PERHAPS no other kinds of Christians have anything to boast about the Lord’s Body and Blood like we Catholics do. In fact, it was one of the arguments I sided with in my leap to the Catholic Church three years ago. I truly believed that the bread and wine consecrated by the priest become real flesh and real blood. I have been doing some research on the manner Catholics receive Holy Communion. We can either receive with our hands or on our tongues.

I prefer to receive on my tongue for two reasons: because minutes ago I would’ve been sharing the peace during Mass becoming in contact with the hands of Mass attendants, hence the transmission of germs (which all of our hands have). Secondly, because I do not believe I am worthy to touch that sacred host—that body of our Lord. If I take the host given to me by a minister and consume it then I would, in effect, be “re-giving” myself Holy Communion.

As I said, I have been doing some research on the much divided issue of receiving on the tongue or on the hand. I would like to say that the early Church had pretty much been receiving only on the tongue up to the Reformation. While many see that after the Reformation, the practice of receiving on the hand came about. Also, receiving on the hand is not permitted in numerous countries. The Sacred Council of Trent declared that the custom of only the priest who is celebrating the Mass giving Communion to himself (with his own hands), and the laity receiving it from him, is an Apostolic Tradition.

A more rigorous study of the available evidence from Church History and from the writings of the Fathers does not support the assertion that Communion in the hand was a universal practice which was gradually supplanted and eventually replaced by the practice of Communion on the tongue.

Rather, the facts seem to point to a different conclusion. Pope St. Leo the Great (440-461), already in the fifth century, is an early witness of the traditional practice. In his comments on the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, he speaks of Communion in the mouth as the current usage: “One receives in the mouth what one believes by faith.”2 The Pope does not speak as if he were introducing a novelty, but as if this were a well-established fact.

A century and a half later, but still three centuries before the practice (according to the popular account reviewed above) was supposedly introduced, Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-604) is another witness. In his dialogues (Roman 3, c. 3) he relates how Pope St. Agapito performed a miracle during the Mass, after having placed the Body of the Lord into someone’s mouth. We are also told by John the Deacon of this Pope’s manner of giving Holy Communion.

What kind of foods do we eat with our hands? Often, in our “culture,” it is food to which one pays no attention. We eat pop-corn with our hands, paying it no attention while our eyes are fixed on the movie screen. We munch on snacks at a party, while engaged in conversation. Particularly with children, but not only with them, this seems to be a very unwise thing to associate with the Most Holy Eucharist.

My research also showed that Mother Theresa and Pope John Paul II were strong advocators for the reception of Communion on the tongue. She wrote once, “I will tell you a secret, since we have just a thousand close friends together and also because we have the Missionaries of Charity with us, whom the Holy Spirit has sent into the world that the secrets of many hearts might be revealed. Not very long ago I said Mass and preached for their Mother, Mother Teresa of Calcutta , and after breakfast we spent quite a long time talking in a little room. Suddenly, I found myself asking her – I don’t know why – “Mother, what do you think is the worst problem in the world today?” She more than anyone could name any number of candidates: famine, plague, disease, the breakdown of the family, rebellion against God, the corruption of the media, world debt, nuclear threat, and so on. Without pausing a second she said, “Wherever I go in the whole world, the thing that makes me the saddest is watching people receive Communion in the hand.”

Thomas Aquinas reminded the faithful that reverence demands that only what has been consecrated should touch the Blessed Sacrament. By baptism, he said, the Christian has been consecrated to receive the Lord in Holy Communion, but not to distribute the Sacred Host to others or unnecessarily to touch it. “To touch the sacred species and to distribute them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained, one which indicates an active participation in the ministry of the Eucharist” (Dominicae Cenae, 11).

The information above not only confirmed the ideas I had about the reception of our Lord but makes for a strong argument for the manner in which we receive Communion.

What do you think? For more information about the arguments for receiving Communion in the hand, visit http://www.catholic-pages.com/mass/inhand.asp.
LEON JAMESON SUSERAN