Perhaps before you think about receiving the Eucharist in the hand, you should talk to your priest about it.
Maybe you shouldn’t dip your hand in that holy water font to bless yourself before consulting the pastor.
Oh, you want to hold hands during the “Our Father”? Better make sure Father knows about it first?
Surely I have provided enough absurd examples to make you think about the concept.
As for the idea that kneeling can be a hazard in line, well this is just a red herring, a canard that is meant to make people feel guilty for being devout. Same goes for trying to shame them for being “holier-than-thou” or a “Pharisee” or a “narcissist”. The only things I think when I see someone kneeling down is, how humble he is, and how brave, unafraid to stick out of the crowd, what focus he has on Our Lord.
The faithful should know and boldly exercise their rights. They should never be shamed, intimidated, or cajoled out of the free exercise of devotion. 50 years ago, this thread would have sounded ridiculous. Everyone able to kneel knelt, and those who didn’t, stood. Then came wreckovations, the abolition of the altar rail, and mandatory pew-by-pew cattle calls. Now we’re dealing with entitled people who receive sacrilegiously, and those who don’t, demand a blessing. The Eucharist is our precious gift, a privilege, an honor. Those who approach it without due fear and trembling are eating and drinking condemnation on themselves.
There is a reason and agenda behind those who would discourage kneeling, to the point of taking away kneelers and other aids. They want to be inclusive, affirming, welcoming, in all the bad senses of these words. Kneeling is for them a symbol of oppression, a relic from a bygone era when people believed in fairy tales such as the Real Presence. To them, the altar is a mere table around which we gather to sing “Kum-ba-ya” and celebrate each other as we share a meal. Let’s not think of a Holy Sacrifice, the re-presentation of Calvary, the Heavenly Host of Revelation come to earth. These are the people who will be first on their knees at the Second Coming and Final Judgement; they will say “Lord, Lord” and Christ will examine their works.
Reverence for the Eucharist is reverence for Christ. If we believe and profess that He is God, then what He tells us is true, that “This is My body, this is My blood.” If we truly desire His love, if we wish to be one with Him, we give Him everything that He deserves, no matter the personal cost to us. If that means hitting the cold marble floor or the hot asphalt or even just a soft felt kneeler, then we don’t think twice, we give it to Him.
The Church has allowed us to stand and receive for much the same reason Moses allowed divorce, because of our hardness of heart. The Church loves us and the Eucharist, the Church wants us to receive and enjoy all the benefits. The Vatican II generation has robbed us of altar rails and thereby of a uniform kneeling posture to receive. If we want kneeling back, we’re going to need to convince pastors and bishops to give us back the rail. And that means digging deep and paying for renovations which increase the beauty and utility of sacred architecture. Or we can simply sit back, comfortable in our ugly churches, and allow the “Kum-ba-ya” crowd to destroy Catholic identity by stripping our churches of everything that is uniquely Catholic and replacing it with felt banners celebrating the Seattle Seahawks.
It is up to you.
