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    Nova et Vetera, English Edition, Vol. 12, No. 3 (2014): 631-655 631

    Is Spiritual Communion for Everyone?

    Paul Jerome Keller, O.P. Athenaeum of Ohio

    Cincinnati, OH 

    PERHAPS ALL BU FORGOEN by many Catholics (and un-heard o by most) until Cardinal Walter Kasper’s recent reerence to it,the notion o a spiritual communion has made headlines in the Catho-lic press o late. Te Cardinal addressed an extraordinary consistory ocardinals on marriage and the amily on February 20, 2014, in anticipa-

    tion o the Tird Extraordinary General Assembly o the Synod o Bish-ops, which will take up the theme o “pastoral challenges or the amilyin the context o evangelization.”1 Among other things during the lastpart o his talk, the Cardinal wondered about the possibility o thosewho are divorced and remarried being reunited with the Church andpermitted to take Holy Communion. Reerring to the 1994 Letter toBishops rom the Congregation or the Doctrine o the Faith concern-

    ing the reception o Holy Communion by the divorced and remarried,Cardinal Kasper reflected on the option or the divorced and remarriedto participate in a spiritual communion on account o their inabilityto receive sacramentally. Te Cardinal admits that spiritual commu-nion does not apply or all divorced people, but only those who arewell disposed. But, he asks, i a person who receives spiritual commu-nion is one with Jesus Christ, how can he or she be in conflict with thecommandment o Christ? Why, then, cannot the same person receive

    1  Te announcement o the Cardinal’s address is ound at the website o the VaticanInormation Service, Holy See Press Office, February 20, 2014.

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    632 Paul Jerome Keller, O.P.

    sacramental communion? Te Cardinal alludes to the answer when hesubsequently wonders about the possibility o the divorced and remar-ried returning to the sacrament o penance and communion.2 Howev-er, it is the question o the meaning o a spiritual communion that is atstake, first and oremost. In light o Pope Francis’ statement during hisinterview with Corriere della Sera, regarding the importance o intensediscussion about Cardinal Kasper’s propositions, I seek to clariy, inthis article, the significance o spiritual communion and its relation tosacramental communion. Ten we will be able to see what truly wouldbe necessary or divorced and remarried persons to receive the graceso Communion. Tird, I would like to consider an allied issue: the im-

    portance o ulfilling the precept to attend Mass on days o obligation,even or those who are not properly disposed to receive Holy Commu-nion. Finally, I propose that the Church’s age-old and constant teachingon being properly disposed to receive Holy Communion is an aid inbringing the sinner to repentance in order to benefit rom a properEucharistic reception.

    Te Teological Meaning of “Spiritual Communion”

    In his twelfh century Sentences, Peter Lombard begins his tract on the

    2  Te Italian text o the Cardinal’s address, upon which I base my remarks, is ound inthe on-line version o Il Foglio Quotidiano: Vaticano Esclusivo 19, no. 51 (March 1,2014): “Un avvertimento ci ha dato la Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede giànel 1994 quando ha stabilito – e Papa Benedetto XVI lo ha ribadito durante l’incontrointernazionale delle amiglie a Milano nel 2012 – che i divorziati risposati non posso-no ricevere la comunione sacramentale ma possono ricevere quella spirituale. Certo,

    questo non vale per tutti i divorziati ma per coloro che sono spiritualmente bene dis-posti. Nondimeno molti saranno grati per questa risposta, che è una vera apertura.Essa solleva però diverse domande. Inatti, chi riceve la comunione spirituale è unacosa sola con Gesù Cristo; come può quindi essere in contraddizione con il coman-damento di Cristo? Perché, quindi, non può ricevere anche la comunione sacramen-tale? Se escludiamo dai sacramenti i cristiani divorziati risposati che sono dispostiad accostarsi ad essi e li rimandiamo alla via di salvezza extrasacramentale, nonmettiamo orse in discussione la struttura ondamentale sacramentale della Chiesa?Allora a che cosa servono la Chiesa e i suoi sacramenti? Non paghiamo con questarisposta un prezzo troppo alto? Alcuni sostengono che proprio la non partecipazi-

    one alla comunione è un segno della sacralità del sacramento. La domanda che sipone in risposta è: non è orse una strumentalizzazione della persona che soffre echiede aiuto se ne acciamo un segno e un avvertimento per gli altri? La lasciamosacramentalmente morire di ame perché altri vivano?”

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      Is Spiritual Communion for Everyone? 633

    Eucharist by noting that while baptism cleanses us rom sin, the Eucha-rist perects us in the good; it also restores us spiritually. Te Eucharistis a “good grace” because, besides increasing virtue and grace in therecipient, one also wholly receives “the ount and origin o all grace.”3 However, not all partake o the Eucharist in the same way. He explainsthat St. Augustine taught that there are “two ways o taking the Eu-charist: one sacramental, namely the one by which the good and badeat o it; the other spiritual, by which only the good eat.”4 Elsewhere,Augustine explains that to eat Christ is “to remain in him, and havehim remain in onesel.”5  “For he eats spiritually who remains in theunity o Christ and the Church, which the sacrament signifies.”6  On

    the contrary, Augustine says that to receive communion but not to bein “concord with Christ” is to eat unto one’s own condemnation7 and“he acquires a great punishment,”8 “or a wicked person receives a goodthing wickedly.”9 Peter Lombard insists that those who are good, that is,disposed to consume the Eucharist worthily, receive Christ’s Body bothsacramentally and spiritually. He reers to Pope St. Gregory the Great:“Te true flesh o Christ and his true blood are indeed in sinners andin those who receive them unworthily, but in their essence, not in their

    saving effectiveness.”10

    In the next century, when St. Tomas Aquinas takes up the topic ospiritual communion (spiritualem manducationem) he reers, first andoremost, to something that is meant to issue rom the sacramental recep-

    3  Peter Lombard, Sentences, bk iv, d. 8, ch. 1. We call to mind the words o the Fatherso the Second Vatican Council in Lumen Gentium §11, which describes the Eucha-ristic sacrifice as “totius vitae christianae ontem et culmen.”

    4  Peter Lombard, Sentences, bk. iv, d. 9, ch. 1, 1, quoting Augustine, Sermo 71, c. 11, n. 17.5  Lombard, bk. iv, d. 9, ch. 1, 1, quoting Augustine, In Ioannem, tr. 26, n. 18.6  Lombard, bk. iv, d. 9, ch. 1, 1.7  Lombard, bk. iv, d. 9, ch. 1, 1, quoting Augustine in Prosper o Aquataine, Sententiae,

    n. 341.8  Lombard, bk. iv, d. 9, ch. 1, 2, quoting Augustine, Sermo Mai 129, n. 2.9  Lombard, bk. iv, d., 9, ch. 2, 2, quoting Augustine, In Ioannem, tr. 62, n. 1. Augustine

    is drawing, o course, on the teaching o St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:27ff concerning

    those who receive the Eucharist unworthily and draw condemnation upon them-selves, which is discussed urther below.

