After a highly publicised “private visit” to the Vatican, the current incumbent of the White House told the press he had been assured on the highest authority that he was “a good Catholic” and should continue receiving Holy Communion. In view of this same professional politician's famous declaration during his election campaign that “We choose truth over facts”, and in the absence of any confirmation of his recent statements regarding Holy Communion from the relevant Roman authorities, we can probably be forgiven for wondering if this man's understanding of what constitutes reality coincides to any meaningful extent with that of most ordinary mortals. However, his claim on its own provides a useful lesson insofar as it illustrates an error which is common among the poorly catechised: the notion that Holy Communion is a reward for being good.
St John the Evangelist warns us that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity” (1 Jn 1:8). When we talk about "worthy reception" of Holy Communion, we cannot mean any intrinsic worthiness of our own, but rather the supernatural Sanctifying Grace that animates the soul of someone in a state of grace and is a gift from God. It is hard to imagine even a saint as near-perfect as our own St Philip calling himself, or allowing anyone else to describe him as, “a good Catholic”. When St Philip beat his breast at the triple “Domine non sum dignus” before consuming the Sacred Host during his own celebration of Holy Mass, the trembling of his body reverberated around the whole church.
In the Book of the Prophet Isaias, God remonstrates wearily with the rulers of Israel: “I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats...incense is an abomination to me” (Is 1:11,13). When we consider that it was God Himself who had required these oblations in the first place, we realise that it is not the sacrifices themselves but rather the spirit in which they are offered that is sickening to God. The hands of those publicly going through the motions of offering sacrifice are, in fact, stained with the blood of the innocent, the poor and the vulnerable. Ostentatious observance of religion without inward conversion of heart is something of which we should all be wary, and the instrumentalisation of religious practice for political advantage is an abomination in the sight of God. The only sacrifice acceptable before the Throne of Grace, we are told, is offered with repentance: “a contrite and humble heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps 50:19).
Applied to our experience as Catholics today, this means that we must first have repented of our sins before approaching the altar rails for Holy Communion. This is not to insist that we must be in a state of “perfection” (who would claim that?); but it does require that any mortal sins first be confessed and absolved in the Sacrament of Penance, which must always be accompanied by a purpose of amendment. Mortal sins, which extinguish Sanctifying Grace in the soul, involve grave matter, and to qualify as mortal must have been committed with freedom of action and full knowledge of the gravity of the sin. Voting in favour of barbaric laws that facilitate the slaughter of innocent children, and prioritising policies to repeal legal protections for the unborn, undeniably constitute grave matter. It might be argued that the other two criteria could, in a particular instance, be mitigated to the point of absence on the grounds of mental incapacity caused by cerebral decline, but even if this were the case then it would clearly be highly inappropriate for someone of high profile who had committed such crimes against the Divine Law to be seen receiving Holy Communion without having first made a public statement of repentance. To receive the Blessed Sacrament in a state of mortal sin is to commit an additional sin of sacrilege, earning further punishment in hell. A pastor who, out of human respect, failed to warn a member of his flock against this dreadful peril to his soul in such circumstances would obviously endanger his own salvation, as well as that of his feted victim.
As Christmas, approaches, we prepare to celebrate the sublime event of the Incarnation, when the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, became man in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. The King of all creation chose to be born into the humblest of circumstances for a purpose. He might have come in splendour, but it was ordained that this would only happen at His Second Coming when He is to return in majesty, in the company of legions of angels, to judge the living and the dead. On that first coming He arrived in poverty and was laid in a manger. This was so that we might be moved to offer Him a home in our hearts. Bethlehem means ‘House of Bread’. That manger was a feeding trough. On the Altar the Word becomes Flesh once again so that we may adore Him and consume Him. To participate most fully in the joy of Christmas, we should prepare ourselves during Advent, in spite of all our unworthiness, to make the best possible Holy Communion. Adorned with the practice of the virtues and supernaturally enlivened with Sanctifying Grace, may our contrite, shriven and charitable hearts become the beautiful palace that was denied to the King of Kings in His Nativity. Wishing you a peaceful, prayerful Advent, and a very blessed Christmas.
Father Julian Large