Coming to the Lord's Table - #16

What health issues concerning communion under both kinds does Service at the Table of God address?

Since 1985 the Liturgy Secretariat has had regular contact with the Center for Disease Control. In 1996 the CDC indicated that there was a theoretical risk of transmitting "some agents present in oral secretions, particularly respiratory viruses, such as those that cause the common cold (p.20)." They found that the theoretical risk of transmitting hepatitis B., tuberculosis, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was exceedingly low. "The CDC has never identified an outbreak of illness traceable to the communion cup (ibid)." The Bishops Committee on the Liturgy judged that the restoration of the fuller sign of communion under both kinds was more important than the risk posed by drinking from the same communion cup. Both communicants and ministers need common sense, especially if someone has a cold.

Second, about 900,000 people in the U.S. have a genetic illness called celiac disease. This is an allergic internal reaction to the gluten in wheat. Gluten is a protein enzyme. It activates when flour is kneaded and it functions to bind the wheat together. Gluten is a toxin to persons with this disease. It damages their digestive system. The damage inhibits the absorption of vitamins and nutrients, and predisposes people to osteoporosis, neurological illnesses and even lymphoma. People who have celiac disease can control it by not consuming any gluten. These people cannot receive wheat hosts or bread. Doctors recommend that these people receive only a cup, making sure that the wine has no trace of gluten from a broken host or those dipping a host or bread into the cup. Church law permits people to receive only from the cup.

The general instruction indicates that there are four methods of administering communion from the cup. These are listed in order of preference: 1. drinking, 2. by a spoon, 3. through a tube, or 4. by intinction. The spoon and tube are not customary in the U.S. "Drinking directly from the cup is clearly preferred to any other method of ministering the Precious Blood (p. 21)." If people are addicted or allergic to wine, they should not receive the cup. If people are profoundly sensitive to, worried about the threat of germs, they should receive only the bread. The Lord's command was to eat and drink Service at the Table of God says the following about intinction. "If intinction, or dipping the sacred host in the Precious Blood, is the chosen method, several factors of law must be considered. First, "if communion is given by intinction the communicant may never dip the eucharistic bread into the chalice. Communion under either the form of bread or wine must always be given by a minister with the usual words. `Not only ritually unsound, the practice of allowing many hands to reach into a drinking cup, perhaps even touching the Precious Blood, is unsanitary. When a communicant presents a consecrated host to a minister of the cup, the minister should take the host from the hand, dip it into the precious Blood, and administer it on the tongue with the words. `The Body and Blood of Christ.` Where bad practices exist in regard to intinction, a through catechesis of the Sunday assembly is timely and necessary (21-22.)"