Intoxicated homeless man behind me in the Communion line

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MaryT777 said:
It saddens me when someone thinks they know who should be in the Communion line receiving. It’s always " someone ELSE shouldn’t be there."

That said I trust the original poster had a good intention by this post.
Mary.
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And I trust that you had good intentions with yours. Being openly drunk is a good reason for not receiving Our Lord. The man needed help and maybe someone could have helped him, who knows. Aren’t we supposed to help each other??? God Bless, Memaw
 
Pray for him…

I understand that you simply didn’t want our Lord offended or defiled (bless your heart), but we have no way of knowing who is in the position interiorly to receive and who is not. Leave it to the priest. I’ll say a prayer for this man and hope everyone will do the same that reads this thread.
 
Being an inner city church, we have several street homeless people come into Mass on an irregular basis. The responses they give are the old ones which indicate that they were raised Catholic as children.

I happen to know that our priest knows them and knows their situation, but some other parishioners may not. Some of them receive, some do not. All have drug and alcohol problems. There is no way of knowing personal circumstances.

I feel sorry for the man given the “stare”. How very unwelcome that must have made him feel in God’s house.
 
thistle said:
Actually, its none of your business who is in the Communion line and I even find it uncharitable that you turned around and gave him a stare. I wonder if you then became unworthy to receive!!!
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Agreed.
First reading of the Mass today (2014-03-30) 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
But the Lord said to Samuel:
“Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, - because I have rejected him.
Not as man sees does God see,
because man sees the appearance
but the Lord looks into the heart”
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Memaw said:
I liked it when the ushers would lead each line out of the pew and he could have spotted the situation and took care of it gracefully. Maybe the poor man was very hungry and looking for even a small morsel. I pray Our Lord helped him in many ways. God Bless. Memaw
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I usher quite often, seems that we’re usually one or two short for Mass 🤷
We’re not there to judge, in fact, I can’t even see when people receive -
We’re there playing stop-sign at each set of pews…
and we’re told to never prevent anyone from approaching to receive.

In fact, there was one time that I was to lector, missed confession times that Saturday prior and mentioned it to Fr. We went into the back office, and I went face to face with him right then and there… I do truely respect this priest… thankfully, I’m usually there early because our alter servers are often late so I’m usually helping the deacons to set-up for Mass. (funny, the deacon almost pushed me into the back office 😃 - we’re blessed)
 
The Eucharist is probably exactly what was needed.
I’m glad he received.
 
blaskoman said:
It happened during Mass a few days ago. The man reeked of alcohol. The only thing I did was turn around and give him a stare. Should have approached him after Mass but didn’t have the guts. He received Communion. Not to say that he was unworthy-- I don’t know the guy. However, its highly likely he shouldn’t have received given his intoxication. What would you do in this situation?
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I think you could not see the speck because of the log.

Didn’t our Lord reach out to everyone?

This story comes to mind…

One Sunday an old cowboy entered a church just before services were to begin.

Although the old man and his clothes were clean, he wore jeans, a denim shirt and boots that were very worn. He carried a worn out old hat and an equally worn out Bible.

The church was in a very upscale part of the city, the largest and most beautiful church the old cowboy had ever seen. The people of the congregation were likewise upscale, dressed with the most expensive of clothes.

As the cowboy took a seat, the others moved away from him. No one greeted, spoke to, or welcomed him. They were appalled at his appearance and didn’t attempt to hide it. The preacher gave a long sermon and a lecture on how much money the church needed to do God’s work.

As the old cowboy was leaving the church, the preacher approached him and asked the cowboy to do him a favor. “Before you come back, have a talk with God and ask him what He thinks would be appropriate attire for worship.” The old cowboy assured the preacher he would.

The next Sunday, he returned to the same church wearing the same ragged jeans. Again, the congregation shunned and ignored him. Again, the preacher approached him and said, “I thought I asked you to speak to God”… "

“I did,” replied the old cowboy.

“What exactly did God say was the proper attire for worshiping here?” asked the preacher.

“Well, sir, God told me that He didn’t have a clue what I should wear. He says He’s never been in this church.”

Judge not. It could be the man is trying to turn his life around. Stared at him? Shame!
 
Memaw said:
And I trust that you had good intentions with yours. Being openly drunk is a good reason for not receiving Our Lord. The man needed help and maybe someone could have helped him, who knows. Aren’t we supposed to help each other??? God Bless, Memaw
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Perhaps by recieving our Lord he was getting all the help he needed?
 
blaskoman said:
It happened during Mass a few days ago. The man reeked of alcohol. The only thing I did was turn around and give him a stare. Should have approached him after Mass but didn’t have the guts. He received Communion. Not to say that he was unworthy-- I don’t know the guy. However, its highly likely he shouldn’t have received given his intoxication. What would you do in this situation?
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Absolutely nothing, unless the person was obviously making a nuisance of himself. In fact, I would not have even given him a glance. It is not up to us to decide if anyone is worthy of Communion, even if they are drunk.
 
