Yes my friend. As your question suggests, sinners do benefit by the reception of Holy Communion. I am a sinner and yet I receive communion as often as possible and the benefits to me can never be measured.
I believe Holy Mass is a reliving of Christ’s suffering and His death on the cross. During His excruciating and freely accepted torment, the sins of mankind, from the beginning of time until the end of time, were carried by Jesus and laid at His Fathers feet.
These sins, all of them, were atoned for. How does the verse go? By His suffering and death our death was destroyed. And then the glorious promise of our salvation; Christ rose from the dead after three days and our life, eternal life, was assured.
We are sons and daughters of Adam. Jesus Christ knows that we are in a life and death struggle with Satan. Just as Jesus was tempted by him on the moutain top, so also we will be tempted. We will fall into sin, sometimes into grave sin. There is no doubt about it and no one is exempt.
Jesus in His divine mercy and love instituted the sacrament of reconciliation. He gave the apostles, and through Peter, all Priests the ability to bring God’s
forgiveness to mankind.
Hamburglar,my friend,you have a tough job. Your friends are very good people and have a healthy interest in the workings of salvation. I have friends like that. I believe under certain circumstances they will be saved, even if they do not belong to the Catholic Church. Here is the hard part.
Our Pope, recently, left no doubt that Christ subsists only in the Catholic Church. Only in the Catholic Church may sins be forgiven in the sacramental sense. And only in the Catholic Church is Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity present.
And so I bring my sinful self to Mass and trust that God will forgive all my sins as I participate in the Sacrifice. But if I have sinned gravely, a mortal sin, if you will, I know, as has been stated so elegantly in these threads, the reception of the Body and Blood of Christ will lead to my condemnation.
Given everything that has lead up to the institution of the Sacrement of Holy Eucharist it only makes sense to me. I have been defeated by Satan. My life has been sucked out of me. My soul lingers in a very dangerous place since union with God is impossible. I left Him. The good news is that God never left me. He loves me no less in my condition. People may be praying for me. A full life in communion with God is always in reach. All it takes is a trip to the confessional.
