You’ve really got two questions here: Can you kneel and is it “humble” or “holier than thou” to do so when everyone else is standing? In a few weeks, the Church in the U.S. will switch over to a new translation of the Mass and with it will issue a new translation of the
General Instruction of the Roman Missal. Number 160 of the GIRM covers the posture of the communicant to receive Communion and will state, in part:
The norm established for the dioceses of the United States of America is that holy Communion is to be received standing, unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling.
That answers whether or not you
can kneel for Communion if that is what you desire. The answer is, yes, you can.
You bring up an interesting point though about the internal disposition of communicants who choose to kneel when everyone else is standing. Is doing so “humble” or “holier than thou”? The assumption of many kneelers is that the very action of descending to their knees to receive inherently makes them “humble” before God. (For example, see
this blog post in which a priest blogger implies something very similar to the point made by the priest at your old parish, that the act of kneeling “to receive Almighty
GOD” is itself somehow better than standing to receive almighty God.)
Regarding humility, the
Catholic Encyclopedia states:
The virtue of humility may be defined: “A quality by which a person considering his own defects has a lowly opinion of himself and willingly submits himself to God and to others for God’s sake.” St. Bernard defines it: “A virtue by which a man knowing himself as he truly is, abases himself.” These definitions coincide with that given by St. Thomas: “The virtue of humility,” he says, “consists in keeping oneself within one’s own bounds, not reaching out to things above one, but submitting to one’s superior” (
source).
Humility therefore is primarily an attitude, which is made manifest in actions. Within the proper context, kneeling for Communion
can manifest humility. But, when it is used as a means of drawing attention to oneself in the midst of a standing congregation, or when it constitutes a temptation for the kneeler to think he is acting better than others by choosing to kneel – particularly when those others have a valid choice to stand – then it can manifest pride.
The priest at your old parish should not have given you the idea that you “
must humble [yourself] before God [by kneeling] prior to receiving the greatest sacrament” when the Church has not made such a directive binding upon all Catholics. In your case, this has, by your own admission, led you to believe that the very act of kneeling while everyone else stands somehow makes you more humble than your fellow parishioners.
