Drawn to Communion
Nineteenth Sunday of the Year. Fr Matthew Jarvis urges us to receive Holy Communion frequently.
‘No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me’ (Jn 6:44).
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, the young Lay Dominican who is due to be canonised next summer, was considered unusual in receiving Holy Communion every day. At least, it was unusual during his short lifetime a century ago (1901-1925), before the teaching of Pope St Pius X in 1905 on frequent Communion had been widely received. Pier Giorgio was drawn to Christ in the Eucharist by his heavenly Father. Every day he received the Bread of Life at Mass, the very flesh and blood of the Saviour, given for the life of the world.
If Elijah, in our First Reading, walked in the strength of heavenly food for forty days and nights to Horeb, the mountain of God, in a similar way Pier Giorgio Frassati would take strength from his daily Eucharist before climbing the Alps with his friends. But whereas Elijah had just two meals (with a siesta in between!) before his long journey, Pier Giorgio would come daily to eat his spiritual nourishment. Elijah’s experience may be echoed by the fellowship of adventurers in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: taking even a small morsel of the elves’ lembas bread gives strength for a whole day. The Catholic Tolkien was clearly playing on a Eucharistic theme. But whereas one meal sufficed for Elijah for 40 days, the lembas can be taken daily, like the Eucharist.
How often, in fact, should we be receiving the Eucharist? You might think the question absurd these days. Haven’t we already concluded in the Church that everyone should receive Holy Communion at every Mass they attend? Isn’t everyone drawn by the Father to Christ in the Eucharist?
Not everyone finds the question so simply closed. Some Catholics today, like the Jansenists of the 17th century, are plagued by scruples and hold back from receiving the life-giving Body of Christ, even when their sins are only venial. They are depriving themselves of the best spiritual medicine. Others approach the Eucharist without proper self-examination and risk making an unworthy communion, to their own spiritual detriment (see 1 Cor 11:27-32). Many others (if certain polls are to be believed) have lost faith in the Real Presence of Christ. May they hear anew how Christ himself links Eucharistic faith with eternal life: ‘everyone who believes has eternal life’, and ‘anyone who eats this Bread will live for ever’ (Jn 6:47,51). Believing in Christ and eating his Body are inseparable.
To avoid these pitfalls, what is the right approach to the Eucharist and its frequency of reception?
One of the Five Precepts of the Catholic Church is: ‘You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season’, in other words, at least once a year, having made a sacramental Confession (Catechism 2042). Of course, we must also attend Mass every Sunday and holy day of obligation, even when we don’t receive Communion. But this legal minimum is not the same thing as a norm, let alone an ideal situation.
In fact, the Council of Trent (session 22, chapter 6) expressed the desire ‘that, at each Mass, the faithful who are present should communicate, not only in spiritual desire, but also by the sacramental participation of the Eucharist, that thereby a more abundant fruit might be derived to them from this most holy sacrifice’. In other words: ideally, everyone receives Communion at every Mass. This was often the case in the early Church (starting with Acts 2:46), though later we hear many Church Fathers lamenting how infrequently the laity participated in their day.
In the history of the Dominican Order, there have been many voices encouraging frequent communion. Heinrich of Bitterfeld promoted the frequent (even daily) communion of the laity in treatises at the end of the 14th century. Historians have noted Bitterfeld’s influence on Raymond of Capua’s reforms of the Dominican Order around this time. In the 16th century, at the time of Trent, the popular preacher Domingo de Valtanás OP likewise promoted daily Communion and frequent Confession. There is a close association in our Order’s history between promoting proper observance of the religious life (for friars and nuns) and advocating frequent communion (for laity too). There is a kind of spiritual symbiosis between healthy religious orders and actively committed laity.
So it doesn’t surprise me that Pier Giorgio Frassati, the Lay Dominican, was deeply devoted to the Eucharist. Nor that his frequent communion impelled him to serve the poor. As he put it, ‘Jesus comes to me every day in Holy Communion. I repay him in my pitiful way by visiting the poor.’
God is drawing us into communion with himself in our reception of the Eucharist, and with other people in our works of mercy. He wants us to do both as frequently as we can manage.
Readings: 1 Kings 19:4-8 | Ephesians 4:30-5:2 | John 6:41-51
Image: St Paul Receiving Communion, detail from an icon photographed by Ted, CC BY-SA 2.0
