Communion

This is a true story about something that happened to a friend of mine.  Her name is Annie.

Annie is not a Catholic, but she recently attended Mass in a Catholic church.  When it was time for Communion, Annie approached the priest to receive the Holy Eucharist.  The priest looked at her and asked, “Are you a Catholic?”  “No,” replied Annie, somewhat puzzled by the question.  “Then you may not receive Communion,” the priest said.  “Please sit down.”

Annie went away empty.

I am sad for my church.  What has happened to us?  In the gospels, we read about Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection.  One of the significant events is the Last Supper.  At His Last Supper, Jesus blessed the bread, broke it, and shared it with everyone there.  He shared it with everyone – with one who would deny Him, with one who would betray Him . . . with everyone, without question.  “This is my Body,” He said.  “Take and eat.”  He gave us this most wonderful gift of Himself, the bread of life, food for hungry souls, in the Holy Eucharist.

I think about the Last Supper and then I go back to Annie’s story.  Why did the priest do what he did?  What was he doing when he denied her Communion?  He was following Catholic Church teaching, a teaching that says that those who do not believe as we do may not share in the Eucharist.

But what is Jesus’ teaching on this?  His teaching is clear:  “When I was hungry, you gave me to eat.  When I was thirsty, you gave me to drink.  When I was a stranger, you welcomed me.”  Are we to ask questions first to find out if the person believes what we believe?  No.  If we want to be followers of Jesus, we are to feed the hungry and welcome the stranger – no questions asked.

I am not trying to take issue with the priest here.  I am taking issue with the rule, a rule that says that only Catholics may receive Communion in the Catholic Church.  Isn’t it contrary to the teaching of Jesus?

We need to look at the rules and laws we follow, and think about what we do when the laws conflict.  We have a lot of laws – church laws . . . Jesus’ laws, such as loving our neighbor . . . and God’s laws.  Actually, God has very few laws – just one really – which is Love.  We need to think about what we do when all these laws conflict.  We really need to think about it.