    10 Lombard, bk. iv, d. 9, ch. 2, 1, quoting Lanranc, De corpore et sanguine Domini, ch.20, afer the words o Gregory, Dialogi, bk. 4, 59.

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    tion o Holy Communion.11 Only secondarily does Aquinas understandspiritual communion (voto) to reer to an interior desire to be united toChrist (73, 3). Tis is an important point, or it is the actual eating, con-suming, o the Body and Blood o Christ that integral to the Eucharist, just as Jesus himsel taught as recorded in the sixth chapter o the gospelo John. Nevertheless, the physical eating has spiritual effects.

    Aquinas distinguishes two ways o eating (modi manducandi) theEucharist.12  Te perect way is the actual reception o the Sacramentsuch that by consuming it one receives its effect—namely, spiritual nour-ishment as we journey through lie on our way to the glory o heaven.13 In this way o receiving, we are joined to Christ in aith and charity. For

     just as we take natural ood to sustain the lie o the body, the Eucharistsustains the divine lie o grace in the soul, which is begun in us at ourbaptism and which can be lost only by committing mortal sin.

    A second way o taking (eating) the Eucharist is without receiv-ing its effect. Tis is an imperect reception o the sacrament, Aquinasnotes, as when the recipient is impeded rom being joined more per-ectly in aith and love to Christ. One might think here o situationswhereby a person receives the Sacrament distractedly, or unaware, or

    even afer unrepented mortal sin. St. Tomas is very clear: it is possiblethat no spiritual reality, grace, is received even though one has partakeno the Eucharist. In other words, the reception o Holy Communionnecessarily requires proper preparation and disposition, including, atleast, both the ability and the intention to receive the grace it contains.Te increase o grace in the soul is not automatic, and it certainly is notmagical. Just as in human relationships the bond o riendship grows or

    diminishes based on whether the persons involved are actively seekingeach other’s good, the grace o deeper riendship with Christ in HolyCommunion presumes our hungering or Christ, which is itsel a gracerom God.

    It is important to recognize that Aquinas is making a distinctionabout what takes place in the act o receiving Holy Communion. Inother words, one receives the physical species o the Eucharist in or-

    11 Tomas Aquinas, Summa Teologiae (S ) III, q. 80, a. 1, ad 2.12  S  III, q. 80, a. 1.13  S  III, q. 73, a. 1.

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    der  to obtain the spiritual reality o loving union with Christ and theChurch. Te possibility o receiving the Sacrament without the effectshould be an anomaly, not the norm. Otherwise, the purpose o receiv-ing Holy Communion becomes pointless. Te corrective is to remedythe situation by removing the obstacle to an effective reception, namelyby giving proper attention to Christ’s presence while taking the Sacra-ment in a worthy state. Tis last point is paramount. Beore turning toit, however, let us see what Aquinas has to say about the other sense othe term “spiritual communion.”

    oday, what we commonly call “spiritual communion” (see page638) is, or Aquinas, a communion o desire (in voto). It is distinct rom

    a spiritual reception, which, as seen above, is the intended effect o ac-tually receiving Holy Communion. Aquinas compares communion invoto  with baptism o desire ( flaminis). Te baptism o desire is typi-cally understood in the context o a catechumen, who, dying beorebeing baptized with water, but explicitly desiring baptism, is assuredsalvation (CCC , §1259). However, like baptism, communion in voto isan exception to the divine plan or our participation in the Body andBlood o Christ. In other words, Christ established the sacraments to be

    taken in reality, and not only, or even principally, in voto. Aquinas says that communion in voto happens when a person ear-

    nestly longs or the actual sacrament. Such a person receives the effectso Holy Communion beore receiving it actually or sacramentally. Ex-amples might include the person praying beore the Blessed Sacramentoutside o Mass, or the person confined to a sickbed, or a prisoner con-fined to prison cell, etc., yet who devoutly desires union with Christ in

    Holy Communion. Such a reception, in voto, though, is secondary tothe sacramental eating because it is the actual consuming o the Eu-charist that produces in us a greater effect than the effect that comes bya communion o desire.14 At the same time, the person who devoutlydesires the Eucharist, though unable to receive it sacramentally, mayobtain the graces o the Eucharist, including: a deeper spiritual unionwith Christ; healing o the effects o past sins and protection rom u-ture ones (venial and mortal); orgiveness o venial sins; a closer union

    with all the members o Christ’s mystical body; and an increase in char-

    14  S  III, q. 80, a. 1, ad 3.

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    ity that shows itsel in caring or the those in need.15 In short, it is ourpreparation or heaven, where we will enjoy Christ directly and live inperect love or all eternity.16

    Te Council of rent on Spiritual Communion

    Calling on the teachings o the Fathers, the Council o rent explainsthe tri-old distinction concerning reception o Holy Communion.17 One may receive

    only sacramentally because they are sinners. Others receive itonly spiritually; they are the ones who, receiving in desire the

    heavenly bread put beore them, with a living  faith ‘workingthrough love’ (Gal. 5:6), experience its ruit and benefit romit. Te third group receive it both sacramentally and spiritually(can. 8); they are the ones who examine and prepare them-selves beorehand to approach this divine table, clothed in thewedding garment (c. Matt. 22:11).18

    In the chapter just prior to this teaching on Eucharistic reception,during its thirteenth session, the Council insists that the Holy Eucha-rist may only be received worthily. Given the holiness o this sacra-ment (and, indeed o all sacraments), the Fathers o rent reiterate thewarning o St. Paul that anyone who eats and drinks o the Eucharistunworthily “eats and drinks judgment on himsel” (1 Cor. 11: 29). Noone aware o personal mortal sin is to partake o Holy Communionwithout first having made a sacramental conession, a practice or all

    Christians, including priests.19 Canon 11 o the same session o the Council o rent is even more

    explicit on the matter o receiving worthily:

    15  See Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§1391-1401.16  Aquinas also allows or a spiritual communion (voto) to take place in anticipation o

    the sacramental reception o the Eucharist.17  Tere appears to be no direct conciliar teaching about spiritual communion prior to

    the Council o rent.18  Council of rent: Decree on the Sacrament of the Eucharist , session 13, ch. 8, DS 1648

    (all emphases original).19  Ibid., DS 1647.

