The Holy Eucharist has come up for discussion again, and the media are trying to create a storm over the possibility that the Bishops may well enforce canon 915 when it comes to Catholic TDs and Senators who vote for the abortion legislation. I explained this canon and what could happen in an earlier post, so I'm not going to do so again here.
There are, however, a few things which need to be said with regard to this issue. If you follow me on Twitter you will have seen earlier today that I tweeted part of a text sent into a radio show this morning. The full text read: "How dare the Church decide who receives Communion in this day and age".
In response. First "this day and age" does not matter, a period of time does not decide what is true and what is not. Murder was wrong in the 5th century, it is still wrong in the 21st. God's law is as true in the 21st century as it was in the 1st - it is only human arrogance which disputes that.
It is the Church's prerogative to refuse the Eucharist to certain individuals in accordance with the divine law. Without the Church there would be no Eucharist - so it is a bit rich, and I suppose the result of pure ignorance, to suggest that the Church should mind her own business when it comes to the Eucharist. While all Catholics have the right to receive the Eucharist, that right is a qualified right - those who through schism, for example, have removed themselves from communion with the Church no longer have the right to receive Holy Communion since receiving the Eucharist is a sign of communion with the Church - a communion that exists now and not one which may exist in the future.
But there is another point which must be made in this regard, one politicians should carefully note. The Church refuses the Eucharist at times for the sake of the person seeking it. To receive the Body and Blood of the Lord is indeed a blessing - the greatest of blessings, but for those who receive it unworthily it becomes a curse, a curse because in the unworthy reception a serious desecration is committed. St Paul puts it quite bluntly in his First Letter to the Corinthians (see 1 Cor 11:27-29). This is a text our pro-abortion Catholic politicians should read very carefully before they get on their high horses and denounce the Church for her position. To have the curse of God upon you is not a nice thing and the Church wants to spare even her worst enemies this blight.
Now there will be those who say that such a thing is ridiculous - God is a God of love, he would never curse anyone, and he will forgive. Yes, he will forgive - he will forgive all those who are truly penitent, but let's face it a politician who votes for abortion and then defends why he or she voted for it is certainly not penitent, and if they maintain that position at their death then they may well be lost. (At this point we need to remind ourselves that death can come suddenly, and that we tend to die as we live - deathbed conversions are rare)
When it comes to the curse, we curse ourselves because we have had the arrogance to presume that we can lay hold of the sacred even though we are in a state of serious sin. Those things which are holy overpower those things which are evil; when a person has willingly given themselves over to evil, as in the case of providing for and defending the killing of the innocent, then contact with the All Holy will have devastating results.
And for those politicans who try and laugh this off, let them remember: one day they will stand before the throne of God for judgement, the same God who has told us we should not kill, and they will have to answer for their part in killing of every child who dies as a result of the forthcoming legislation - every child. Political waffling will not save them. These are matters of life and death - salvation and damnation, why make things worse by desecrating the Eucharist?
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