This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (or Corpus Christi) This feast calls out attention to the wondrous meal that God provides every time we come to Mass. Christ becomes present to us under the appearance of bread and wine. We literally have a face-to-face encounter with the Risen Lord. Tons of words have been showered upon this awesome miracle and its implications for us. At every Mass we remember how the Body of Christ was sacrificed for us on the cross, and we are called to go forth to sacrifice ourselves for otheres—in other words, to become the Body of Christ. One of the hymns that St. Thomas Aquinas wrote about the Eucharist concludes with this line, “Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.” However, like so many amazing things that are part of life, we can take this miracle for granted. We can even forget that it is actually a miracle. We can become very casual about how we treat the Eucharist and fail to see what difference it makes whether we come to Mass or not. The Bishops in the United States, alarmed by studies that showed that lots of Catholics did not believe in “the real presence”, have initiated a three-year program called the Eucharistic Revival, which aims to restore understanding and devotion to the Eucharist.

Although it is tempting to pile on more words of praise of the Eucharist, this Feast of The Body and Blood of Christ is also an opportunity to speak about some of the practical aspects of receiving communion. For many centuries the only way that we could receive communion was directly on the tongue from a priest while kneeling at a communion rail. The practice of standing for communion became an option in the late 1960’s. In the late 1970’s permission was granted to receive communion in the hand and for the faithful to receive communion under both forms. Assumption’s long-time pastor, Fr. Tom Ferazzi, had a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, but was very traditional in his approach to liturgy. He reluctantly announced in 1977 that communion in the hand was now permitted, but communicants continued to kneel at the rail to receive communion until the mid-1990’s, and communion from the cup was not introduced here until the early 2000’s. Then there was the COVID pandemic. For three years receiving the Precious Blood by the congregation was not permitted, and people were strongly discouraged from receiving communion on the tongue. All of this has created more confusion about what is safe, what is permitted, and what is encouraged.

So, let’s review a few things. The proper way to receive communion in the hand is to place one hand under the other to form a kind of throne. After receiving the host, use the lower hand to place the host on your tongue. Receiving communion on the tongue remains a valid option. In the fall of 1960, when Sister Celestine prepared our second grade class for our first holy communion, we were told to open our mouth wide and extend our tongue. This lesson was reinforced in my parish because the pastor never wore his glasses when giving out communion, and so had only a vague notion of where your mouth was. We quickly learned to provide as large a target as possible. Some of our older folks who receive on the tongue may have forgotten about opening wide their mouth, and some who are younger may have adopted the practice of receiving on the tongue as an act of reverence, but were only instructed in how to receive communion in the hand. As a result, it can sometimes be quite a challenge for the priest, deacon, or minister to fit the host in your mouth. Complicating the issue is that the hosts we use now are designed for communion in the hand and are larger than the ones that we used for communion fifty years ago. So, please, open wide..

The Church encourages us to receive communion under both forms, not because we receive more of Christ if we also receive from the cup (which would be heresy), but to give us as human beings a more complete experience of what Christ did at the Last Supper. He passed both bread and wine around the table and said, “This is my body” and “This is my blood.” Partly because of our history and the pandemic, we have a smaller percentage of people who receive under both forms than in most Catholic churches. Here are a few things to remember. It is not permitted to take the host and dip it into the chalice. The church forbids this practice out of concern that some of the Precious Blood will be spilled. but it is also for sanitary reasons. Contrary to our hygienic instincts, we carry a lot more germs on our hands than on our lips (This actually makes sense because we touch a lot more things than we kiss). Ministers of the Eucharist are taught to wipe the rim where the previous communicant has drunk and rotate the cup before handing it to the next person. Also, we are not to substitute the Precious Blood for the Host. For those unable to handle wheat, low gluten hosts are available. I will be happy to discuss with you the best way of addressing this, so that you can still receive the host at communion.

Now, let’s get back to our regularly scheduled miracle.

                                                                                          Fr. Joe