Paul S said:
Daily Communion is a wonderful thing - but perhaps it's gotten us too used to "go to Mass, receive Communion", rather than being properly prepared to receive Him. Maybe if receiving the Sacrament wasn't as common, people would reflect more on whether they were worthy.
And saying it thrice would help, too.
I wouldn't put daily Communion as the problem, being that the majority of Catholics don't even bother to go to daily mass that often. Karl Keating makes a good observation of this in his
June 28, 2005 letter:
"Consider what has happened to holy days of obligation.
Many of them no longer are obligatory at all, though that may depend on where you live. In some regions of the country Catholics are dispensed from having to show up at Mass on certain holy days, while in other regions the traditional obligation still applies.
Alternately, sometimes holy days that would fall on a weekday or Saturday are transferred to the nearest Sunday, making that Sunday's Mass a twofer.
REASONS AND EXCUSES
What has been the rationale for such manipulations of the liturgical calendar? Proponents of the changes have made several arguments:
1. Turnout for weekday holy days is low. Holy days are established by the Church because they are important; they tell us something about what we believe. If people fail to show up for Mass on holy days, they miss out on that element of their faith.
2. If a holy day is transferred to Sunday, more people can be instructed about the day's meaning.
3. Many Catholics miss Mass on holy days, either because they forget to go or because they can't get off work. Some of them feel unnecessarily guilty for having done so, and they bring this false sense of guilt into the confessional.
These reasons are said to be "pastoral," in the sense that word so often is used nowadays. A more accurate word might be "accommodating."
Changing the days on which holy days are observed takes into account what many Catholics really do (which is to say: they stay home if they can) and tries to make participation in the Church's liturgical life as convenient for them as possible.
This is bad psychology. What is easy is not valued. When the Church makes a weekday holy day not obligatory or moves it to a Sunday, what message is sent to the laity? Aren't the folks in the pews told, though not in so many words, that the belief or event behind the holy day isn't important?"
The last paragraph seems to be at the crux of the matter. We center the worship too much on ourselves and forget that we come to recieve our Lord. St. Paul had noted that this reception should be done worthily, yet many Christains has lost a grasp of what this means. Even Lutherans I have spoken on this recently speak about how even the basic necessity to go to church on Sundays has become hard for some Christians to consider. Afterall, on the other side of the spectrum, the Last Supper has a sort of duality between reverence and supersticious prejudices. While they may speak about the sacrifice of the Lord and being "washed in His blood," they often see the issue of the True Presence in transubstantiation as being a Roman (often "pagan") tradition and scoff at the view that the bread and wine change into the body and blood, saying that if this were litterally true that it would be a form of cannibalism. Others speak of it as sacrilige because they believe that Jesus was crucified "once for all" and do not see the Eucharist as being the way in which we come into Christ's passion and seeing the timlessness of that sacrifice as "once for all" in the light of all salvation history. For thiese reasons do many non-Catholic Christains abstain from the Eucharist and even limit the Last Supper to maby bi-weekly, monthly, or even just once a year. It is not as much about taking the cup worthily, but misunderstanding the sacrifice of Christ and how we can come to the Eucharist, recieve our Lord's body and blood, and thusly participate in the passion of our Lord. Many Evangelicals do not see how it is possible that we can participate in the Passion. Some even consider it sacrilige to even say that we can be a part of sacrifice, with the question of how can we give to God anything when He made everything? These are the issues that divide us. And yet some Protestants who may have found their way past some of these prejudices still have a hard time fully coming into Communion with the Catholic Church. And if this be so, why would they want to take the body and blood unworthily, knowing full well that they are not yet in full communion. The only thing I can say is that they want to put the cart before the horse, or they don't believe they have to bear the cross before coiming to Jesus. It is much like the young rich man who eagerly wanted to come to Jesus, yet did not want to be rid of his personal riches. Yet, if we let go of those things, how much greater the treasure in the presence of our Lord!
Pax Tecum,
John