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    I anyone says that aith alone is sufficient preparation or receiv-ing the sacrament o the most Holy Eucharist, let him be anath-ema. And, lest so great a sacrament be received unworthily andhence unto death and condemnation, this holy council deter-mines and decrees that those whose conscience is burdened withmortal sin, no matter how contrite they may think they are, firstmust necessarily make a sacramental conession i a conessor isavailable. I anyone presumes to teach or preach or obstinatelymaintain or deend in public disputation the opposite o this, heshall by the very act be excommunicated.20

    Te Catechism of the Council of rent , issued by Pope Pius V, explainsthat those who receive only sacramentally are “sinners who do not earto approach the holy mysteries with polluted lips and heart.”21 QuotingAugustine, the catechism continues: “He who dwells not in Christ, andin whom Christ dwells not, most certainly does not eat spiritually Hisflesh, although carnally and visibly he press with his teeth the Sacra-ment o His flesh and blood” (In Joan. ract . xxvi, 18). Tose who re-ceive the Eucharist spiritually only are those who “partake in wish and

    desire” though not sacramentally and who receive “i not the entire,at least very great ruits.” o receive both sacramentally and spiritu-ally one must approach the Eucharist with great preparation, wearing“the nuptial garment” (Matt. 22:11) and thus “derive rom the Eucharistthose most abundant ruits.” o deliberately satisy onesel with onlya spiritual communion is to deprive onesel “o the greatest and mostheavenly advantages.” Among the necessary preparations, the cate-

    chism includes personal discernment (acknowledgement) o the RealPresence, being at peace with our neighbor, humility, recollection, ast-ing, and being ree o mortal sin through contrition and conession.22

    Tis teaching has been maintained in the Catechism of the CatholicChurch.23 It is worth noting that the German bishops had taken up the

    20  Ibid., DS 1661.21  Catechism of the Council of rent for Parish Priests, Issued by Order of Pope Pius V ,

    trans. John P. McHugh, O.P., and Charles J. Callan, O.P. (New York: Joseph F. Wag-ner, Inc., 1934), 245-246.

    22 Ibid., 247-48.23 See §1385, 1415.

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    matter in their 1985 catechism or adults, highlighting the triple ormo reception o Holy Communion.24 Stating that “unworthy reception ocommunion by the sinner, whose heart is not prepared or union with Je-sus Christ, works not salvation but judgment,” the German bishops insistthat “or a spiritually ruitul reception o communion there must be anexamination of conscience and a careful preparation.”25

    Te Meaning of “Spiritual Communion” in Recent Documents

    It is something o surprise to find no mention o eucharistic spiritualcommunion in either the our constitutions o the Second Vatican Coun-cil or the Catechism of the Catholic Church.26 It is, perhaps, or this reason

    that the notion o making a spiritual communion is not a amiliar optionor the aithul o our day. When spiritual communion is mentioned inofficial Church teaching, it seems to be solely in terms o a communiono desire. For example, Pope John Paul II makes reerence to the teachingo St. eresa in his 2003 encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia when hewrites about attaining perect union with God:

    Precisely or this reason it is good to cultivate in our hearts a con-stant desire for the sacrament of the Eucharist . Tis was the origino the practice o ‘spiritual communion,’ which has happily beenestablished in the Church or centuries and recommended bysaints who were masters o the spiritual lie.27

    24  Originally published as Katholischer Erwachsenen katechismus: Das Glaubensbe-

    kenntnis der Kirche (Bonn: Verband der Diözesen Deutschlands, 1985), the Englishtranslation appeared as Te Church’s Confession of Faith: A Catholic Catechism for Adults (Communio Books) (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987). As David L. Schin-dler, the general editor or Communio Books notes in his opening remarks, the Ger-man catechism or adults was “authored largely by Walter Kasper under the aegis othe German Bishops’ Conerence” (6).

    25 Ibid., 292.26 However, the catechism o the German bishops instructs the aithul about “two

    ways o communion. Tere is a simultaneously sacramental and spiritual commu-nion, in which the body o Christ is received bodily and taken into the ready heart at

    the same time, and also a purely spiritual communion, in which there is union withJesus Christ through the longing in aith or communion (DS 1648)” (Te Church’sConfession of Faith, 292).

    27 John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, §34, AAS 95 (2003), 456 (emphasis in original).

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    St. eresa o Avila is one o the masters that Pope John Paul II has inmind. Her teaching is set in the context o instructing her sisters abouthow to receive more perectly the ruits o Holy Communion. In her Wayof Perfection, St. eresa writes:

    When you do not receive Communion, daughters, but hearMass, you can make a spiritual communion. Spiritual com-munion is highly beneficial; through it you can recollect your-selves in the same way afer Mass, or the love o this Lord isthereby deeply impressed on the soul. I we prepare ourselvesto receive Him, He never ails to give in many ways which we

    do not understand. It is like approaching a fire; even thoughthe fire may be a large one, it will not be able to warm you welli you turn away and hide your hands, though you will stillget more heat than you would i you were in a place withoutone. But it is something else i we desire to approach Him. Ithe soul is disposed (I mean, i it wants to get warm), and i itremains there or a while, it will stay warm or many hours.28

    An even earlier reerence to St. eresa is ound in Cardinal JosephRatzinger’s 1994 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church Concern-ing the Reception of Holy Communion by the Divorced and Remarried

     Members of the Faithful , which serves as the basis or Cardinal Kasper’squestion about Holy Communion or the divorced and remarried. Inhis letter as the Preect or the CDF, Cardinal Ratzinger upholds theconstant teaching o the Church that members o the aithul who live

    together as husband and wie with someone who is not a legitimate28 St. eresa o Avila, Te Way of Perfection, 35,1, in Te Collected Works o St. ere-

    sa of Avila, vol. 2, trans. Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D. and Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D.(Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 2000), 174-75. Santa eresa: Obras Completas,ed. omás Álvarez, (Burgos: Editorial Monte Carmelo, 2009), 606-7: “Y cuandono comulgareis, hijas, y oyereis misa, podéis comulgar espiritualmente, que es degrandísimo provecho, y hacer lo mismo de recogeros después en vos, que es mucholo que se imprime el amor así de este Señor. Porque aparejándonos a recibir, jamáspor muchas maneras deja de dar que no entendemos. Es llegarnos al uego que,

    aunque le haya muy grande, si estáis desviadas y escondéis las manos, mal os podéiscalentar, aunque todavía da más calor que no estar adonde no haya uego. Mas otracosa es querernos llegar a Él, que si el alma está dispuesta – digo que esté con deseode perder el rio – y se está allí un rato, para muchas horas queda con calor.”

