First let me begin by saying that what follows is not intended as an attack on those who stand or receive in the hand. I know many devout and reverent Catholics who do and I respect them and their choices. What I am trying to do is explore some of the thinking behind this debate and why it arouses so much passion.
I have spent some time reading this and other related threads and one factor that comes out clearly is the constant reiteration by those who do follow the new forms that they are just as devout and respectful of the Real Presence of Our Lord as are those who follow the old ways.
Now I ask myself why there is this seeming inbuilt defensiveness. I think it may be because to kneel and receive on the tongue is inherently reverent. It is greater than any reverence we would give (at least in our Western culture) to a human no matter how exalted.
The new ways, to stand to receive and to receive in the hand suffer from the fact that they are not inherently reverent. We form a line for many things including boarding transport, withdrawing money and others. We receive many things in our hand, small change, food, tickets and so on. That is each of these actions serves a purely mundane secular purpose as well as the religious purpose it serves in the Mass. This lack of inherent reverence in the actions therefore internalises the sense of reverence, that is it is my inner state as I approach the Eucharist that creates the reverence towards the Sacrament not the external actions I perform.
Now if we accept this, it becomes clear that those who choose this means of receiving are placed in the position of constantly having to assert an inner reality equal to the outer reality of those who use the old way and inner states are always harder to communicate than outward actions.
Of course, this does not mean that all who receive this way are necessarily devout believers as anyone can counterfeit a form, but while the lack of faith of such people is between God and themselves, their outward actions do maintain a sense of reverence towards the Sacrament that does not depend on their inner states.
On the other hand, those whose inner state is lacking in belief in and reverence towards the Blessed Sacrament and who choose the new ways, are by their behaviour often a scandal to the faithful because their outward actions exhibit this lack of belief. I refer to those whose dress, conversation in line, casual handling of the Host, and general disinterestedness are visible to all in church.
The issue then becomes why, if the new ways although not creating scandal are more open to causing it, were they intoduced.
Let me first deal with standing to receive the Sacrament. Now ByzCath may correct me on this (and it would be welcome) but the only justification I can find for this is in the rites of the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches. Protestants either sit in their seats or kneel at a rail to receive. Eastern churches stand in a line because they receive the Sacrament (by intinction) from a spoon in the mouth. While kneeling would not necessarily preclude this method of receiving it is clearly safer (in terms of avoiding spillage) to receive standing. The Latin rite queue however appears to have more to do with convenience and speed than with safety. There is no justification I can find, either theological or historical, to explain this sudden decision to receive the Sacrament, as it exists in the Latin rite, standing. This does not make it wrong but it does raise the issue of why it was considered necessary to change the existing system.
(to be continued)
