By Modesto P. Sa-onoy
Writing in LifeSiteNews on March 26, Jeanne Smits, the Paris correspondent concluded after a new Swish Bishop gave Holy Communion to three Protestants in the presence of the officiating bishops: Doctrine, morals and the infinite respect due to Our Lord in Holy Communion are being set aside in the name of openness and tolerance.
We may add the over-emphasis on mercy, God’s love for sinners and pastoral and ecumenical considerations even to the extent of “bending” Catholic doctrine. Sidetracked are Divine Justice, the reality of evil and hell.
To Catholics, at least those who still believe in the doctrine that the Holy Eucharist is sacred as it is the Body and Blood of Christ, only the baptized and in the state of grace, that is, free of mortal sin should approach and receive the Sacred Host, or with the Sacred Wine where this is offered.
But we are reading and seeing today many people in high places given the Communion when these people are publicly promoting acts contrary to Catholic doctrine. What is more scandalous is that the people giving the impression that adherence to Catholic doctrine is not necessary as long as certain secular interests, justified as the nebulous common good are served, are clerics.
We find priests, bishops and cardinals who gave way to scandal to the ordinary Catholics who cannot fathom the depth of theological justifications. The faithful see and hear acts and pronouncements that contradict what they had learned since childhood.
These Church leaders can argue till the heavens fall why they are doing so, but to the eye and heart of the ordinary Catholics they are creating scandal and opening the door to more sacrilege by their examples.
The ordinary Catholic believes in simple act of faith, what the words of Catholic doctrines say clearly. They are not academically prepared or intellectually gifted to the niceties of human relationships or the minute details of an argument why the Faith and Tradition are being violated.
Let me focus first on the Holy Eucharist, the center of the Catholic Faith because it is the visible Body and Blood of Christ and thus deserves the highest and most solemn respect. In times past, no hand that has not been consecrated can handle the Host. Even the monstrance and the sacred vessels that contain the Host or the Wine can be handled by laypersons except when wrapped in a corporal, a white linen cloth to keep a non-anointed hand from direct contact. Today anybody can handle them oftentimes like they carry a piece of anything.
The declining respect for the sacred has also led to the loss of reverence for the Sacred Host. People crisscross the church aisle hardly taking note of the Tabernacle at the altar when they ought to genuflect. The priests and altar servers also take only a perfunctory bow at the Tabernacle. So how can we expect the faithful to give due respect to God present in the Tabernacle as Catholic teaching says?
There was a time when people knell at the approach or passing of the Sacred Host, but now they just gaze at it as people watching a parade do.
The trivialization of the Holy Eucharist began when the Tabernacle was relegated to the side rather than at the center of the church, at the altar. The closed Queen of Peace church even had the Tabernacle placed in a room – not visible when one entered it. Passage to it was by the side door.
We continue tomorrow.