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    spouse may not receive Holy Communion, but are to be instructed inthe various ways that they should participate in the lie o the Church.

    Tis does not mean that the Church does not take to heart thesituation o these aithul, who moreover are not excluded romecclesial communion. She is concerned to accompany thempastorally and invite them to share in the lie o the Churchin the measure that is compatible with the dispositions o di- vine law, rom which the Church has no power to dispense. Onthe other hand, it is necessary to instruct these aithul so thatthey do not think their participation in the lie o the Church

    is reduced exclusively to the question o the reception o theEucharist. Te aithul are to be helped to deepen their under-standing o the value o sharing in the sacrifice o Christ in theMass, of spiritual communion, o prayer, o meditation on theWord o God, and o works o charity and justice (c. ApostolicExhortation, Familiaris Consortio, 84).29

    Te theme o spiritual communion was taken up by Ratzinger again,

    this time as Pope, in his 2007 post-synodal apostolic exhortation Sac-ramentum Caritatis. He addresses the issue in the context o actuoso participatio, or ruitul participation in the Sacred Liturgy, a matter ocultivating the proper inner disposition or worship. Te Pope explainsthat, while the ullest participation in the Liturgy normally involves

    29  Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, “Epistula ad catholicae ecclesiae episcopos de receptione

    communionis eucharisticae a fidelibus qui post divortium novas inierunt nuptias,”§6, AAS 86 (1994): 977 (emphasis mine). Cardinal Ratzinger mentions St. eresa’steaching on spiritual communion in ootnote 13 o his Letter. He also reers to St.Alphonsus de’Ligurori’s Visite al SS. Sacramento e a Maria Santissima. St. Alphon-sus briefly recalls the teaching o Aquinas on spiritual communion and then givesexamples o non-sacramental spiritual communions in the lives o various persons,including St. John o the Cross, Bl. Agatha o the Cross, and St. Peter Faber (made asaint by Pope Francis in December, 2013, using the “equivalent canonization” pro-cess), the first companion o St. Ignatius o Loyola. St. Alphonsus recommends mak-ing a spiritual communion during visits to the Blessed Sacrament and during Mass.

    Te remainder o his treatise includes meditations and prayers concerning the HolyEucharist. It should be noted that Pope John Paul II’s 1981 apostolic exhortation,Familiaris Consortio, makes no reerence to a eucharistic spiritual communion ordivorced and remarried persons in the entirety o the document.

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    the reception o Holy Communion, not all may approach the altar asthough Eucharistic reception is a right or even an obligation. Speakingabout the aithul, he says that

    care must be taken lest they conclude that the mere act o theirbeing present in church during the liturgy gives them a right oreven an obligation to approach the table o the Eucharist. Evenin cases where it is not possible to receive sacramental com-munion, participation at Mass remains necessary, important,meaningul and ruitul. In such circumstances it is beneficialto cultivate a desire or ull union with Christ through the prac-

    tice o spiritual communion, praised by Pope John Paul II andrecommended by saints who were masters o the spiritual lie.30

    As he had done in his 1994 Letter, Pope Benedict reerences St. ere-sa o Avila, and mentions that “the doctrine [o spiritual communion]was authoritatively confirmed by the Council o rent, Session XIII, c.VIII.”31 Te Pope also reers to the teaching o Aquinas, which we havediscussed above.

    Perhaps there have been, as Benoît-Dominique de La Soujeole,O.P., puts it, “signs o an insufficiently precise drafing” when it comesto recent texts dealing with the issue o spiritual communion (and towhich we will return later).32 It is in this ramework that we may pro-ceed to examine Cardinal Kasper’s query about Holy Communion or

    30 Benedict XVI, Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (Febru-

    ary 22, 2007), §55,  AAS 99 (2007): 148: “Attamen cavendum est ne haec iusta a-firmatio orsitan introducat inter fideles quendam automatismum, quasi quispiamob solam praesentiam in ecclesia, liturgiae tempore, ius habeat, vel orsitan etiamofficium, ad Mensam eucharisticam accedendi. Etiam cum non datur acultas adsacramentalem Communionem accedendi, participatio Sanctae Missae manet nec-essaria, valida, significans et ructuosa. Bonum est his in rerum adiunctis deside-rium plenae cum Christo coniunctionis colere per consuetudinem exempli gratiacommunionis spiritalis, memoratae a Ioanne Paulo II et commendatae a Sanctis vitae spiritalis moderatoribus.”

    31  Sacramentum Caritatis, n171: “Qui sunt exempli gratia S. Tomas Aquinas, Summa

    Teologiae, III, q. 80, art. 1, 2; S. eresia a Iesu, Iter perfectionis, cap. 35. Doctrinahaec confirmata est auctoritate Concilii ridentini, sess. XIII, c. VIII (DS 1648).”

    32  Benoît-Dominique de La Soujeole, O.P., “Communion sacramentelle et communionspirituelle,” Nova et Vetera 86 (2011): 152.

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    the divorced and remarried, making clear what is at stake concerningspiritual communion.

    Who May Make a Spiritual Communion?

    When Cardinal Kasper wonders i a person who is able to make a spiritualcommunion (in voto) cannot also receive sacramentally, we must respondsic et non. Yes, on the one hand, a person who makes a spiritual commu-nion may also receive sacramentally, provided that he or she is properlydisposed. But, no, the improperly disposed person may not receive com-munion sacramentally or even spiritually.

    As we have seen, when Aquinas reers to spiritual communion as acommunion o desire (in voto), he says that it is very much akin to thecatechumen desiring baptism ( flaminis). o desire the sacrament truly isto desire its effect, which, in the case o the Eucharist, is a union o lovewith Christ and his Church. Tis union o love necessarily entails, then,desiring and loving all that Christ and the Church desire and love, while atthe same time being transormed interiorly, becoming what we consume.Te effects o a spiritual communion (voto), Aquinas says, are the same as

    those o sacramental communion.Cardinal Kasper intimates something similar when he asks how a

    person who makes a spiritual communion and is one with Jesus Christcan be in contradiction with the commandment o Christ.33 Te Cardinalhas come to the heart o the problem: one must accept Christ in his en-tirety in order to be in communion with him. Since Christ has establishedthe sacramental matrimonial bond as indissoluble, on account o whichChrist does not permit divorce and remarriage, a person who attempts

    remarriage while a previous putative sacramental bond o marriage con-tinues to exist may not lay claim to be one with Jesus Christ, or such aone contradicts at least this part o the commandment o Christ. Tus,such a person is not able to receive communion sacramentally or evenspiritually. Only the person who is presently seeking to rectiy that whichimpedes him or her rom ull communion with Christ may begin to be ina state o making a spiritual communion. Tis would be exemplified, o

    course, by the person’s external actions which would witness to his or her33  Kasper, Il Foglio, “Inatti, chi riceve la comunione spirituale è una cosa sola con Gesù

    Cristo; come può quindi essere in contraddizione con il comandamento di Cristo?”

