How Jesus was touched by sin

[mikworld]

In the pre Vatican II days, it was forbidden to recieve Jesus in the hand, claiming that touching Him would be a scandal. It was also forbidden to recieve the Eucharist if there was any trace of sin on a persons soul. Fortunately the church wised up, for we always have sin on our souls.
I’m not going to dive into the implications of a couple statements I just made yet, but am going to focus on the life of Jesus. “By the power of the Holy Spirit He was born of the Virgin Mary and became man.” -The Nicene Creed
In the beginning when sin entered the world, man separated what was never meant to be separated. In His love, He becomes the being which in their nature is separate from Him. God becomes His injury.
In His life, Jesus walked with and touched the most sinful people. From the time of His birth I can only imagine Joseph, a sinful man, holding the baby Jesus.
Let’s fast forward.
Jesus was touched by the Romans whips and crowned with thorns. And being given a cross, he bore the weight of sin in order to cleanse man of his injury.Sin touched Him. It was His will that sin touch Him. Like a doctor must touch a wound to heal it, Jesus needed to touch sin in order to repair it. Jesus Christ became man to be touched by those He loves.
Today, we have the argument of recieving Jesus on the tongue or in the hand. In what way do we give scandal to Jesus by touching HIm with our hand, as we touch Him with our tongue just the same?
The whole point of this post is to offer a meditation. When recieving the Eucharist, let us envision Jesus as baby, and when we recieve Him, let us picture cradeling Him in our arms. Imagine holding divinity in our sinful hands. We don’t have to imagine, for we do whenver we recieve the Eucharist.
Likewise, let us also remember how Jesus was tortured and murdered. When we touch Him, let us see each stripe our sin cast upon his flesh, and as He touches us with His body and blood, let us see our wound healed, as we commune with God and the rest of the Christian community.
God Bless,

Justin

 

[theMutant]

While I agree with your meditation, I personally reflect on those things when I see His image on the crucifix. I also think you misunderstand the pre-Vatican II practice; which was also post-Vatican II practice until several decades after the Council.

To begin with, it was not considered scandalous for us to touch the Host (other than in our mouths and internally) because of our sinfulness. (That is to say that I have never read it in any of the explanations I’ve studied that were produced before the Council.) If that were the case, priests before the change could not have touched the Host in order to pick it up and place it on our tongues. It was scandalous for us to touch the host because that is properly the office of the ordained. The priest acts in the person of Christ during Communion and distributes it. The rest of the faithful merely receive it. I believe that this practice provides a greater means of appreciating the sacredness of what we are receiving and this is one of the reasons I still receive on the tongue.

There was also a very practical side to this practice in that by reducing the number of people handling our Lord, it reduced the chances that He might be accidentally dropped. I have seen Him dropped several times by people quickly popping Him into their own mouths. In one case, the person had actually started walking away from the priest before doing so, dropped the Host and stepped on Him when turning around to pick Him up.