Thoughts on Receiving Communion

“Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.”

I have been a Catholic all my life, and I have received communion at Mass for almost as long as I can remember. For many years now I have attended Mass and received communion almost every day. Receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s body and blood is very important to me. As a matter of fact, I don’t know how I would get along without it.

I have a fairly good understanding of the theology of the Eucharist. But it is not the theology of the Eucharist that makes it important to me, it is the reality of it. If you want to understand why the Eucharist is so important, I suggest you not ask a theologian, but instead go into a church and watch the congregation receive communion. If you can’t find its meaning there, you won’t find it anywhere.

Often when I take my place in the communion line and walk slowly to the front of the church, I think of the many instances in the gospels where Jesus went into a town and the townspeople brought all their sick to him so he could touch them and they would be healed. That is how I feel when I approach the altar to receive communion. I bring all my needs with me, and I tell myself that if I can just touch the Lord, he will make me well. And when I watch others in the communion line, I see the same thing. We all need the Lord to touch us and heal us.

If I were a high-ranking Church official responsible for making the rules on who can receive communion, I would be worried about how I will someday have to explain to God why the rules are so strict. When Jesus went into a town he did not make the sick pass a test on the correctness of their beliefs before he healed them. They just begged him to heal them and he did. When he fed loaves and fishes to thousands, he did not require that they join his church first. He just saw that they were very hungry and he fed them.

If it were up to me to make the rules, I would allow everyone to receive communion who wanted to. I would not make them show proof of being in good standing, or quiz them on their beliefs, or ask who they voted for in the last election. Just the fact that they knew they needed the Lord's healing and wanted to receive communion would show that they had enough faith to receive it.

I also would not exclude anyone from communion because of his sins. If only those without sin were allowed to receive communion, the churches would have to lock their doors and no one could receive it. Just before the priest gives communion to the congregation at Mass, he holds up the blessed bread and the cup of wine for everyone to see, and he says,

“This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to his supper.”

And we answer,

“Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.”

And most of us mean it. To receive communion, we do not have to be without sin. We just have to be sorry for our sins and willing to change.

I am very fortunate to live in a place where we have enough priests that I can receive communion every day. In many parts of the world people whose lives are much harder than mine have to go without mass and communion altogether. I don’t know how they get along without it. They must get very hungry. And on those rare occasions when a priest makes his way to their remote village to say Mass, they must feel like all those people in Galilee when Jesus came to their towns and touched them and made them well. They must be happy indeed to be called to his supper. Who would dare turn them away?

Who would dare turn any of us away whom the Lord has invited?


Read another reflection on the Eucharist.