Congratulations to Genesis Ramos & Jose Alvarado who are getting married here this weekend. May they find the grace of God throughout their married life as they grow in love for each other.
Last weekend, two younger parishioners, in the process of learning more about our Catholic Faith, asked a very good question (always welcomed!) related to the reception of the Precious Blood at Mass. The question was this: why don’t we use small, plastic cups to receive the Blood of Christ at Communion time which would prevent the risk of contagious germs during the pandemic or even during flu season? As you know, even when we started to remove the restrictions that were made during the liturgy because of the pandemic, we did not yet start offering people the Blood of Christ through the communion cup. This is especially a relevant question during this time we have been hearing from the 6th chapter of John’s gospel in recent weeks which again is called the “Bread of Life” discourse as the evangelist speaks at length about Jesus’ teaching concerning himself as the One who nourishes us with his Body and Blood in the Eucharist.
First, I can’t repeat this often enough: the Catholic Church has always believed that Christ is really and truly present in the Eucharistic bread and wine that is consecrated by the priest at every Mass. This is not just a symbol or reminder of his presence, but his actual Body and Blood that we take into our bodies. (Though we normally offer both the consecrated bread and wine as the fullest symbol of Christ’s Body and Blood, even when we receive Holy Communion under one “species”, for example, just the host, we are still receiving the “whole” Christ). This teaching has been a major source of separation from most of our Protestant brothers and sisters who, since the 16th century, have abandoned this long-standing belief in favor of a “symbolic” understanding of the Lord’s Supper. As I mentioned in my homily last weekend, architecture and art and scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers and saints throughout the ages have consistently held up and reaffirmed this ancient belief.
This sacred teaching has manifested itself even in the way we act during Mass: we genuflect and bow when entering a church with a tabernacle that houses the reserved consecrated hosts (for the sake of the sick who receive Communion at home). We kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer during which the words of Jesus at the Last Supper are repeated, asking the Holy Spirit to transform bread & wine into his Body and Blood. We receive Communion with a bow, and speak an “Amen!” to the minister’s proclamation: “The Body of Christ.” Even after Communion has been distributed, you will notice the priest carefully cleaning (or “purifying”) the chalice, communion cups (when used) and even consuming any crumbs of consecrated bread that may be left in the containers used to distribute Communion. We take such particular care to do this because Christ is present even in the smallest crumb or in the smallest drop of consecrated wine. Hence, to offer the Blood of Christ in small, plastic communion cups would require a purification worthy of our belief in Christ’s Real Presence. We even use only the best materials (such as a metal chalice plated with gold) for containing the Eucharistic presence of Christ. So allow even these details of the liturgy to speak to you of this incredible gift of the Lord’s Real Presence to us and let the Mass always be our great Thanksgiving for Christ who is really present to us in many ways during Mass, but “par excellance” in the Eucharist itself.