Moral Red Flags in Eucharistic Ministry

[FossilResin]

Last night I went to an initial meeting at my parish for people interested in becoming Eucharistic Ministers to the infirm and homebound. What a beautiful opportunity to serve the Beloved Lord Jesus and make sure we are obedient to his word of love. I am happy to report that the instructions for the ritual handling of the Blessed Sacrament in our parish are very reverent and worshipful.

However…

Some women who have been doing this for a while shared stories that raised an alarm in me. They told about situations where they were present with people and ready to give Christ’s body to the ill person, when suddenly the person revealed that they were definitely in a state of mortal sin according to Church teaching. The women asked what they should do in such a situation.

Our diocesan priest at the meeting basically said, “You should give it to them because God has already brought you there. Who are we to judge?” and a woman said that another priest told her that if Jesus Himself were with the ill people, he would give them his body even though the people are in a state of mortal sin.

I feel beset by anguish because this sounds so, so wrong. Yes, I can imagine Our Lord giving Himself to anyone, as he did on the cross, but that would be for him personally to choose. He knows every heart, but we can only know what we are told. Aren’t we people called to listen to the Holy Spirit’s teaching in our Church?!

I feel upset because I love Jesus’s body and I don’t want my Beloved to be insulted by people who think they deserve Him no matter what they’ve done, especially when they are flagrantly, pridefully unrepentant and they are treating His body in the Eucharist as if it is a feel-good comfort cookie that they are OWED.

Am I being “too sensitive” or “insensitive” or “pharisaical”? Am I being ridiculous? Should I just hand out the Eucharist without any practice of discriminating conscience on my part?! Am I being “too devout”? Or is this the voice of Satan bullying me?

I talked to our priest about it directly and he was basically being infuriatingly accommodating to the secularist idea that we “shouldn’t judge”. He said that he often visits the ill in hospital and knows that they have not been to mass in a long time but he gives them the Eucharist anyways. He said, “Sometimes the normal rules don’t apply; we can’t be rule-bound all the time.” Does visiting the ill trump everything else?

I told him, “Father, certainly we are there to comfort people, yes, and we are not eagerly looking for opportunities to offend anybody, but we HAVE TO be willing to offend people for the Truth when we must!” He said I had a good point about how we need to be willing to offend the world for the sake of truth, and that he would think about it.

Am I of a right mind, or am I not? I only want to do Lord Jesus’s will because I love him and I want to serve him and obey him and adore him and keep his commandments. I hope it is not possible to love Jesus Christ too much. I don’t think it is possible. He deserves all our love, forever.

 

[TheBomb.Com]

It’s up to you to change the ministry from the inside. Do what you feel God is calling you to do and right the wrongs that you have seen.

 

[1ke]

I would bring communion to the ill and homebound regardless of external factors. Presumably they’ve asked for an extraordinary minister to come visit, or a family member has.

Remember, it is for the communicant to do an examination of conscience and decide whether to present themselves for communion. It really isn’t the role of the extraordinary minister to make the determination of state of grace, or deny communion.

If they receive unworthily, it’s on them not you. And you as extraordinary minister aren’t there to be the arbiter of whether they receive.

If they happen to mention they haven’t been to confession in a long time or something, then kindly offer to schedule Father to stop by to visit them and hear their confession.

 

[po18guy]

1 Corinthians 11:27 and following. Without an examination of conscience, which is intended to lead to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, those in a state of mortal sin are eating and drinking damnation unto themselves. The exception would be those who are so poorly catechized that they do not or cannot recognize mortal sin.

If nothing else, we are supposed to know about sin!

 

[TheLittleLady]

Last night I went to an initial meeting at my parish for people interested in becoming Eucharistic Ministers to the infirm and homebound.

First, it seems you are speaking of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. “Eucharistic Ministers” would be ordained men.

About your concerns, I would suggest you clarify with the priest who made the statements. If you are still uncomfortable, speak to his superior at the Diocese.

EMHCs ought to understand they can simply call the parish and have Father come hear a confession if needed.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Some women who have been doing this for a while shared stories that raised an alarm in me. They told about situations where they were present with people and ready to give Christ’s body to the ill person, when suddenly the person revealed that they were definitely in a state of mortal sin according to Church teaching. The women asked what they should do in such a situation.

This is yet one more reason why I could never be a eucharistic minister.

However, if I were in this situation, I would tell them something like “I cannot judge you, I do not know what makes you think you are in mortal sin, and I do not need to know. If you think you are in mortal sin, I will be happy to call Father to come and hear your confession, or you can call him yourself. You know you are not supposed to receive communion when in mortal sin. So what do think you should do? You tell me, and I’ll honor whatever you say.”

