A listener named Kelly asks Father Dave a question about receiving the Eucharist from lay ministers. Kelly explains how there is a shortage of priests in her area, resulting in her parish having Mass every other week with a priest. On weekends without a priest present, her church has a prayer service with Scripture readings and Communion. “I’m showing my age, but I was taught that you never took Communion except from the hand of a priest – not a nun or a lay person,” Kelly says. “If I do not take the Eucharist every other week, does that put me in [a state of] sin? Do I have to confess that before Mass?” She concludes by asking for prayer for vocations in her area.
Father Dave echoes her prayer and begins, “It’s a sad situation that the priest can only be there every other week, but let’s talk about what they’re offering in the alternate week. She didn’t say exactly who leads it, but she says there’s a ‘word and Communion service.’ There is an official ritual put out by the Catholic Church that we can all use called ‘Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest.’”
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“This celebration can be led either by a deacon or a layperson. The Liturgy of the Word happens, and you would hear the same readings that everybody else is hearing [weekly at Mass],” he says. The service would also include distribution of the Eucharist that was previously consecrated by a priest and stored in the tabernacle.
Father Dave delves into Kelly’s choice to only take the Eucharist from a priest. “I don’t doubt, Kelly, that you were taught that by someone, but that has never been the teaching of the Catholic Church,” he says. “What you may be saying is, I realize in my head that it’s not the law of the Church, but I just can’t get past that. That’s human, and that’s real; if that’s what you’re saying, Kelly, I’m certainly not holding that against you.”
“What I hear you saying makes me sad, because we believe that Sacraments are unique experiences of God’s grace. Because of what somebody told you [decades] ago, you’re depriving yourself of the Sacrament 50% of the time when you don’t have to,” Father Dave continues. “I realized those habits are hard to change, and notions like that are hard to dismiss from our mind. But what I would say is that it’s diminishing the value of the Sacrament by thinking it’s not as good…that Eucharist, if it was consecrated six weeks ago, is the same presence of Christ as the one that was freshly consecrated 10 minutes ago when the priest is there.”
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Father Dave answers Kelly’s question in regards to sin. “Having said all that, it is not a sin to make that choice. I can come up with a lot of good reasons why you shouldn’t make that choice, and that you should receive Communion regardless of whose hands are giving it to you, but it is not a sin to not receive Communion,” he says. “Our Sunday obligation is that we go to Church. If the Church itself cannot provide Mass because there’s no priest there, that’s not your fault; You’re not failing at your Sunday obligation. The Sunday obligation is not to receive the Eucharist every week.”
“If [needing to receive the Eucharist from a priest] is really a personal and spiritual sticking point for you, it’s hard to undo that,” he says, but challenges her to try and receive from an extraordinary minister of Communion. “I would at least encourage you, on a week that you really feel you need Jesus, that you now realize that you don’t have to skip it.”