Memaw said:
And I trust that you had good intentions with yours. Being openly drunk is a good reason for not receiving Our Lord. The man needed help and maybe someone could have helped him, who knows. Aren’t we supposed to help each other??? God Bless, Memaw
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Being openly drunk is not a good reason for someone to determine one’s worthiness to receive the Lord. I have to wonder how many sober folks are going up to receive that are guilty of mortal sin and no one gives it a second thought seeming them at the altar.

You nor I don’t know a persons interior state. The man was allowed to receive apparently and that is what should have happened. And I wonder how many folks go up as intoxicated as this man appeared to be, but are dressed nice enough that no one gives it any notice.
 
It is not for anyone to judge the worthiness of another to receive communion. That is not our job. This applies both to someone who had the lapse in judgment to show up with the smell of alcohol** or** judging the one who stared at him.

We have no business speculating on whether the OP was in a position to then receive communion. If we do, then how are we any different from him?
 
Memaw said:
Actually it is our business. But in a very charitable way, certainly not by staring and judging. I have a friend that saw a man recieve Communion and place it in his pocket. and she followed him back and asked him to take it out of his pocket and consurme it in front of her and he refused.
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This is not judging the disposition to receive communion. This is judging the one act of sacrilege. I note that the usher did not deny the person the right to consume the host, only to carry it out.
 
This thread is interesting because it reminds me a lot of my biological father.

My father was/is a raging alcoholic. He is also a very devout Catholic-Mass every week, confession at least every other, etc. Since my parents divorced when I was an infant, he has become homeless (still very much an alcoholic), and I have had very limited contact with him.

I’m sure that he goes to church at least every Sunday, if not more. I’m also sure that he’s receiving communion. And I would bet everything I own that he does not make it a point to sober up before church, though it would shock me to find out that he didn’t observe the 1 hr fast before Mass. Despite the fact that he is an alcoholic, and was quite possibly the least responsible father in the world, and despite the fact that I am an atheist, the idea of someone giving him a dirty look when he is honestly doing the best he can to live up to the rules of the faith he’s been practicing for 60+ years makes me angry.
 
Thistle, to be honest it was more me being curious than an intense stare. Its not everyday that I smell alcohol in the communion line! So I briefly turned around to see what’s up.

I should have been more clear in my original post. My feeling that this individual was unworthy to receive was the fact that he was not observing the required fast before communion. This situation is not unlike someone eating a submarine sandwich while in the communion line.
 
blaskoman said:
Thistle, to be honest it was more me being curious than an intense stare. Its not everyday that I smell alcohol in the communion line! So I briefly turned around to see what’s up.

I should have been more clear in my original post. My feeling that this individual was unworthy to receive was the fact that he was not observing the required fast before communion. This situation is not unlike someone eating a submarine sandwich while in the communion line.
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How do you know the guy was homeless?
 
thistle said:
Actually, its none of your business who is in the Communion line and I even find it uncharitable that you turned around and gave him a stare. I wonder if you then became unworthy to receive!!!
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I agree with this post and it is very nicely said.
 
blaskoman said:
It happened during Mass a few days ago. The man reeked of alcohol. The only thing I did was turn around and give him a stare. Should have approached him after Mass but didn’t have the guts. He received Communion. Not to say that he was unworthy-- I don’t know the guy. However, its highly likely he shouldn’t have received given his intoxication. What would you do in this situation?
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If the man was so obviously intoxicated, surely the priest would have noticed, at which point, it would be up to the priest to decide what to do about administering Communion?

As for whether the man was homeless,

“Jesus said to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”

~~ Luke 9:58

What would I have done?

Prayed for the man’s salvation and overall health and well being, that God would bless him. And depending on how close a restaurant was, and how safe the environment was (being a single woman) offer to buy him something decent in the way of food, like coffee and a sandwich, or a take-out meal.

…
 
All you said was that he smelled like alcohol.

What if he was running to get to mass and accidentally bumped into somebody holding a beer, drenching himself with alcohol?
What if he was doing some cleaning at home with alcohol (in theatre companies, they spray down costumes with vodka between shows to remove odors - you can also do things like cleaning the shower with vodka to cut down on grime, or spraying rotten things with vodka to remove the smell until you can deal with the problem)
What if we was doing some sort of cooking with wine for dinner and spilled it on himself right before he had to leave?

You don’t need to consume alcohol to smell like it. Were there any other indications that he was drunk?
 
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