Keep in mind, too, that not everyone understands what a mortal sin is, nor how to reason through the three conditions (grave matter, sufficient reflection, full consent of the will). Examples: “I missed Mass on Sunday because my car broke down on the way, and I had a head cold and couldn’t walk the rest of the way in freezing weather”, “my friend bought me a craft ale down at the pub and I didn’t realize it had that kind of kick to it, I got very drunk”, “I woke up at 3 am, was half-asleep, and had arousing thoughts about sex with a person not my spouse”, and so on. Some people judge too strictly, others are too slack. If in doubt, ask your confessor.

 

[FossilResin]

Thank you for the clarification of terms. I didn’t know the difference. Yes, I suppose we would be called Extraordinary Ministers. Hmm, I wonder why this isn’t clarified more often.

 

[FossilResin]

I really appreciate your response. That’s basically the situation. It’s not my place to give anyone a hard time about their life choices, but I think it’s reasonable to pause and ask them to consider having a solid confession first. Maybe that’s also why God sends us into such situations: to clarify as well as to comfort. I wouldn’t be interested in this ministry if it weren’t for me wanting people to be able to receive the Lord’s body. I also really appreciate how you recognize that the abuse of the Blessed Sacrament really hurts your heart, too. It’s just good to know I’m not alone in that.

 

[Beryllos]

I concur with @1ke’s response.

… when suddenly the person revealed that they were definitely in a state of mortal sin according to Church teaching.

There is no way the other ministers or you could determine that. You could perhaps determine that someone has committed a grave sin, but the other two conditions for it to be a mortal sin (full knowledge and deliberate consent) are impossible for you to know. Yes, impossible.

I talked to our priest about it directly and he was basically being infuriatingly accommodating to the secularist idea that we “shouldn’t judge”.

That is not a secularist idea.

Your infuriation is your reaction to something that you perceive as a conflict or incongruity. Please don’t blame the priest for your infuriation.

I trust the priest.

 

[FossilResin]

Thank you for your response. I am certainly not in the priest’s position, and I am not actually angry at him. From what I can tell he is a good man who is just trying to serve people and be with them in their time of need.

When I say, “[the priest] was being infuriatingly accommodating to the secularist idea that we ’ shouldn’t judge '” , and you say that this is not a secularist idea, I need to respectfully disagree with you and provide some clarification.

Yes, Jesus used the literal words (at least in some of our English translations of scripture) “Do not judge.” I have always understood this as meaning judgment in the sense of condemnation, not judgment in the sense of discernment. So Jesus’ words, as I have understood them (and maybe I’m wrong here) have really meant “Do not condemn.”

Christians are now facing a time when our own scriptures are being deceitfully turned against us for the purposes of shaming us into passively approving any and all behaviors. I grew up atheist Unitarian Universalist. I know how this works: the moment Christians raise a concern about something amiss in society, we’re called “hypocrites” because we ourselves are not perfect. Many Catholics have allowed themselves to be colonized by this insidious secularist undermining of Jesus’s words of kindness.

On a different note, I appreciate you and others pointing out that we can’t technically determine whether or not what appears to be a mortal sin is actually a mortal sin, because we do not know if the person has met all the internal conditions for such. That’s a very valuable teaching, and I appreciate it. It certainly relieves the worry about any conundrum of responsibility I may feel I am in.

And in addition to that awareness, I hope that you will in fact proceed to seriously care about the need for a far better and fuller and accurate catechesis for our Catholic people. One may be innocent by way of ignorance, but that is not how we are called to live, and I observe a trend of many people sleepily allowing the future of the faith to continue this way.

 

[tafan2]

How would one be judging if the person himself said they were in a state of mortal sin?

 

[HomeschoolDad]

On a different note, I appreciate you and others pointing out that we can’t technically determine whether or not what appears to be a mortal sin is actually a mortal sin, because we do not know if the person has met all the internal conditions for such. That’s a very valuable teaching, and I appreciate it. It certainly relieves the worry about any conundrum of responsibility I may feel I am in.

As I pointed out, if someone told me they were in mortal sin, I’d tell them stop right there, I don’t need to hear any particulars, I’m not a priest, I can’t counsel you, I can’t hear your confession. I would either offer to call the priest for them, or preferably, let them call themselves.

 

[CRV]

when suddenly the person revealed that they were definitely in a state of mortal sin according to Church teaching.

imo, you’d have to respect the persons own assessment of their state of soul - whether the actually are or aren’t is irrelevant to the situation. You’ve been plainly told “I’m not in a state of grace/I’ve committed mortal sin and haven’t been to confession yet”. I’d go on what they told me was their state of grace and trust that they have assessed themselves rightly.

