Question about eating before Communion

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Sophie111 said:
Of course not - but one’s intended use of said candy does.
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Ahh, but you said that what it was, depends on the label. If I intend to use candy as a cough drop, is that ok? If I intend to use a cough drop as candy, is that unacceptable?

Ooh - wait! There’s more!

Sophie111 said:
If one eats such candy to stop a bad coughing and annoying fellow parishioners then it would be within Church rules to receive Communion within the hour.
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What if I eat a Big Mac, intending to keep myself from coughing at Mass?

Mighty slippery slope you’re setting up… 😉
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Gorgias said:
Ahh, but you said that what it was, depends on the label. If I intend to use candy as a cough drop, is that ok? If I intend to use a cough drop as candy, is that unacceptable?
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??? I have not posted on this point before.
Perhaps you have me confused with someone else.

No it doesnt depend primarily on the label…it depends on the intent.
But obviously what a thing is (“the label”) has some bearing on what can and cannot be credibly intended.

I would think many things called “candy” can also rightly be called “medicine”.

Just as many things called poison (arsenic) can also be considered medicinal when administered appropriately by an expert.
 
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Gorgias said:
What if I eat a Big Mac, intending to keep myself from coughing at Mass?
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If that was the only remedy yes it would be medicinal surely?
Is that a credible fact of experience though…no it is not.
 
I’m guessing in that really bizarre hypothetical, the obligation to receive would outweigh the obligation to abstain to respect the fast. Is that your thinking?
 
Children, the rules are Spiritual in nature, the idea is
to help put one in the right DISPOSITION to receive
the Body of Christ in communion. Following the form-
ula of fasting one hour is one of the rules of taking
communion properly, breaking it causes the BENEFIT
of receiving the Host in the form of bread NULL and
VOID. You lose the blessings and promises of taking
the Eucharist properly!
 
The label states the product’s intended use.

In the USA, Halls Cough Drops are used to stop coughing. It’s medicine.

In countries like Belize, these same drops are labeled a hard candy.

www.sanpedroscoop.com

Halls Cough Drops: Candy or Medicine in Belize? | San Pedro Scoop

Just the other day, I was buying cough drops for a friend with a...get this...a COUGH! Imagine that? In the US, Halls are usually displayed front and
www.sanpedroscoop.com www.sanpedroscoop.com
 
lilypadrees said:
The label states the product’s intended use.
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Not really.
Its states but one of many ways the product could be credibly used.

Consumers are free to intend to use it for whatever purpose its intrinsic nature credibly allows.
 
If the buyer doesn’t use the product as the instructions state it is to be used, they are misusing it.

One cannot have things like gum, candy or breath mints before receiving Holy Communion. If the poster who originally posted the question was in a country where the cough drop’s label referred to it as candy instead of cough drops, it wouldn’t be right to go up.
 
lilypadrees said:
One cannot have things like gum, candy or breath mints before receiving Holy Communion.
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Agreed about candy. Most moral theologians would say gum and breath mints, like the cough drops, do not break the fast because they are not food.
 
So people in America who take a Halls before mass and receive go to heaven, but the ones from Belize go to hell. Got it.
 
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Thrstypirate said:
So people in America who take a Halls before mass and receive go to heaven, but the ones from Belize go to hell. Got it.
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If I ever get to Heaven, I’m going to ask someone if this was indeed the rule. I anticipate some hearty laughter at the idea that God is some kind of mindless bureaucrat who would hinge someone’s salvation on how a cough drop was marketed.

“Sorry, buddy. In Belize that was clearly labeled as candy. Them’s the breaks. Enjoy eternal darkness!”
 
No, my thinking would be that you’d have to make it to a different mass that day and be more careful not to violate the fast. Committing one sin to avoid another gets you nowhere.
 
The obligation to receive at least once a year during the easter season
 
Committing one sin to avoid another in this scenario is a logical oximoron. Obkuectively speaking, either receiving, or not receivinh is a sin. You cannot be in a situation where everything you can choose to do is a sin.
 
JulianN said:
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lilypadrees:
One cannot have things like gum, candy or breath mints before receiving Holy Communion.
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Agreed about candy. Most moral theologians would say gum and breath mints, like the cough drops, do not break the fast because they are not food.
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My priest said gum and breath mints break the fast. I believe him.
 
Yes: Some people’s conscience is bothered by an obscure rule about fasting before communion. It seems obtuse to me, but I’ve got bigger sins to worry about than thinking about this.
 
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