Communion with God
This next precept will strike modern Catholics as the strangest of the bunch. The Church requires that all Catholics receive Holy Communion at least once during the year sometime during the Lenten or Easter seasons. To those of us accustomed to receiving Communion far more frequently, we can be puzzled. Exploring historical sacramental practice and the nature of Communion helps us understand its rationale.
Frequent Communion is a very recent phenomenon (20th century) in the life of the Church. For most of Church history, the expectation would be that you only received the Eucharist on big feasts like Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. Everyone was still expected to come and worship God each Sunday and holy day of obligation, but widespread reception of Communion was not the norm for a couple reasons. In our ancestors’ favor, there was a much stronger sense of sin in previous eras, coupled with a more profound reverence for the Eucharist. This meant that Catholics were more aware when they were not in a state of grace and shouldn’t receive Communion, and they understood the necessity of treating Our Lord’s Body and Blood with care and respect (echoing St. Paul’s admonition in 1 Cor. 11:29: “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself”). Yet it should be noted that this reverence could slip into scrupulosity, an obsession with thinking you’re too sinful and unworthy to receive God’s love in the Eucharist.
To guide the faithful away from both carelessness and scrupulosity, the Church obliged what became known as the ‘Easter Duty’, receiving Communion at least once a year in honor of the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. This coaxed the scrupulous to accept their worthiness and goaded the hardened sinners to celebrate their yearly confession in order to receive the Eucharist in a worthy state. This precept, like the others, gives us a minimum opportunity to respond to God’s goodness to us. We shouldn’t be content with hitting the minimum, but should take advantage of each opportunity to receive Jesus in Communion. Yet this precept should also give us pause: am I approaching this priceless treasure, Jesus Christ Himself, with a cavalier, prideful, or careless attitude? Have I done what I can to receive God’s healing grace through Confession if I’ve fallen into mortal sin? Am I attentive during Mass so that I recognize Him whom I receive? Communion with God occurs when we open our hearts to receive Him in the Eucharist, and we should do all we can to prepare ourselves each time we “approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help” (Heb. 4:16).
Summary of Precept 3:
To receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season.