Jun 5 Thu
Should I go to take Communion often?
Our Lord said that the kingdom of heaven is like a king who held a marriage feast for his son. He sent his servants to call in those invited to the marriage feast, but they would not come. Again, he sent out other servants to invite the people, but they paid no attention to them. So, the king punished those people. Then the king told his servants to gather all whom they could find and bring them to the marriage feast, because everything was ready.
The king went in to see the guests. He saw there a man who had not put on a wedding garment, and he said to him, “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?” The man did not know what to say. So, the king said to his servants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth” (Mt 22:1-14).
The king in this parable is, of course, God the Father; Jesus is the Son whose marriage feast is held; He is wedded to His Church. The marriage feast is specifically the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, in which we receive Him as food for our soul, thereby we remain closely united to him as members of His Church. We are invited to receive Holy Communion, but we must don a wedding garment—that is, we must be in the state of grace.
To be in the state of grace means that we must always be free from mortal sin when receiving Communion. So long as a person is not certain of having committed a mortal sin since the last confession, one is worthy to go to Communion. But if anyone receives this sacrament in a state of mortal sin, he commits a grievous sin called sacrilege.
If one has committed a mortal sin, it is not enough to make an act of perfect contrition before receiving Holy Communion. Indeed, an act of perfect contrition (sorrow for sin out of love for God) restores the soul to the state of grace. But how can one be sure that his act of contrition is perfect? Or that his love of God is absolute?
To protect everyone against the danger of self-deception in this matter, and to protect the Holy Eucharist against the danger of profanation, the law of the Church explicitly requires that if anyone knows for sure he has committed a mortal sin, he must go to the sacrament of penance before receiving Holy Communion. This law is always binding, even though one may be quite sure that one has perfect contrition for the sin.
The Council of Trent calls the Eucharist the antidote whereby we may be freed from daily faults and be preserved from mortal sins. It is desirable to have the faithful in large numbers take an active part in the sacrifice of the Mass every day and receive the nourishment of Holy Communion with a pure and holy mind, and offer fitting thanks to Christ the Lord for such a great gift.
They should remember these words of St Pius X: ‘The desire of Jesus Christ and of the Church to see all the faithful approach the sacred banquet every day is based on a wish to have them all united to God through the sacrament and to have them draw from it the strength to master their passions, to wash away the lesser sins that are committed every day and to prevent the serious sins to which human frailty is subject.’
“Moreover, they should not forget about paying a visit during the day to the most Blessed Sacrament in the very special place of honor where it is reserved in churches in keeping with the liturgical laws, since this is a proof of gratitude and a pledge of love and a display of the adoration that is owed to Christ the Lord who is present there.”
This way, Holy Communion becomes a pledge of our future immortality, an anticipation of the blissful company of God in heaven to which we all look forward.
The Mass is also the center of the life and mission of each priest, who finds in it the direction and the goal of his ministry.