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My wife, our son, and I all entered into full communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil Mass in 2019. At that Mass, each of us received the Eucharist for the first time as confirmed Catholics. Neither my son nor I had ever received the Eucharist in a Catholic Mass prior to that. But my wife had done so when she was younger, confessing later that she simply didn’t understand or fully appreciate the Catholic position on the reception of holy communion by non-Catholics, and that she told herself at the time, “I’m a Christian. Why should I not go forward just like everyone else?!”
My son had the exact same perspective as a sixteen-year-old baptized non-Catholic Christian when we all began our journey together. Over the course of the months preceding our conversion, as we attended Mass, but did not receive communion, he admitted multiple times to being offended and incensed by the fact that he had to wait.
“Why can’t I take communion!? I’m a Christian! Some of these people don’t even know what they are doing and yet we are the ones who have to wait? This feels like rejection to me! Are they saying I don’t believe in Jesus like they do!?”
My son and I discussed this often and covered a lot of the ground that I’ll lay out below as I worked with him to understand why it is imperative and important for non-Catholics to never present themselves for Holy Communion if they attend a Catholic Mass (though they should go to Mass as often as they are willing and able to do so, and should always know that they are genuinely welcome to be there).
Let’s begin with a quote from St. Justin Martyr (100-165 AD). In his first apology, chapter 66, he wrote the following regarding open vs. closed participation in the Eucharist in Christian gatherings in the early Church.
And this food is called among us Εὐχαριστία [the Eucharist], 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 Savior, 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. 6 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. Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn. [1]
Notice that there is no such thing as an “open table” in the Church in the first generation after the death of the original Apostles. St. Justin Martyr provides three prohibitions for receiving the Eucharist in the early Church. A person could not receive the Eucharist who…
- Does not believe that what the Church teaches is true.
- Is not water-baptized with a baptism that is understood to result in regeneration.
- Is not living as a Christian with respect to their conduct in the world.
Thus, even today in the Catholic Church, a person who says (1) “I do not believe what the Catholic Church teaches,” and (2) who has not received the sacrament of water baptism (and thus, is not a born-again or regenerated Christian), and (3) who is actively and consciously living in a state of mortal sin for which they have not repented and received absolution, should never go forward and present themselves to receive the Eucharist at Mass.
This post is specifically about people who agree that they are, like my family was, already Christians, but not Catholics (i.e. not in full communion with the Catholic Church, of which The Pope, the successor of St. Peter as Bishop of Rome is Supreme Pontiff of the universal Catholic Church and is the Vicar of Christ and shepherd of the whole Church). [2]
It is for the benefit of these brothers and sisters that this post is written. The focus here centers on Justin Martyr’s first prohibition (i.e. that none may partake who do not believe that “the things we teach are true”). Because the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist itself is tied to multiple integrated theological dogmas and doctrines, we are not here talking about general points of agreement in this or that area of theology. We are speaking specifically about exactly what the Catholic Church teaches about the nature of the Eucharist itself, and all that is involved in what causes it to become (as St. Justin puts it) “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.”
Within this scope of “the things we teach,” here are five things that, if you cannot say of each one “I believe that to be true, and I am living it completely,” prohibit you (even if you are a Baptized Christian) from receiving the Eucharist in a Catholic Church.
If you find yourself in a Catholic Mass, you should never present yourself for Holy Communion if you do not believe in…
1. TRANSUBSTANTIATION: You do not believe that the validly-consecrated bread and wine have truly become the body, blood, soul, and divinity of the crucified, risen and ascended Jesus as the direct result of the prayers of the gathered people at the hands of the Catholic priest who is presiding.
2. PRIESTLY EUCHARISTIC CONSECRATION (or CONFECTION): You do not believe that the priest who has consecrated the bread and wine has the authority from God, by virtue of his ordination, to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus.
3. THE VALIDITY OF THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY ORDERS AND THE CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD: You do not believe that the Catholic priest who has consecrated the bread and wine is different, ontologically, by virtue of having had conferred upon him by his Bishop the sacrament of Apostolic Ministry, making him into a ministerial priest in the Church of Jesus.
4. APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION: You do not believe that the priest’s ordaining Bishop is a legitimate successor of the first Apostles and that by virtue of laying his hands on the priest to ordain him, has conferred upon that priest the power to change bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus.
5. THE PETRINE OFFICE AND PAPAL PRIMACY: You do not believe that the Pope (as of the date of this blog post, Pope Francis), the Bishop of Rome, is the legitimate successor of St. Peter and that by virtue of his office, he is the Supreme Pontiff of the universal Catholic Church who exercises a primacy of authority as Vicar of Christ and shepherd of the whole Church.
In Catholic thinking, one thing has to do with another. Things that are essentially related are not treated as though they are separate. In Catholic sacramental theology, the first thing on the list (transubstantiation) is not even possible if the subsequent four things are not true. Only a validly ordained priest can consecrate or confect the Eucharist. Period. Many non-Catholics cannot even get past the dogma of transubstantiation (let alone Apostolic Succession and Papal Primacy) as it is. To be fair to the Catholic understanding of our own faith, there is no good reason anyone who rejects what Catholics teach and believe should respond by demanding to participate in what Catholics practice.
“…there is no good reason anyone who rejects what Catholics teach and believe should respond by demanding to participate in what Catholics practice.”
As an aside, this reality informs the Catholic perspective of Protestant and Anglican (and some other) liturgies and rites that use bread and wine in their communion services but without a valid priesthood and valid apostolic succession. In these cases, the Catholic Church agrees with them that there is no transubstantiation that takes place (and disagrees with them if they insist that there is). In those liturgies, the bread and wine remain what they were before any prayers or ritual action; symbols.
Only a validly-ordained priest with apostolic ministry is authorized to confect the Eucharist, and in simple terms, the bread and wine (regardless of what the minister or church may wish or even sincerely pray, even using the same or similar words of consecration that are used by a validly-ordained priest) remain simply bread and wine symbolizing (but not actually becoming) the real presence of Jesus.
Thus, as I explained to my son, and as we all later came to embrace and believe, it is inappropriate for a Christian to enter into a Catholic Mass, tell himself or herself that they do not believe either the theology and praxis of the Church, and then go forward essentially demanding or expecting to participate in something that they reject, or imposing their own contrary theology onto what is being done as a way of validating their claim to be free to participate.
On this note, we recount again the ancient words of St. Justin Martyr…
“…no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true.”
Nobody says you have to believe anything that the Catholic Church teaches. But if you don’t believe what the Catholic Church teaches about the Eucharist (which includes all of the five things I outlined above) then the courteous and honest thing to do is abstain from presenting yourself to receive it if you attend the Catholic Mass.
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Notes & References
[1] Justin Martyr, “The First Apology of Justin,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 185.
[2] Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 893–894.