage," we might say.

A simply example to illustrate this would be that of an angry boy who kicks at the table leg and knocks a piece of pottery off onto the floor. "I'm sorry, Mother," he says repentantly. "I shouldn't have done that." "Well," mother says, "if you're sorry, I won't punish you. But get down and pick up the pieces, and I'll expect you to buy a new dish out of your allowance."

Mother forgives the disobedience and absolves from the punishment—but she still expects her son to make satisfaction for his rebellious outburst.

It is this satisfaction which we owe to God for having offended him that we term "the temporal punishment due to sin." Either we pay the debt in this life by the prayers, penances, and other good works which we perform in the state of grace, or we shall have to pay the debt in purgatory. And it is this debt which the sacrament of Reconciliation at least partiallyreduces, in proportion to the degree of our sorrow.

The more fervent our condition is, the more is our debt of temporal satisfaction reduced.

Restoring lost merits

Still another effect of the sacrament of Reconciliation is that it restores to us the merits of our past good works if these have been lost by mortal sin.

As we know, every good work that we perform in the state of grace and with the intention of doing it out of love for God is a meritorious work. It entitles us to an increase of grace in this life and an increase of glory in heaven. Even the simplest actions—kind words spoken, thoughtful deeds performed—have this effect, not to mention prayers said, Masses offered, sacraments received.

However, mortal sin wipes out this accumulated merit, much as a man might lose his life savings by one reckless gamble.

God could with perfect justice allow our past merits to remain forever lost even when he forgives our sins. But in his infinite goodness he does not make us start all over again from scratch. The sacrament of Reconciliation not only forgives our mortal sins; it also restores to us the merits which we had so willfully cast away.

Additional graces to strengthen us

Finally, besides all its other benefits, the sacrament of Reconciliation gives us the right to whatever actual graces we may need, and as we need them, in order that we may make atonement for our past sins and may conquer our future temptations.

This is the special "sacramental grace" of Penance; it fortifies us against a relapse into sin.

It is a spiritual medicine which strengthens as well as heals. That is why a person intent upon leading a good life will make it a practice to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation often. Frequent confession is one of the best guarantees against falling into grave sin. It would be the height of stupidity to say, "I don't need to go to confession because I haven't committed any mortal sins."

All these results of the sacrament of Reconciliation—restoration or increase of sanctifying grace, forgiveness of sins, remission of punishment, restoration of merit, grace to conquer temptation—all these are possibleonly because of the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, which the sacrament of Reconciliation applies to our souls.

Jesus on the cross already has "done our work for us". In the sacrament of Reconciliation we simply give God a chance to share with us the infinite merits of his Son.