Jul 7 Tue
What is “Eucharistic coherence”?
While the term “Eucharistic coherence” has gained popularity in recent years, the teaching is far from new. It highlights that a Catholic's private and public life, as well as his morality, should be consistent with his faith.
In the Eucharist, we not only admire the Love that leads Jesus to give Himself to the extreme, but learn from Him what it means to love, and to try to reciprocate with our total surrender that is manifested in the sincere loving fulfillment of one's duties.
St. Paul’s admonishes Christians to receive the Eucharist in a state of grace. While Eucharistic coherence may today be considered a hot-button issue, it has been part of our Catholic understanding of the Eucharist since the early Church:
“Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself "(1 Cor 11:27-29).
St. Josemaría insisted on the need to be coherent in our ordinary life, calling it unity of life: “The external signs of love should come from the heart and find expression in the testimony of a Christian life. If we have been renewed by receiving our Lord's body, we should show it. Let us pray that our thoughts be sincere, full of peace, self-giving, and service. Let us pray that we be true and clear in what we say — the right thing at the right time — to console and help and especially bring God's light to others. Let us pray that our actions be consistent and effective and right, so that they give off ‘the good fragrance of Christ,’ evoking his way of doing things."
To receive the Body and Blood of Christ while in a state of mortal sin represents a contradiction. The person who, by his or her own action, has broken communion with Christ and his Church but receives the Blessed Sacrament, acts incoherently, both claiming and rejecting communion at the same time. It is thus a counter sign, a lie — it expresses a communion that in fact has been broken.
Thus, Catholic politicians who publicly support immoral acts such as abortion and euthanasia, and laws supporting those acts, lack that coherence of life.
If this coherence is gravely lacking, the person should not receive Communion.
“Many today consider the reception of Holy Communion to be a matter of personal discernment, reducing the Eucharist to a mere sign of hospitality or social acceptance. Others think of receiving Holy Communion as an encounter with Christ but do not embrace full communion with His Body, the Church.”
Yet when we speak of “Communion,” we are referring to Communion with the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, and, through that sacrifice, communion with the Body of Christ.
When that communion with Christ and the Christian community is ruptured through sin, our suitability to receive Holy Communion is adversely affected until we repent, confess our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and receive absolution from a priest.