I have a simple theory about why the Church today is so committed to the laity taking Holy Communion in the hand -- so committed that although HC on the tongue is, as a norm, the proper way, and in the hand, the dispensation, it is quite difficult to find accommodation in your normal Novus Ordo parish -- especially now in the Covid age.
Why?
Why so rigid an adherence to an alien practice?
What is so important to our contemporaries about this way of receiving, when up until recently, relatively speaking, on the tongue was the only way (very primitive practice notwithstanding)?
Well, I was observing priests concelebrating and noticing that they held the Host until the main celebrant communicated, at which time the others too consumed theirs. Of course, I have seen this thousands of times. But suddenly it struck me that the versus populum (towards the people) posture of the priest makes his consumption of the Host visible to the congregation, and concelebration (also a Novus Ordo innovation) prolongs and emphasizes the gesture.
In a flash I saw -- and perhaps others have written about this, but it's a real revelation to me -- that in the Vatican II ecclesiology, the priest is not meant to be as separate and set apart as in the old. He is dislodged from his hierarchic role. As the years from the Council rolled on, the lines became blurred, intentionally. Many observers have commented on this trend. James Hitchcock put it well here:
Lay and clerical roles have been redefined in a way which almost seems like a simple reversal: lay people press forward eagerly to discharge formal liturgical tasks previously reserved to clerics, while priests and religious aggressively crowd into what were previously considered lay professions, even (as in the case of certain nuns in politics) renouncing their religious status in order to do so. Devout lay people seem to say that they cannot fully live their faith unless they perform recognizably priestly tasks, even as priests complain of being confined in the sanctuary. It may occur to the disinterested observer that such reversals betoken not so much deeper understanding or creative redefinition as simple confusion and formless discontent.
Well, after years of watching priests self-communicate (and maybe it didn't take too long; these things often don't), the laity, or perhaps I should say certain opportunistic innovators, felt a need to do things just the way the priest does them; in short, to self-communicate rather than to receive the Host on the tongue, kneeling. In fact, one serious sacrilege that I used to observe is Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist (that is, laypeople) going around the altar and taking the Host directly from the paten -- the way a concelebrating priest does. For a long time now I have taken care to stay away from such churches if possible, so I don't know if this abuse is still occurring.
The more I think about it, the more I see a straight line from the priest turning to face the people to the concelebrated Mass to the people (or unwittingly, their agents) insisting on Holy Communion in the hand. Counterfactually, this mode is the preferred and normal one. And yet, it's the result of a distortion of the roles of priest and laity.
I really urge any reader who does not already receive Holy Communion on the tongue to pray and read about it. I believe that our Holy Communions need to be as reverent as possible.
Years ago we went to a church where all of the EMHC were given the host and then held on to it until the priest consumed his and they all consumed Our Lord at the same time. You know, even Steven.
ReplyDeleteOne good thing about Covid: the pastor at our local (AMAZING) basilica has decided that the only safe way to distribute communion on the tongue is if the faithful is kneeling at the altar rail.
That is good. But it's still so odd that the rest are receiving in the hand. Why is it so important to them? That's what I didn't understand, until I watched the priests.
DeleteYes, I have seen that with EMHCs too -- they wait to consume. There's such a caste system in the Novus Ordo that no one acknowledges. The EMHCs are SUPERCHARGED laity -- you might say, in that odious phrase, "dynamic Catholics" TM.
I always love your wisdom and observations. This was a good one!
ReplyDeleteThen, as I bet you as well as others have noted, the softening and blurring of the hierarchical order resulted in more clericalism, not less. A twisted sense of clericalism that brought us to the current state of corruption and scandal.
ReplyDeleteAt the Last Supper, Jesus gave communion in the hand.
ReplyDeletePlease read the links within my piece. What you say is not at all established, and if it were, he was giving HC to his apostles. We know that a consecrated person can touch the Host with his hands. The question is, what has developed in the Church? The articles I linked to provide answers. Thank you!
DeleteExactly. The changes created tiers of status that had not existed before, and it all tends towards activity in the sanctuary... and then a sense of entitlement outside of it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I came home to the Catholic Church in 2014, my priest advised me going forward to receive Holy Communion on the tongue. (When I grew up in the 1980s, I was taught to receive in the hand.) The priest told me that receiving on the tongue shows vulnerability toward Christ. It was a turning point in my faith.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It is a turning point. I greatly regret that in the time I was raising my children, these abuses were normalized.
DeleteSwitched to receiving on the tongue 10 years ago and never went back. It truly is much, much more reverent.
ReplyDelete