Not a stepping stone

Treating the Eucharist as the bandaid which will heal people receiving it in mortal sin is whitewashing its power of transformation of the clouded intellect and weakened will.

The Eucharist is not a reward but a totality of the living God coming as close as possible to the humanity of His creation in an everlasting act of self-giving. If the person receiving Him has put the walls of sin in their body, soul and spirit, the effect of Eucharistic union will not take place because it’s not magic, because it’s not forceful, because it’s not offensive.

The compassion on a sinner in a state of mortal sin in a form of giving him Communion because his conscience allows him to ask for it is a missed target. It will not heal. It might give him temporary tranquility of mind in perceiving that he now belongs and is not rejected from the table because he longs for the inclusion. But that is very different from receiving Christs’ peace which goes beyond psychological, subjectively described state of mind or heart, which can be attained by various psychological means, often without having well formed conscience. Bending the truth to appease suffering, internal conflict or emotional arousal is not healing it.

When Paul talks about unworthy manner of receiving the Eucharist which might cause sickness, it includes dichotomy experienced in the soul where the Truth challenges or fights conscience sometimes on the subconscious level. Sometimes this internal conflict spills out as anxiety, sometimes as self-hatred, sometimes as shame or condemnation, because the ego or the enemy are always active and trying to win the conflict, a battle or a war. The internal and enemy’s propaganda fights the still, small Voice under various banners: belonging, inclusion, compassion, acceptance, tolerance etc. by misusing the context and trying to disease the weight of the issue into many disconnected aspects. Lack of acknowledgment of the reality intensifies that conflict.

Trying to smooth the conscience by allowing someone to receive the Eucharist without repentance, which includes and requires acknowledgment and taking responsibility for sinful act and which leads to confession, contrition, and reparation, led to almost everyone receiving Communion in each Catholic Mass in the US which borders with mockery, and certainly strips the power of the Eucharistic testimony.

To think that including people in the Church must start with giving them access to receiving Eucharist in a state of mortal sin is a crazy idea and the Church has never practiced it. Spaces for belonging to the Church community vary and are as important as sacramental ones. Make them happen! Jesus is present outside of His sacramental presence in a rich and easily accessible ways! The hunger for Eucharist must conquer banalization of it.

There are other healing sacraments that bring order and wholeness. They preclude reception of the Eucharist in making sure that once received it will take its effect to the fullest: Baptism and Confession.

The need for personal accompaniment is real in all rousing dilemmas which try to use empathy and compassion understood not as Christian virtues but mainly as feelings validating someone’s choices hurting themselves and others.

Eucharist is not a reward but it’s not a stepping stone to self-help or psychological tranquility. It restores Life for repentant sinners who take themselves as seriously and lovingly as their Creator does.