Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: June 23, 2019
This weekend’s Feast of Corpus Christi (formally the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ) rightly focuses our attention on the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist. Among all of the various religions that profess the Christian faith, it is the “Real Presence” of Jesus Christ – body and blood, soul and divinity – in our Holy Communion that sets the Catholic and Orthodox Churches apart.
This super special reality of being able to take Christ Himself into ourselves in Holy Communion is, more than any other single thing, what attracts people into our faith community and keeps us here. Sure, every now and then the Catholic tradition of sacred music and art draws a new believer into the Church. I also hope that occasionally the untiring selflessness of the Church in offering charity – and every other kind of ministry – to the needy catches someone’s attention and in an approving way. Certainly the coherence and breadth of the Church’s rich intellectual and doctrinal teachings are remarkable. But most of the time, when you get right down to it, what impresses people the most about Catholicism is that “we make Jesus real,” and then “we share Him” so that each of us can intimately unite ourselves with Him by taking Him into ourselves.
This is why Catholics prize attendance at Sunday Mass so deeply. While the more fundamental commandment of God is to “keep holy” the Lord’s day, for us this is done in the best possible way by worshipping at Mass. Private prayer, though essential to the spiritual life, cannot replace the celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice, within which Holy Communion is created and received.
For this reason, no Catholic should be absent from the Sunday Eucharist without serious reason. The Liturgy should be the first thing on Sunday’s schedule, not the last. We should arrive on time, prepared in mind and heart, and seek to fully participate in the Mass. Those who can’t attend due to illness or the need to care for infants or the sick do not sin, but they are missed and do miss out on the special Eucharistic graces shared.
The very importance of receiving the Lord in the Eucharist means that those who are aware of their own mortal sin must not approach the table of the Lord before being formally forgiven in confession. Mortal sin is admittedly difficult to commit: it not only must be seriously wrong, but there must be sufficient reflection and full consent to do the evil on the sinner’s part (see nos. 1857ff. in the Catechism of the Catholic Church). But don’t pretend it doesn’t exist. Evil is not rare in our modern world: there are people who quite knowingly see to the murder of unborn children; there are those who not only discriminate against other races or classes of people (such as those seeking asylum legally into our country) but actually hate them; there are people who reject God’s importance or even His existence; and so on. We want such people to repent and be forgiven, but knowingly to receive Holy Communion sacrilegiously just compounds the sin, making forgiveness less and less likely.
In the end, the wondrous self-gift of Jesus in the Eucharist is a marvelous blessing, but it needs to be respected for the great and holy thing that it is. I recommend each of us examine our conscience occasionally to make certain we are sharing worthily in this great gift.
Yours in the Eucharistic Lord,
Very Rev Paul D. Counce
