Is it OK to receive the Eucharist?

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

Bataar

New member
I’m sure this has been asked before so I’m sorry if this is a repeat.

If a person is in the state of mortal sin and they are in line for confession, fully intent on confessing the sin, but is unable to go to confession due to the priest only doing confession for an hour and spending 20-30 minutes with each person and time runs out, would that person be able to receive communion at Mass?

I believe that due to God’s mercy if that person was to die, that sin would not be held against them as God knows the person’s intent was to confess it, but would that be true for communion as well?
 
Bataar said:
If a person is in the state of mortal sin and they are in line for confession, fully intent on confessing the sin, but is unable to go to confession due to the priest only doing confession for an hour and spending 20-30 minutes with each person and time runs out, would that person be able to receive communion at Mass?
Click to expand...
No, because they’re still in mortal sin.
 
No. The only time one can delay confession until after reception of Communion is when one is in danger of death.

Abstain, offer up your embarrassment, sorrow and get to Confession asap!
 
TheLittleLady said:
No. The only time one can delay confession until after reception of Communion is when one is in danger of death.
Click to expand...
Yup. I think the specific wording used is that there must be a “grave cause” to receive Communion this way. But I can’t think of many other “grave causes” for receiving Communion other than danger of death.
 
Asinner said:
Yup. I think the specific wording used is that there must be a “grave cause” to receive Communion this way. But I can’t think of many other “grave causes” for receiving Communion other than danger of death.
Click to expand...
The wording you’re thinking of is “grave reason” along with “no opportunity to confess” and isn’t just limited to danger of death (or something equally as drastic). Serious embarrassment if communion is not taken is another mentioned by canonists. In canon law, “grave” essentially means “serious”; whether a grave reason exists is (largely) a matter for an individual’s informed conscience. What matters more is that remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition (sop are truly sorry for their sins out of the love that god has for them rather than only out of fear of punishment) which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.
 
What if abstaining from communion is tantamount to manifesting one’s conscience, especially to one’s family? We are never obliged to manifest the state of our conscience to anyone except our confessor. In times past, people could simply eat something within the longer communion fast period (3 hours or, earlier, since midnight) and be able to say that they did not receive communion because they had broken the fast. But with the modern truncated communion fast, it is not as easy to use that as an excuse. In this case, wouldn’t it be sufficient merely to make an act of perfect contrition and go to confession as soon as possible? I hope this would be the exception rather than the rule.
 
You can still “forget” and eat something within the hour if it’s going to be that big of a deal to your family.
But otherwise it would seem like this falls in the category of “serious embarrassment” as the priest just explained above.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
What if abstaining from communion is tantamount to manifesting one’s conscience, especially to one’s family?
Click to expand...
You are providing a good example of how one should have a spiritual communion until you have the opportunity to go to confession. Especially today, when a young person will observe that everybody always goes up to communion. It shows we really do believe that the host is the body and blood of Christ, not just a wafer. It provides an opportunity for catechism privately at home to do an examination of conscience before receiving. It models for your children that you as their parent are ok with them not going up like being in autopilot, when maybe they shouldn’t be. Maybe they would be embarrassed that mom and dad are going to see them not go up.
 
I think you actually have to be absolved by the priest. Good intentions or not.
Sometimes, the inconvenience of when confessions are offered is a problem.
I know we only had one priest at my parish. He is kept busy.
As a result, we only have confessions on Saturday afternoons or by appointment.
Well, if you go to confession on Saturday afternoon, but commit a sin Saturday night, you have to wait awhile before you can go to confession again.
 
MasterHaster said:
Can absolution not be received from God Himself in such a situation or other situation when seeing a priest is not possible or practical?
Click to expand...
The only time you might possibly get absolution directly from God is if you repented, made a firm resolve to go to Confession ASAP and then got hit by a bus before you could get to the church and died before the priest could get there to hear your last confession.

It’s pretty obvious that if Catholics thought they could get absolution “directly from God”, no one would ever bother going to confession.
 
Last edited:
The thing is, you do not HAVE TO receive the Eucharist at Mass.
So if you’re in the confession line with a mortal sin on your soul, and you don’t actually get to confession due to time constraints, then you don’t receive the Eucharist at Mass, and you go back to confession as soon as you can, and you wait to receive until you are free of mortal sin.

Otherwise you’re just compounding mortal sin on mortal sin.

