Rev José Mario O Mandía
jmom.honlam.org
Now and then, people ask why communion is usually given only with the Sacred Host. The CCC (no 1390) explains: “Since Christ is sacramentally present under each of the species, communion under the species of bread alone makes it possible to receive all the fruit of Eucharistic grace. For pastoral reasons this manner of receiving communion has been legitimately established as the most common form in the Latin rite. But ‘the sign of communion is more complete when given under both kinds, since in that form the sign of the Eucharistic meal appears more clearly.’ [General Instruction of the Roman Missal 240] This is the usual form of receiving communion in the Eastern rites.”
“Christ is sacramentally present under each of the species.” The CCCC 282 specifies that Christ “is present in a true, real and substantial way, with his Body and his Blood, with his Soul and his Divinity … under the Eucharistic species of bread and wine … Christ whole and entire, God and Man”. In other words, what we see as bread is not only the Body but the complete Christ; what we see as wine is not only the Blood but the entire Christ.
What would happen if the “bread” is only the Body of Christ without His Blood? A body without blood would be a lifeless body! It would be a cadaver! A cadaver could not give life! But note that when the priest gives communion, he says, “Body of Christ,” not “Corpse of Christ,” because what we receive is the glorious and resurrected Body of Christ which is fully alive, complete with His Divine Nature, with His soul, His bones and flesh and blood.
Communion under the species of bread is the Church’s way of teaching us that the entire Christ is in each of the species.
There is, moreover, a practical reason for this practice in the Latin Church. When the Church talks about the possibility of giving Communion under both kinds, the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum (no 101) declares: “It is to be completely excluded where even a small danger exists of the sacred species being profaned.”
We must remember that “Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ” (CCC 1377). One small particle of the Sacred Host, or one drop of the Consecrated Wine, contains the whole Christ, not only a part of Him. If one were to unfortunately step on a particle of the Host or a drop of the Consecrated Wine, he would be trampling on Christ, not only on His leg or His arm….
This is why, Redemptionis Sacramentum (no 102) also teaches: “The chalice should not be ministered to lay members of Christ’s faithful where there is such a large number of communicants.”
When Holy Communion is given “under both kinds, ‘the Blood of the Lord may be received either by drinking from the chalice directly, or by intinction, or by means of a tube or a spoon’ (Missale Romanum, Institutio Generalis, n 245). As regards the administering of Communion to lay members of Christ’s faithful, the Bishops may exclude Communion with the tube or the spoon where this is not the local custom, though the option of administering Communion by intinction always remains. If this modality is employed, however, hosts should be used which are neither too thin nor too small, and the communicant should receive the Sacrament from the priest only on the tongue (Missale Romanum, Institutio Generalis, n 285b and 287)” (Redemptionis Sacramentum 103).
Point no 104 of the same document adds: “The communicant must not be permitted to intinct the host himself in the chalice, nor to receive the intincted host in the hand.”
Follow