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    ull acceptance o all that Christ is and all that he teaches. In the mean-time, we might speak o a desire or the Eucharist in a person who is notyet in ull communion with the commandment o Christ, and this can bethe impetus by which such a person takes the practical steps necessary ormaking both a spiritual and sacramental communion possible.

    In an effort to elucidate the problem o the language o desire,Benoît-Dominique de La Soujeole offers a helpul distinction between asacrament o desire and desiring a sacrament, though I modiy his defini-tion o each.34 Te sacrament o desire is usually understood as an explicitdesire or a sacrament (voto) with no interior obstacles rom receiving thesacrament, but with some exterior obstacle preventing the person rom

    actually having or receiving the sacrament.35 Tus, as we have already seen,the baptism o desire in the catechumen gives him or her, when the sacra-mental rite (sacramentum tantum) cannot be administered, a participationin the graces (res) o baptism, though without baptismal character (res etsacramentum). Such would also be the case when St. eresa urges her sis-ters, who are unable to receive sacramental communion but who desire toapproach the Lord; they receive many graces (the res o Communion) in-soar as their souls are disposed. Moreover, when it comes to the Eucharist,

    the sacrament o desire permits a participation in the res o the sacramenteven in the absence o the sacramentum tantum. Such would be the casewhen one makes a spiritual communion outside o the context o the Mass,even in the absence o the Sacramental Presence.

    Desiring a sacrament (desiderium), on the other hand, entails explic-itly wanting a sacrament but not being properly disposed to receive the res 

    34 La Soujeole, 149-150: “De açon général, il aut distinguer entre un sacrament dedésir et le désir d’un sacrament.” Fr. La Soujeole seems to restrict the sacrament odesire (voto) to the non-Christian “who has never encountered the ecclesial media-tion,” but who can be baptized by an implicit  desire and receive the res o the sacra-ment. On the other hand, La Soujeole thinks o the desire o a sacrament as the caseo the catechumen with explicit  desire, which, i animated by aith working throughcharity, also gives the res o the sacrament, though the catechumen would still lacksacramental character.

    35 Explicit desire exists in the case o catechumens. Tere is, o course, the possibili-

    ty o salvation by implicit desire (votum implicitum) “when a person suffers rominvincible ignorance” but possesses “a good disposition o soul whereby a personwishes his will be to be conormed to the will o God” (Letter of the Holy Office to the

     Archbishop of Boston, August 8, 1949, DS 3870).

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    o the sacrament.36 Both the sacrament o desire and desiring a sacramentinvolve an explicit desire or wish or the sacrament. Tey differ, however,inasmuch as the latter, the desire or a sacrament, involves some obstacle(obex ) to receiving the res o the sacrament. So, or example, a person whodesires baptism merely in order to mask his affiliation with the Ku KluxKlan would not receive the res  o baptism. Moreover, such an obstaclecould make the baptism fictitious, and the celebration o the sacramentumtantum would involve sacrilege. With regard to the Eucharist, merely de-siring to receive Holy Communion, even should one whole-heartedly be-lieve in the Real Presence, is insufficient to receive the res o the Eucharist.Tough the catechumen must possess aith in order to receive baptism,

    the communicant must possess aith enlivened by charity.37 While the Eu-charistic res itsel increases charity (among its several effects), the absenceo charity typically places an obex  to the res o the sacrament. Tis is trueboth or sacramental as well as spiritual communion.38

    We must be clear about this: not all desiring may be ulfilled.39 Tis isthe case, not because the object is unattainable, but because one lacks thedisposition or ability to attain the object. Desire, in and o itsel, is not thenecessary pre-condition or attaining an object. Tis is important or our

    understanding o what is involved in a spiritual communion. While one

    36  Desiderium is my Latin distinction, and is not ound in La Soujeole’s article.37  Concerning the necessity or aith, see S  III, q. 68, a. 8. Among the graces inused

    by baptism is supernatural charity. C. S  III, q. 69, a. 6, ad 1. Nevertheless, in SIII, q. 66, a. 11, when Aquinas speaks about baptisma flaminis, as James J. Cunning-ham, O.P., says, flaminis, or the baptism o desire “is not a simple desire or baptismnor the intention to receive the sacrament . . . [it] is rather the result o the activity

    o the Holy Spirit moving a person to intense charity and burning aith wherebyhe is drawn to a conversion o lie and a complete acceptance o Christ” (SummaTeologiae, vol. 57, Baptism and Confirmation  [Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1975], 49). Te point about flaminis as more than simple desire is essential tounderstanding a true communion o desire.

    38 It is true that Canon Law provides or the necessity o, say, a priest needing to cel-ebrate Mass and receive Holy Communion in the state o mortal sin, but with theproviso that he will avail himsel o the sacrament o penance as soon as possible. C.Code of Canon Law, cans. 915, 916.

    39  C. Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston, August 8, 1949, DS 3872, with

    regard to the desire or baptism: “Nor can it be thought that any kind o desire (quod-cumque voto) o entering the Church suffices or one to be saved. It is necessary that thedesire by which one is related to the Church be animated by perect charity. Te implicitdesire (votum implicitum) can produce no effect unless a person has supernatural aith.”

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      Is Spiritual Communion for Everyone? 645

    may wish or desire to go to Holy Communion at some particular Mass,or even wish or the Sacrament rom aar (as when not present at Mass),without the proper dispositions to be able to enjoy union with Christ andthe Church, the desire amounts to not much more than wistul thinking.It is an inherently rustrated desire. One might say it is not a real desire,or to desire the end is to desire the means to the end. o desire union withChrist, one must also desire to remove whatever obstacles one has placedto this union. No more can a man say that he desires to share in a banquetwith an estranged riend while at the same time reusing to lay aside hisanimosity or the riend than we can approach the Lord’s banquet withoutrepenting o our sin. o desire Holy Communion rightly, to make a true

    spiritual communion, entails being able to make such a communion.So, to reiterate, in response to Cardinal Kasper’s concern, yes, the per-

    son who makes a spiritual communion should also make a sacramentalcommunion, i he or she is properly disposed. However, it cannot be thecase that someone who is not properly disposed to make a sacramentalcommunion could be thought to be able to make a spiritual communion,no matter the circumstances.