If you cannot receive, you can make a spiritual communion. Usually in the Missal you will find somewhere “A prayer for those who cannot receive”. Pray to God, offer up your sorrow that you cannot now receive, your firm purpose to confess ASAP, and then after Mass (where you do NOT receive the Eucharist), go make an appointment for confession. And then after you do go to confession and are in the state of grace, rejoice, be glad, and receive!
 
Fr. Fox, in his catechism for young people allows for this situation for the person to receive with an act of perfect contrition with the proviso of going at the first opportunity.
 
On a related note, how about when someone does not speak the language of the confessors. I remember s situation where someone spoke French and the only confessors available were those who spoke English or Spanish.
 
Like most things in faith, there’s a tension between reverence and respect for the Eucharist on the one hand, and the need for the healing grace we receive through it on the other. While

it’s certainly true that you don’t have to receive the Eucharist it is still strongly encouraged, as Pope Francis has said, not as a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine for the sick. This is why it’s largely left to a well-informed individual conscience to determine, for that person, what amounts to a “grace (or serious) reason”. What matters most though is the intention to receive sacramental confession as soon as possible (and of course actually carrying out this intention).
poche said:
On a related note, how about when someone does not speak the language of the confessors.
Click to expand...
This happens from time to time, all you can do is try! Provided you’re not going to a confessor deliberately because they don’t speak your language, this isn’t’ really an issue. I have has people come to me from time to time with limited (or no) English - I just do what I can and leave the rest up to God!
 
Bataar said:
I’m sure this has been asked before so I’m sorry if this is a repeat.

If a person is in the state of mortal sin and they are in line for confession, fully intent on confessing the sin, but is unable to go to confession due to the priest only doing confession for an hour and spending 20-30 minutes with each person and time runs out, would that person be able to receive communion at Mass?

I believe that due to God’s mercy if that person was to die, that sin would not be held against them as God knows the person’s intent was to confess it, but would that be true for communion as well?
Click to expand...
If one has made an act of contrition with perfect contrition, one can receive sanctifying grace through one’s own private confession. In that case, communion should be delayed until one can have individual confession. Read about grave necessity in the Catechism which has a section for general confession and general absolution .
1483 In case of grave necessity recourse may be had to a communal celebration of reconciliation with general confession and general absolution . Grave necessity of this sort can arise when there is imminent danger of death without sufficient time for the priest or priests to hear each penitent’s confession. Grave necessity can also exist when, given the number of penitents, there are not enough confessors to hear individual confessions properly in a reasonable time, so that the penitents through no fault of their own would be deprived of sacramental grace or Holy Communion for a long time. In this case, for the absolution to be valid the faithful must have the intention of individually confessing their grave sins in the time required.92 The diocesan bishop is the judge of whether or not the conditions required for general absolution exist.93 A large gathering of the faithful on the occasion of major feasts or pilgrimages does not constitute a case of grave necessity.94
Click to expand...
 
InThePew said:
Serious embarrassment if communion is not taken is another mentioned by canonists.
Click to expand...
It’s mentioned by at least one canonist (in the so-called “green commentary”, so it’s an influential opinion). I’m not sure who else independently holds that view… Personally, I think it’s too broad and basically undefined.

Dan
 
HomeschoolDad said:
What if abstaining from communion is tantamount to manifesting one’s conscience, especially to one’s family?
Click to expand...
That’s a scenario pondered in some of the older commentaries and is seen as a justifiable reason to receive. Specifically, I recall commentary on the circumstance of a bride/groom on the occasion of their nuptial Mass. To not receive would (could) suggest that he/she was not disposed because…well, you know why.

In most other cases, the “manifestation” would, it seems to me, not be so clear. Nevertheless, if someone honestly believes “if I don’t receive Holy Communion, people are thereby going to realize that I’m in a state of mortal sin”…that could justify reception.

Dan
 
poche said:
Fr. Fox, in his catechism for young people allows for this situation for the person to receive with an act of perfect contrition with the proviso of going at the first opportunity.
Click to expand...
I have read this catechism and I recall what he said. Without getting too explicit, young people struggling with the temptations of adolescence often find themselves having committed objectively mortal sins, yet they attend Mass with their families and often do not have an opportunity to go to confession on their own (especially if they don’t drive). If they didn’t receive communion, the reason might be fairly obvious.

Having said this, I do not endorse receiving communion without prior confession if such sins have been committed, but there can be exceptions. Father Fox urged his readers not to abuse or misunderstand this kind of exception, and stressed the importance of perfect (not imperfect) contrition.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top