Why can't the divorced & remarried receive communion?

[jsantos1]

I am a little upset at this time because of something my sister mentioned to me, and I need a little help with calming my emotions.

She as married at age 15 because she got pregnant (and to supposedly keep my father from losing face and his “honor”). She divorced about 4 years later. She found a wonderful man and has been married to him (civilly) and had 5 children with him. She recently returnted back to the church and has found herself once again. She has put in many hours of volunteer work and has gotten much closer to our Lord Jesus Christ.

She confessed about six months ago, but the priest told her that she couldn’t receive communion until she had her marriage annuled, and she was remarried in the church by her new husband. She is working on the annulment, but I don’t understand something. Why can’t she receive the body of Christ? She is a good woman, and has confessed, and is doing wonderful things in her life. She cries every time she see people receive the body of Christ. She even volunteers and does a lot of things for the church.

Is her penance too cruel?

Can’t someone let her once again feel the spirit of our savior?

Many people commit other things in the church, and with confession, they are able to start over again.

Please advise.

Thanks and God Bless you.

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

It is certainly a very difficult emotional and spiritual experience to yearn to receive the Lord but to be unable to. My prayers are with your sister. The Church considers marriage to be a public action as well as a sacrament. All marriages are presumed to be valid and thus until death. When someone married, divorces, and then remarries without an annulment there is a public contradiction. When we come forward to receive communion we are supposed to be in full union with the Church both publicly (exterior actions) and privately (interior moral life). While we can never judge the state another person’s soul (that’s up to the individual him/herself), public actions are different. In this case, someone who is in a presumed valid marriage is now civilly married to someone else. This is a public contradiction of our understanding of marriage and thus reception of communion is not permitted.

An annulment would recognize that the first marriage was not valid and permit her to enter into marriage with her current civil husband. An annulment would clear away any public contradiction and permit the reception of communion.

Could the Church simply permit everyone to receive communion and allow their conscience to be their only guide? Yes, the Church could do that but does not. The reason is that public actions affect others. They see what is taking place and make assumptions. The Church is trying to teach us about the sanctity of marriage and its importance in the world. The teachings of Jesus Christ proclaimed by the Church bring true and full life both now and into eternity. The Church wants us to be aware of the effects of our actions both on ourselves and others. That is why She is prudently asks individual’s whose public lives are in contradiction to the teachings of the Church refrain from communion until their situation can be sorted out.

I will keep your sister in my prayers.

God bless.