What is the Sacrament of Holy Communion?
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- Holy Communion is the source and summit of all Christian life because when we receive Holy Communion, we are receiving Jesus Himself into our bodies. (See CCC 1374)
- Jesus loves us so much that he wants to unite us with Him forever; this is why we should always remember how special Holy Communion is: the Creator of the universe chooses to be humbly present in the form of bread and wine just to be this close with us. (See See John 6:48-56, CCC 1375)
- Another name for Holy Communion is “the Eucharist,” which means “thanksgiving” in Greek, the language many of the first Christians spoke. This reminds us that we should never receive it without thanking Jesus for this amazing gift.
- During every Mass, the Holy Spirit changes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus--God the Son--so that when we receive the Eucharist, we can experience the intimate love that Jesus has for each one of us. Just like Jesus performed many amazing miracles on earth, he works this miracle at every Mass so that even though the Eucharist still looks and tastes like bread and wine to our physical senses, we know with our spiritual senses that we are receiving the fullness of God into our own body. (See CCC 1376-1377)
- This is why when the priest says “The Body of Christ” we respond boldly with “Amen!” meaning, “Yes! I do believe that is truly Jesus’ body.” (See John 6:57-64)
- When we receive the Eucharist worthily, we get to experience God’s love in a very unique way by being truly united with Him and His Church! (See 1 Cor 10:16-17)
- We should always prepare to receive the Eucharist by asking God to help us know and experience his grace and love, and by telling him that we will use that grace to make him proud.
- If we know of serious unconfessed sin and still receive the Eucharist, this is called committing sacrilege. Sacrilege means that since we didn’t take the time to confess and make our relationship with God right, we are preventing ourselves from being able to accept the gift of grace Jesus wants to give us in the Eucharist and, in a sense, throwing it away. (See 1 Cor 11:27-29, CCC 1385)
- The reason why we should not receive the Eucharist if we know there is serious sin we need to go to Confession for is because doing so can be like someone giving you an amazing gift that you just throw away in the mud without ever being able to open it...You hurt yourself and the person who gave you the gift.
- We also want to receive the Eucharist in a way that shows the deepest possible reverence for this amazing gift. The normal way to do this is by keeping our hands in prayer as the priest places the Eucharist on our tongue. This helps us make sure we don’t drop it or touch it with unclean hands, but it also helps us experience this intimate moment in a way that is different from anything else we do!
