Is it okay to break the Communion fast if the priest says so?

[ethereality]

The other day the priest told me before daily Mass that I could receive the Eucharist without having fasted for an hour, suggesting that 45-50 minutes was good enough. Not wanting to offend our Lord, I went up instead with my arms crossed, bowed, received a blessing, and returned to my pew. Did Jesus want to unite with me during that Mass more than he wanted me to obey canon law? Did I please him in not following his priest’s advice to receive him?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

As a basic principle, a pastor generally has the faculty to dispense the Communion fast in individual cases for a just reason.

The situation you outline though presents several issues:

• Keep in mind that the Communion fast means one hour before Communion, not one hour before Mass. If you told the pastor before Mass that you had only fasted for forty-five to fifty minutes before Mass, then that amount of time should have left plenty of time to complete the fast before Communion was distributed, and there shouldn’t have been an issue of dispensation.
• Forty-five to fifty minutes as “good enough” does not seem to me to be a just reason to dispense the Communion fast. If the fast is to be dispensed, it seems to me that the priest should not give the impression that an hour’s fast before Communion is not necessary.
• You have set up a false dichotomy between Jesus’ wishes and canon law. Christ gave us his Church, and he entrusted his Church and its leaders to act in his name. So long as they do not ask us to do something clearly immoral, Christ wants us to obey our pastors.
• How did this situation arise? Did you go to the pastor and tell him that you had not observed the Communion fast, and then ask him if you could receive Communion? If so, then why did you not take his advice and accept the dispensation given (setting aside whether or not the priest’s justification for the dispensation was entirely correct or prudent)? There is very little that is more frustrating for someone asked for an opinion and permission to do something than to have that opinion and permission disregarded or dismissed.