    Necessary Clarifications

    Recalling the Tomistic distinction between spiritual communion as aspiritual eating (spirituale manducatio) and as spiritual desire (voto), it isclear that or the person who has placed an obstacle to union with Christby living apart rom his commandment neither kind o spiritual commu-

    nion is possible. As La Soujeole points out, using the same term, spiritualcommunion, to reer to two different moral situations and two very differ-ent relationships to the Eucharist is problematic.40 We are speaking hereabout proper versus improper disposition or either kind o communion.Tough Sacramentum Caritatis §55 inelicitously uses the term “spiritualcommunion” as an option or divorced and remarried persons, a possiblereading is that the Holy Father meant to encourage such persons to be-gin to desire (desiderare) appropriately Holy Communion (rather than acommunion o desire, to use La Soujeole’s distinction), and thus, to rectiy

    their moral situation. Otherwise, the words would indicate that someone

    40 La Soujeole, 152.

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    improperly disposed or sacramental communion might still make a spir-itual communion. Tis conusion leads to the logical question raised byCardinal Kasper. I one is permitted to make a spiritual communion, thenwhy not a sacramental communion?

    We must avoid the mistake o thinking that a spiritual communionis the substitute or a sacramental communion or the divorced and re-married, and indeed or anyone prevented rom Eucharistic reception onaccount o mortal sin, La Soujeole warns. Te pastoral danger inherent inthis belie is that error and conusion about the doctrine o the Churchwill prevail, leading people “to think that sin which impedes sacramentalcommunion ‘is not so bad’ because one can have the reality o commu-

    nion anyways. In this case, it is the ordering o sacramental communionto spiritual communion that disappears. Tereby, it is the unity—or bet-ter, the identity—o the sign and Eucharistic reality (the true Body o theresurrected Christ) that is at stake.”41 

    Moreover, the salvation o souls is at stake. Rather than bringing peo-ple to conversion rom sin to lie in Christ, the flawed solution such asspiritual communion or someone in mortal sin lulls the sinner into apretense o living the Christian lie, including the embrace o the cross o

    Christ and assuming responsibility or one’s actions and decisions. Teinspired words o Scripture, ound in St. Paul’s admonition are relevant:“Whoever, thereore, eats the bread or drinks the cup o the Lord in anunworthy manner will be guilty o proaning the body and blood o theLord. . . . For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the bodyeats and drinks judgment upon himsel.”42

    In order to receive the graces o communion with Christ, both sacramen-

    tal and spiritual, or all persons in any state o lie, what is necessary is interiorconversion to Christ and a maniestation o this conversion in one’s exterioractions and manner o lie. Our external moral lie is not the sole indicator othe interior disposition o the soul toward union with God, but the two mustat least harmonize. Let us not orget that the end o the sacraments, whichChrist himsel instituted or our salvation, is a sharing in the rinitarian com-

    41 La Soujeole, 153.

    42  1 Cor 11:27, 29 (RSV). See also S  III, q. 80, a. 4: “Et ideo maniestum est quod qui-cumque cum peccato mortali hoc sacramentum sumit, alsitatem in hoc sacramentocommittit; et ideo incurrit sacrilegium, tanquam sacramenti violator, et propter hocmortaliter peccat.”

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    munion. God, who desires not the death o the sinner (2 Pet 3:9), but that allbe saved (1 im 2:4), insists that we renounce all that is contrary to his planor our salvation so that we may attain true and eternal communion with him.

    Pope John Paul II spelled out the difficulty in his apostolic exhortationFamiliaris Consortio:

    Te Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon SacredScripture, o not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorcedpersons who have remarried. Tey are unable to be admitted theretorom the act that their state and condition o lie objectively con-tradict that union o love between Christ and the Church which is

    signified and effected by the Eucharist.43

    Ten, speaking o the necessary interior conversion or the divorced and re-married, he continues:

    Reconciliation in the sacrament o Penance which would open theway to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repentingo having broken the sign o the Covenant and o fidelity to Christ,

    are sincerely ready to undertake a way o lie that is no longer in con-tradiction to the indissolubility o marriage. Tis means, in practice,that when, or serious reasons, such as or example the children’s up-bringing, a man and a woman cannot satisy the obligation to sepa-rate, they “take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence,that is, by abstinence rom the acts proper to married couples.”44

    43 Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, §84, AAS 74 (1982): 185: “Nihilominus Ec-clesia inculcate consuetudinem suam, in Sacris ipsis Litteris innixam, non admitten-di ad eucharisticam communionem fideles, qui post divortium actum novas nup-tias inierunt. Ipsi namque impediunt ne admittantur, cum status eorum et condicio vitae obiective dissideant ab illa amoris coniunctione inter Christum et Ecclesiam,quae Eucharistia significatur atque peragitur.”

    44  Ibid., §84,  AAS 74 (1982): 186: “Porro reconciliatio in sacramento paenitentiae—quae ad Eucharistiae sacramentum aperit viam—illis unis concede potest, qui do-lentes quod signum violaverint Foederis et fidelitatis Christi, sincere parati sunt vi-tae ormam iam non amplius adversam matrimonii indissolubitati suscipere. Hoc

    poscit revera ut, quoties vir ac mulier gravibus de causis—verbi gratia, ob libero-rum educationem—non valeant necessitate separationis satisacere, “officium in sesuscipiant omnino continenter vivendi, scilicet se abstinendi ab actibus, qui solisconiugibus competent.” C. John Paul II, Homily at the Close o the Sixth Synod o

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    Cultic Implications

    A truly pastoral response to the person snared in sin and its conse-quences is not to ignore the situation, or smooth over differences by

    offering easy solutions as i moral choices have no serious consequenc-es, but to seek the glory o God and the good o all persons through theministry o the Church. Pope John Paul II urges pastors not to abandonthe divorced and remarried to their own devices but to “make untiringefforts to put at their disposal her means o salvation.”45 Not only pas-tors, but the entire community o the aithul, must solicitously take upthe responsibility to come to the aid o the divorced and remarried sothat “they do not consider themselves as separated rom the Church,

    or as baptized persons they can, and indeed must, share in her lie.”Te means are plentiul:

