Blog:Recieving (not taking) Communion

Note: this post is a reflection on the article Recieving (not taking) Communion

Holy Communion by Pietro Longhi

"Taking" Communion -?

Even from Catholics, one may hear the Rite of Communion referred to -- incorrectly -- as "taking Communion."

It seems that "taking" Communion is more commonly used by Protestants, and, if so, perhaps it represents a doctrinal diistinction regarding the Holy Eucharist. This website is uninterested in Catholic v. Protestant apologetic debates, so we will not go into the Protestant choice of words here, and, instead, focus on Catholic teaching of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and why one "recieves" and does not "take" Holy Communion.

A possible source of the confusion may stem from the use of "partake" by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 17:

Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf (1 Cor 10:16-17)

The word "partake" can be found in the Old Testament, such as in God's instructions to Aaron on sacrifices,

"You shall eat them in a most holy place; every male may partake of them. As holy, they belong to you." (Nm 18:10)

The term "partake" is especially important in the Old Testament in regards to participating in ungodly or demonic sacrifices, such as when the Jews were forced by the Greeks to "partake of the sacrifices" to Dionysus (2 Mc 6:7), whic is likely why Saint Paul, steeped in the Old Testament, warns the Corinthians,

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons. (1 Cor 10:21)

"Partake" thereby means to participate in, to share in, thus, Paul warns, one cannot "participate" or "share" in the table of the Lord while also attending the "table of demons." (That one must have startled a few Corinthians -- just as it ought startle us today.) Let's look, then, at the larger context of what Paul means with to "partake of the one loaf":

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf(1 Cor 10:16-17)

The verses are among those from 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, warning the Corinthians against idolatry in participating in pagan rituals. Paul is not, thereby, describing the act of the Rite of Communion -- "partaking" is its context or its result, not the act itself.

The act is one of reception. When Christ instructs the disciple to "take" the bread and the wine, it is a command through which he gives and they take, but "take" only in the sense of reception. We can only "take" from God what God gives to us. Any larger sense of "take" becomes an act of putting oneself above God.

Receiving Communion

Wikipedia title for this image of the Rite of Communion: "Catholics taking communion during mass at St Teresas church in Summit NJ"

In the US Catholic Bishops (USCCB) guide The Reception of Holy Communion at Mass the word "take" appears only twice, and both times in terms of the proper handling of the host upon its reception to one hand then "taking" it by the other:

The host will then be laid in the palm of the left hand and then taken by the right hand to the mouth. If one is left-handed this is reversed. It is not appropriate to reach out with the fingers and take the host from the person distributing.

While the guide does not provide a theological reason for not taking the host from the Eucharstic Minister, we can infer from "not appropriate" and "the person distributing" that the Eucharist is given and not taken.

By contrast, the word "receive" occurs nineteen times in the guide, always in terms of our participation in the Eucharist as recipients of the Lord's Body and Blood.

The notion of "distribution" of the Eucharist comes from the earliest Church. In the Epistle, Ad Smyrn, by Saint Ignatius of Antioch, written around 100 A.D. In addressing the Rite of Communion, St. Ignatius explains,

Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered/offered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it.

Translations bounce between "administered" and "offered", but both mean the same thing: the Bishop or "one to whom he has entrusted it" distributes the proper Eucharist. The Church employs "offered", taken from a translation edited by Franz Xaver von Funk (have fun with it here in Latin; there's a 1913 translation into English, which I can't find). In another work, Funk describes the celebration of the Eucharist in the early church,

We learn from Acts (ii. 42) that the early Christian meeting comprised the ' doctrine of the Apostles,' i.e. the expounding of Holy Writ, the breaking of bread, and prayers. According to the fuller account left by Justin,- the ceremony began with a lesson from Scripture, followed by a sermon by the bishop and prayers recited in common. The Faithful having exchanged the kiss of peace, bread and wine (the latter mixed with water) were offered to the bishop, who pronounced over them several prayers and gave thanks (ey^a/jtcrrta, cp. Matt. xxvi. 27), whereupon the elements were administered by the deacons, as the Body and Blood of Christ, to the Faithful present at the gathering, or carried to those who were absent.

Justin's account of the Eucharist, frm Ch. 46, interestingly uses both "partake" precisely as St. Paul used it to describe the overall participation in Holy Eucharist, and then "receive" for the specific act of Holy Communion:

And this food is called among us Eukaristia, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, "This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body;" and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, "This is My blood;" and gave it to them alone.

To summarize: when we "partake" in Communion with the Lord, we "recieve" the Eucharist.

Gospel accounts of the Lord's Supper

As we see in the Gospels, Jesus either "gave" the Bread and the Cup to the disciples or or instructed them disciples to "take" it from him -- key preposition there, "from", as it indicates they they are to receive it from him:

Matthew:

and giving it to his disciples said, “Take and eat; this is my body." (Mt 26:26)

Mark:

and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body." (Mk 14:22)

Luke:

Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them (Lk 22:19)

There's no quibbling over the word "take" as it is a direct instruction from the Lord who is the giver of his body.

In English, "bring" and take" have a narrow distinction (in Spanish llevar and traer have clearer distinctions), as in, "Take that book and bring it over here." In that sentence, take means "go and get" and bring means "get it to here." We could just as easily say, "Bring that book over here."

Generally, when we "take" something, we are either extracting it from where it is or acquiring it, or both within the same thought. For example, "Take this worksheet home," a teacher might say to instruct students to both receive the worksheet and "take" (or "bring") it home. If I "take away" something, I'm receiving it and making it my own. Or, if I "take a class" it means that I am participating and proceeding with that class.

Upon reflection, we realize that the word "take" has innumerable uses in our language (see "take" from Merriam-Webster). But what it is not is to "receive." Only in the sense of an order, "take this" do we associate "taking" with "recieving." Thus when the Lord commands, "Take it" he is commanding that the disciples recieve his Body and Blood.

Here we come to the larger point about the Sacraments as understood in the Catholic Church.

Sacraments are Gifts

The glossary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church characterizes Sacrament as a gift "dispensed" by God:

An efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the church, by which divine life is dispensed to us through the work of the Holy Spirit

If we look next to Grace, we see it more plainly:

The free and undeserved gift that God gives us to repond to our vocation to become his adopted children.

In this entry, the word "give" or its related noun, "gift," appears five times. To clarify a touch more, all we need is look on the prior page for the entry titled, "Gifts of the Holy Spirit"

The point is clear: the Sacrarment of the Eucharist is a gift given us by God who wants us to take it and live in the Grace he gives us when we "take" what he has given us fully.

- Michael