Coming to the Lord's Table - #13

For years we have taken a certain amount of hosts consecrated at the liturgy and we have placed them in the tabernacle after the faithful have received. The reserved sacrament would then be available for the sick or for those who would stop by the church to pray in adoration, petition, and contemplation. We have also been used to seeing Eucharistic ministers go to the tabernacle right after the kiss of peace in order to fetch communion hosts previously consecrated at another Mass. They would bring them to the altar. Then these hosts or bread, along with newly consecrated hosts or bread, would be ministered to those coming to the Lord's Table. Afterwards a deacon or Eucharistic minister would return what was left over to the tabernacle.

Service at the Lord's Table encourages an alternative and different procedure now and in the future. "To preserve the integrity of the celebration and to encourage the assembly at a particular liturgy to understand their own participation in the sacrament, the church explicitly encourages us to receive communion from bread that have been consecrated at that Mass. Thus, receiving Eucharist from the sacrament reserved in the tabernacle (for communion to the sick and for adoration) is not something the church envisions or deems helpful. No one is to approach the tabernacle before communion. Only if the number of the assembly has been miscalculated and there are not enough pieces of the consecrated bread (and this is seen too late for more bread to be added before the presentation of the gifts or for the pieces to be broken further) should anyone go to the tabernacle for eucharistic bread from another liturgy ( 11)".

Someone might wonder: What's the big deal? The important thing is to receive communion, isn't it. Yes, the aim of all the baptized is full communion with the Lord. This means that all the people enter into full, conscious, and active participation at a particular liturgy during which the bread and the cup are consecrated and later ministered. You might remember that the priest receives only that which has been consecrated at a particular liturgy. So, too, do the laity, "Using bread consecrated at a different liturgy should be a last resort. Every effort should be made to enable the assembly to receive communion from the liturgy in which they have participated (p 11)."

Full participation also includes receiving from the cup. All the baptized have the right and the privilege of sharing in the precious blood of the Lord. "The church is likewise clear about the importance of receiving communion under the signs of both bread and wine. With few exceptions, receiving communion under both kinds at all masses, has been permitted and encouraged in this country since 1984. Holy communion has a more complex form as a sign when it is received under both kinds. For in this manner of reception a fuller light shines on the sign of the eucharistic banquet. Moreover, there is a clearer expression of that will by which the new and everlasting covenant is ratified in the blood of the Lord and of the relationship of the eucharistic banquet to the eschatological banquet in the Father's Kingdom (p 12)."