Topic:  Why wouldn't you want everyone to receive the Eucharist?

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Date originally posted: June 18, 2003

Moderator who originally posted this source: Father Phillip

Question:   A couple of weeks ago I took a non-Catholic friend to Church and beforehand, I explained to him that non-Catholics could not receive Communion and why. I was happy to see that what I told him was pretty close to what it says in the FAQ on this topic. Then, he stumped me by asking, If Catholics believe that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist why wouldn't you want everyone to receive Christ? I guess he was thinking that the most logical way to share Christ with others would be to physically give Christ to them. What do I say? Thanks

Answer: 

Dear Anne,

Since you're a grad student at the VERY BEST UNIVERSITY IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE (UNC-CH, where I happen to be the Catholic Campus Minister!), your question deserves really careful reflection and response! Besides that, your friend's question is a darned good one!

By way of an answer I would propose something like an analogy from Jesus' life as it comes to us in the Scripture.

Jesus was always -- from the instant of His conception by the Holy Spirit in the Blessed Virgin's womb (and even before that -- but that's a whole 'nother set of questions-and-answers which we won't go into here) -- God:

Fully divine, fully human in one Person, the two natures not mixed but working in perfect harmony.

And throughout his life on earth, He walked and talked and healed and laughed and suffered and died and rose and ascended -- in each of these activities and "moments" Jesus was always fully divine and fully human.

With me so far? Good -- a UNC grad student would be, I'm sure!

While the Lord Jesus was always fully divine and fully human, He chose, for a host of reasons -- some of which we can understand, others which are mysteries beyond our capacity -- not always to reveal His divine glory in every activity, to every person, in every moment.

In technical theological terms, the Incarnate God, Who is Jesus Christ, chose to be the "Deus absconditus" or "hidden God." In Philippians 2 we read that though He was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at and so He took the form of a slave. That is to say, He freely chose to "empty" Himself of His divine attributes and to live among us as a simple and magnificent Man from Nazareth.

Just because His divine attributes were "hidden" didn't mean that He was not always fully divine and fully human. Much to the contrary, precisely because Jesus Christ was/is always fully divine as well as fully human, He did not "have" to "show off" His divine attributes all the time.

Though the analogy is a bit coarse, it works for me: The strongest kid on the playground doesn't HAVE to go around knocking heads together because that kid KNOWS that he/she is the strongest person out there and so can be calmly confident. Similarly, Jesus didn't HAVE to go around 'proving' that He was/is fully divine and fully human all the time. He KNEW that He is/was both fully divine and fully human and could, therefore, be completely confident and at ease in Who He is/was without HAVING to prove it all the time.

Anyway, Jesus -- the fully human and fully divine Person -- lived among us without always showing His divine attribtes. There were, to be sure, some moments when He did -- the wedding feat at Cana of Galilee, the Transfiguration, the raising of His friend, Lazarus. But for the most part Jesus Christ, our Lord, our God, our brother, was content simply to be with people.

Now, why in the world wouldn't Jesus have just done some really spectacular miracles and thereby "proven" that He is/was the Incarnate God? That way people would be 'wowed' and come to believe in Him.

The answer to that question is complex, and certainly I don't know ALL the reasons. But simply put, I think it runs sort of like this:

Our God is a profoundly respectful God. God respects our freedom. God would rather be loved and adored and worshipped and followed because we freely choose to than because we were scared not to. Our love freely given as a result of a relationship with Jesus which has grown in ways that appropriate, free, and usually slow, seems to be the desire of His Sacred Heart.

Another way to put it: Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. Jesus understands that we need to come to know Him over time -- like all of our relationships which "do better" if they are entered into carefully, reflectively, prayerfully, at an appropriate 'pace.' So, Jesus gives us time to get to know Him, to realize over the course of our encounters with Him what a magnificent human being He is, and how He is the God for Whom our human hearts long.

Jesus doesn't push Who He is down our throats. Jesus -- the Incarnate God -- woos us, courts us, gives us the chance to get to know Him in ways and time frames that are right for us.

The Lord tells His disciples in John's Gospel that He has many other truths but they are not ready just then to hear all that He has to tell them. He respects their limits. In good time, in HIS time, the Spirit will reveal to them (and to us) all that they need to know.

So what does all this have to do with your friend and his really good question?

Well...OF COURSE we Catholics want everybody in the whole world to come to a personal knowledge of and relationship with Jesus Christ and to live that relationship out in the community of faith which is the Church.

But our way of inviting people into relationship with Jesus is modeled (given the limits and failings of us human beings -- priests, bishops, popes, deacons, lay people alike)after the 'way' He did it in the Scriptures: one step at a time.

So, we welcome every single human person to worship with us. We are delighted to have people get to know Jesus and to get to know us by praying with us, by singing with us, by worhsipping with us. And as that person's relationship with Christ Jesus deepens and grows, we Catholics welcome that person to enter ever more fully -- at a pace that is appropriate for that person -- into the life of the community of believers.

We don't just jump into sharing a bank account, for instance, with a person after spending 30 or 40 minutes with that person. But that prudence doesn't mean that we are unwilling to get to know the person better. It simply means that we want the relationship to have a chance to mature at its own speed.

We believe that Holy Communion is the most intimate sacramental union that believers can have with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, we would want that person to have the benefit of getting to know Jesus and coming to love Jesus with her/his whole heart and soul and being. When that relationship has grown and matured to the appropriate place, we would rejoice for that person to come into full and intimate communion with the Lord and with the Church that is most perfectly expressed by the reception of Holy Communion.

We want to encourage and to nurture a person's relationship with the Lord, but we don't think that offering a person Holy Communion is an appropriate way to encourage this relationship unti the person has had the benefit of developing a stong and mature relationship with Christ.

Jesus didn't generally just walk through Palestine saying, I am God in your midst, come have an intimate, life-transforming union with me. Rather, He met people where they were. He talked with them about their lives and about where they could find God in their lives. Only when their relationship with Him had matured and grown to an appropriate place did He reveal His glory.

So, that's sort of what we try to do in the Church.

Do we want people to receive Christ? Of course we do! Do we want to share Christ with everybody? For sure!

But there are lots of ways to share the Lord with people. And while we hope that all people will be united with Him and with us at the heavenly and Messianic Banquet of the Eucharist, until that day when He is all-in-all, we have to take it one step at a time.

Long, I know -- but hope it helps some...

Blessings,
Father Phillip