Personally I’d say something along the lines of what HomeschoolDad suggested -

I cannot judge you, I do not know what makes you think you are in mortal sin, and I do not need to know. If you think you are in mortal sin, I will be happy to call Father to come and hear your confession, or you can call him yourself. You know you are not supposed to receive communion when in mortal sin.

and perhaps offer to pray with them for Gods’ mercy & blessing.

This is only one situation why I too could not take Communion to the sick.

At the end of the day, discuss this with your priest, pray about it and ask God what you should do and then make your decision based on all this.

 

[OddBird]

Keep in mind also that being ill can confuse people, or bring out very strongly old feelings of guilt which have not been dealt with from a psychological point of view and which, for the person, are still very much present at that particular moment in time (even though they might have been confessed and absolved long ago).

If you ever minister in an elderly home, or to elderly homebound people, the situation is even more complex. Some people are completely confused and know the Eucharist is something important, but they couldn’t tell why and even less list the requirements. Yet they desire it.
Some people still have a clear head, and desperately long for the Eucharist, but have no regular or reliable access to confession, by no fault of their own (because they’ve become unable to use a phone by themselves or read a phone directory, because their family feels this isn’t a priority and doesn’t help, because the elderly home they live in in not sympathetic to the idea of having a priest hearing confessions too often or at all, because the priest who should be doing it is already overworked and only drops by at the home twice a year for mass,…)

I think these situations could be an example of what your priest had in mind when he said that sometimes, normal rules don’t apply.

 

[1ke]

You’ve been plainly told “I’m not in a state of grace/I’ve committed mortal sin and haven’t been to confession yet”.

Honestly, I would bet money that the communicant did no such thing. I will bet money NO ONE said, “I am in a state of mortal sin.”

The OP has witnessed no such proclamation. Ladies in her group said that when they were giving communion people were “suddenly revealing that they were definitely in a state of mortal sin…”

That could mean the communicant saying something like “Thank you so much for coming, I haven’t been to church in a year”. That does NOT mean the person is in a state of mortal sin.

We have a 2nd hand account with some vague language from some women telling stories who are interpreting what they heard as a person being in a “state of mortal sin”. Honestly, that to me adds up to a nothing burger.

 

[CRV]

I was paraphrasing the quote from the OP that I inserted in my reply. Yes, the OP did state it was a related incident

They told about situations where they were present with people and ready to give Christ’s body to the ill person, when suddenly the person revealed that they were definitely in a state of mortal sin according to Church teaching.

So whilst the OP was not relating this is what occured to them, but I understood the purpose of this was to seek thoughts on what would be the right thing for the OP to do if this situation were to arise for them personally. Which is what I (along with others) was commenting on.

wrt the exact wording used by whomever indicated they were not in a state of grace, I think it is really just splitting hairs to quibble over the exact wording.

For the purpose of this thread & discussion it is sufficient that we be told - "when suddenly the person revealed that they were definitely in a state of mortal sin according to Church teaching."

I based my reply on this. Again, I am not assessing whether the person is or isn’t or whether they have judged their own conscience correctly, but am going on the fact they themselves have assessed they are not in a state of grace and have said so.

 

[1ke]

wrt the exact wording used by whomever indicated they were not in a state of grace, I think it is really just splitting hairs to quibble over the exact wording.

No, it isn’t. Because unless someone actually says “I am not in a state of grace” the third party is taking what the person said and making an assumption about their state of grace/sin based on what they said.

That is NOT something a Catholic can or should do vis-a-vis another Catholic.

 

[1ke]

am going on the fact they themselves have assessed they are not in a state of grace and have said so.

And I am asserting that the likelihood of someone you bring communion to actually saying they are in a state of mortal sin and also asking for communion is: zero.

 

[CRV]

So we shouldn’t trust them a persons own judgement when they judge themselves to not be in a state of grace?

So when one does an examination of conscience to determine if one has committed a mortal sin and thus should go to confession prior to receiving communion, they should be informed their own assessment of the state of their soul is incorrect?

And I am asserting that the likelihood of someone you bring communion to actually saying they are in a state of mortal sin and also asking for communion is: zero.

I think it is quite possible that a person being on the communion list, that when the EMHC arrives to give them communion, for this person to change their mind about receiving and saying they can’t because they are not in a state of grace.

Can’t believe what I’m reading. Muting now.

 

[1ke]

I think it is quite possible that a person being on the communion list, that when the EMHC arrives to give them communion, for this person to change their mind about receiving and saying they can’t because they are not in a state of grace.

I agree. It is likely a person who would say I’m not in a state of grace would also say and I can’t receive.

I think it is UNlikely a person who would tell you they are not in a state of grace would then go on to ask for communion.

I think the OP heard tales being told from some ladies who were making some assumptions about people. I doubt any communicants said “I’m in mortal sin, give me that host.”