    Tey should be encouraged to listen to the word o God, toattend the Sacrifice o the Mass, to persevere in prayer, to con-tribute to works o charity and to community efforts in avoro justice, to bring up their children in the Christian aith, to

    cultivate the spirit and practice o penance and thus implore,day by day, God’s grace. Let the Church pray or them, encour-age them and show hersel a merciul mother, and thus sustainthem in aith and hope.46

    A too superficial understanding o the working o grace might lead oneto think the aorementioned situation is too easy or too hard. On onehand, one may be tempted to think that the Christian lie is measured

    chiefly by external participation (deeds), such as mentioned above: lis-tening to the word o God, attending Mass, and so orth. Such thinkingmay lead to the conclusion that, i one does these things, then one must

    Bishops, 7 (Oct. 25, 1980), AAS 72 (1980): 1082.45  Ibid., 84,  AAS 74 (1982): 185: “Nitetur propterea neque umquam deessa curabit

    Ecclesia ut iis praesto sint salutis instrumenta.”46  Ibid.: “Hortandi praeterea sunt ut verbum Dei exaudiant, sacrificio Missae intersint,

    preces undere perseverent, opera caritatis necnon incepta communitatis pro iustitia

    adiuvent, filios in christiana fide instituant, spiritum et opera paenitentiae colant utcotidie sic Dei gratiam implorent. Pro illis Ecclesia precetur, eos confirmet, matremse exhibeat iis misericordem itaque in fide eos speque sustineat.”

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    all that Christ and the Church teach. Among said belies is the indissol-ubility o the sacramental bond o matrimony. As a result, the divorcedand remarried, though not properly disposed or the reception o HolyCommunion, are able to, and must, worship God by their participation inthe Sacred Liturgy.49

    Participation, o course, is understood as more than mere presenceor attendance at the Mass. As Sacrosanctum Concilium points out, ull,conscious and active participation (actuosam participationem) “is de-manded by the nature o the liturgy itsel; . . . such sharing [ participa-tio] is the first, and necessary, source rom which believers can imbibethe true Christian spirit.”50  Later the Second Vatican Council Fathers

    spell out the essential aspect o this participation when they describe theheart o Catholic worship:

    Te Church, thereore, earnestly desires that Christ’s aithul,when present at this mystery o aith, should not be there asstrangers or silent spectators; on the contrary, through a goodunderstanding o the rites and prayers they should take part inthe sacred action conscious o what they are doing, with devotion

    and ull collaboration. Tey should be instructed by God’s wordand be nourished at the table o the Lord’s body; they shouldgive thanks to God; by offering the Immaculate Victim, not onlythrough the hands o the priest, but also with him, they shouldlearn also to offer themselves; through Christ the Mediator, theyshould be drawn day by day into ever more perect union withGod and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all.51

    Participation in the Eucharist is not a spectator sport, but involves per-sonal sacrificial offering to the Father through Christ. Tis is the kindo worship that leads to opening onesel to the grace o repentance andtransormation as well as to the grace o perection.

    49  See USCCB, “Happy Are Tose Called to His Supper: On Preparing to Receive

    Christ Worthily in the Eucharist,” (Washington, DC: USCCB Publishing, 2006), 9,especially n17.

    50  Sacrosanctum Concilium, §14.51  Sacrosanctum Concilium, §48 (emphasis mine).

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    We ind a similar explanation o  participatio  in SacramentumCaritatis:

    Te Church’s great liturgical tradition teaches us that ruitulparticipation in the liturgy requires that one be personally con-ormed to the mystery being celebrated, offering one’s lie toGod in unity with the sacrifice o Christ or the salvation othe whole world. . . . [Let the] aithul be helped to make theirinterior dispositions correspond to their gestures and words.52

    As a result o this kind o proper worship, the entirety o one’s lie is

    transormed by the grace o configuration to Christ.

    Christianity’s new worship includes and transfigures every as-pect o lie: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, doall to the glory o God” (1 Cor 10:31). Christians, in all their ac-tions, are called to offer true worship to God. Here the intrin-sically eucharistic nature o Christian lie begins to take shape.Te Eucharist, since it embraces the concrete, everyday exis-

    tence o the believer, makes possible, day by day, the progres-sive transfiguration o all those called by grace to reflect theimage o the Son o God (c. Rom 8:29ff.). . . . Worship pleasingto God thus becomes a new way o living our whole lie, eachparticular moment o which is lifed up, since it is lived as parto a relationship with Christ and as an offering to God.53

    52  Sacramentum Caritatis, §64,  AAS  99 (2007): 152-53: “Ecclesiae insignis liturgicatraditio docet ad ructuosam participationem necessarium esse ut quis personaliterrespondere studeat Mysterio celebrato, propriam Deo offerens vitam, in coniuncti-one cum Christi sacrificio pro totius mundi salute. . . . fidelibus intima interiorumsensuum convenientia cum actibus verbisque concinenda curaretur.”

    53  Ibid., §71, AAS 99 (2007): 159: “Novus christianus cultus complectitur omnem exsis-tentiae rationem eamque transormat: “Sive ergo manducatis sive bibitis sive aliud quidacitis, omnia in gloriam Dei acite” (1 Cor 10, 31). In omni vitae actu christianus vocaturut verum cultum Deo significet. Ex quo ormam sumit vitae christianae natura intrin-sece eucharistica. Quippe quae credentis humanas res in cotidiana eius ratione involvat,

    Eucharistia efficit ut de die in diem transfiguretur homo, qui gratia ad imaginem Filii Deiadipiscendam vocatur (cr Rom 8, 29s). . . . Itaque cultus Deo placens novus fit modus vivendi omnia rerum adiuncta exsistentiae in qua omne singulare elementum exaltatur,quoniam vivitur in relatione cum Christo et sicut oblatio Deo exhibita.”

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    Tere is no one who will ail to profit rom participating, that is, wor-shiping, at the Mass. Even the person prevented rom the ullest ex-pression o worship, the reception o Holy Communion, is still able toreceive prevenient graces or repentance, and actual graces or worship.

    Not Starvation, But Hunger

    In response to Cardinal Kasper’s questions about the prospect o HolyCommunion or the divorced and remarried, we have shown that it isnot possible. Beginning in the patristic era and continuing to our day,we may distinguish two basic orms o receiving Holy Communion.Te first, and most efficacious, is the sacramental reception o the Body

    and Blood o the Lord by which one is simultaneously united spirituallyto Christ by a kind o spiritual eating. Te second is a spiritual commu-nion (in voto) when one is not able to make a sacramental Communion,granting one is in a state o grace and is able to participate in all thebenefits o a sacramental Communion.

