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Sunday 28 December 2014

A Modest Proposal, Anent Reception of the Eucharist

Reading a nicely succinct piece by one C. C. Pecknold in First Things concerning what The Most Recent Pope But One 1.) said, and 2.) when he said it and 3.) who must have been aware of it, regarding one of the topics which occupied the participants in the extraordinary Synod on the Family.

THIS caught my eye:
The impossibility of receiving the holy Eucharist is perceived as so painful not last of all because, currently, almost all who participate in the Mass also approach the table of the Lord. In this way the persons affected also appear publicly disqualified as Christians.
I maintain that Saint Paul’s warning about examining oneself and reflecting on the fact that what is at issue is the Body of the Lord should be taken seriously once again: “A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Cor 11:28 f.). A serious self-examination, which might even lead to forgoing communion, would also help us to feel in a new way the greatness of the gift of the Eucharist and would furthermore represent a form of solidarity with divorced and remarried persons. 
I suspect mine was not the only parish oddly underpopulated today, as I mentioned in an earlier post.

What would happen if on this coming Holy Day, and on the Sunday after, every celebrant, during or after his homily, reminded those in attendance that if they had, for insufficient or no reason, not met their obligations to participate in Mass on the Feast of the Holy Family, or the Blessed Mother's Solemnity, and had as of yet failed to make a sacramental confession, that they ought not present themselves for Communion?

He could even offer to hear confessions after Mass so that the occasion for such depivation would not arise again.

Just a thought.

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