    Aquinas makes a urther distinction with regard to spiritual com-munion. A spiritual communion, properly speaking, is the spiritual

    nourishment one receives when partaking o the Eucharist sacramen-tally; the effects o the Eucharist are produced in the soul o the recip-ient. Only secondarily does Aquinas think o spiritual communion asa matter o sheer desire or the sacrament (in voto) but without accessto the sacrament. Nevertheless, it is possible, on account o the loveor Christ and wanting to receive him into the soul, that the effects ocommunion are able to be produced in the soul.

    From the teaching o St. Paul to our own day, radition has con-

    sistently taught the necessity or the recipient o Holy Communion tobe in the state o grace. o partake o the Eucharist without the properdisposition, especially ailing to seek reconciliation with Christ and theChurch through the sacrament o penance when conscious o a mortalsin, is to invite divine judgment, and is itsel another serious sin.

    While there may be some conusion about the meaning o spiritu-al communion in recent magisterial teaching, it remains the case thata true spiritual communion is possible only or someone who wouldnormally be disposed to receive communion sacramentally. A spir-itual communion is not possible or someone in the state o mortal

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      Is Spiritual Communion for Everyone? 653

    sin, including those who have divorced and remarried but whose priorsacramental marital bond continues to exist. Such persons must, bydivine law (and even according to natural law), continue to worshipGod. Every Catholic is obliged to worship God by offering himsel orhersel to God in union with the offering made through the hands othe priest at Mass.

    Te Church does not ask, as Cardinal Kasper seems to suggest,that divorced and remarried persons find salvation extra-sacramental-ly. Tey are offered the same possibility or conversion and ull com-munion (ecclesially and sacramentally) as or anyone. As he indicates,non-participation in the Eucharist can indeed be a sign o the sacred-

    ness o the sacrament. Te Cardinal asks i this non-reception o theEucharist is too high a price to pay? Te answer to this question de-pends on the willingness o the individual to be conormed to Christ.However, we must be clear. It is not the Church who has imposed theobstacle to ull communion; it is, rather, the individual who perpetu-ates a choice to violate a sacramental bond o matrimony. By that ac-tion, as with anyone who commits mortal sin, he or she has brokencommunion. Te Church, on the other hand, offers reconciliation or

    the truly repentant, as she always has.Ten, Cardinal Kasper poses this red herring: Is the rule o non-re-

    ception o the Eucharist an exploitation o the person who is sufferingand asking or help i we make him a sign and warning or others?54 Tisquestion more than suggests that the Church has no place in protectingthe aithul rom the condemnation they bring upon themselves, as St.Paul warns. Were the Church to remain passive and permit Holy Com-

    munion or one not properly disposed, she would be liable to judgmentor a different kind o exploitation: the ailure to keep her children romwrongdoing and sin, as well as the ailure to guard aithully and dis-pense the sacraments. Te Church’s long-standing watchulness is notexploitation or manipulation; it is charity pure and simple. It is the con-cern o the mother that her children not ingest the wrong medicine lestit become a poison.

    As we have already noted above, Sacramentum Caritatis  teaches

    that no one has a right to Holy Communion by the mere act o be-

    54  See note 2 above or the Italian original.

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    ing present at Mass. Pope John Paul II also instructs us on this pointwhen he says that “the celebration o the Eucharist, however, cannotbe the starting-point or communion; it presupposes that communionalready exists, a communion which it seeks to consolidate and bringto perection.”55  Communion, especially as it unites us to the rin-ity, presupposes, the Pope says, the lie o grace and the practice othe virtues o aith, hope, and charity. He insists, in the words o St.John Chrysostom: “I too raise my voice, I beseech, beg and implorethat no one draw near to this sacred table with a sullied and corruptconscience. Such an act, in act, can never be called ‘communion,’ noteven were we to touch the Lord’s body a thousand times over, but ‘con-

    demnation,’ ‘torment’ and ‘increase o punishment.’”56 Ten John PaulII urges:

    I thereore desire to reaffirm that in the Church there remainsin orce, now and in the uture, the rule by which the Coun-cil o rent gave concrete expression to the Apostle Paul’sstern warning when it affirmed that, in order to receive theEucharist in a worthy manner, “one must first coness one’s

    sins, when one is aware o mortal sin” (c. Ecumenical Coun-cil o rent, Sess. XIII, Decretum de ss. Eucharistia, Chapter7 and Canon 11: DS 1647, 1661). Te two sacraments o theEucharist and Penance are very closely connected. Because theEucharist makes present the redeeming sacrifice o the Cross,perpetuating it sacramentally, it naturally gives rise to a con-tinuous need or conversion, or a personal response to the

    appeal made by Saint Paul to the Christians o Corinth: “Webeseech you on behal o Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor5:20). I a Christian’s conscience is burdened by serious sin,then the path o penance through the sacrament o Reconcil-iation becomes necessary or ull participation in the Eucha-ristic Sacrifice.57

    55 John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, §35, AAS 95 (2003): 457.56  Ibid., §36, quoting Homiliae in Isaiam 6, 3, PG 56, 139.57 Ibid., §§36-37, AAS 95 (2003): 458.

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    Ten, as i anticipating the counterargument involving a person’s inte-rior judgment, the Pope continues:

    Te judgment o one’s state o grace obviously belongs only tothe person involved, since it is a question o examining one’sconscience. However, in cases o outward conduct which isseriously, clearly and steadastly contrary to the moral norm,the Church, in her pastoral concern or the good order o thecommunity and out o respect or the sacrament, cannot ailto eel directly involved. Te Code o Canon Law reers to thissituation o a maniest lack o proper moral disposition when

    it states that those who “obstinately persist in maniest gravesin” are not to be admitted to Eucharistic communion.”58

    Tere is no exploitation o the suffering person, be it the divorcedand remarried or even the catechumen (who also must be sacramen-tally justified beore receiving Holy Communion). Tere is only theoutstretched and pierced hand o the Crucified and Risen One who,through the Church, offers salvation or any person who chooses to

    turn to Christ, embracing him alone even in the most difficult deci-sions o lie. He offers his Body and Blood continually so that all whochoose to don the white wedding garment (c. Mt 22:11-14; Rev 19:8)may enter his eternal banquet. Tere is, spread beore each and everyperson, the east o the Eucharist, laid out suchwise that we may allhunger more and more or the Bread o Lie, both sacramentally andspiritually. For each and every Christian, repentance is the transor-

    mation o starvation into hunger, a hunger Christ promises to satisybeyond our wildest imaginings.

    58 Ibid., §37, AAS 95 (2003): 458. C. Code of Canon Law, can. 915; Code of Canons ofthe Eastern Churches, can. 712.

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