Communion in the Hand, Lay Eucharistic Ministers, Perverting the Faith

David Martin | The Daily Knight

A poignant observation of our time is that Catholics have increasingly lost the awareness of Christ’s supernatural presence in His sanctuary, courtesy of the modern Mass. Since Vatican II, Catholics have adopted strange and heretical notions about the Mass, i.e. referring to Holy Mass as a meeting, a meal, a celebration, a community gathering, etc., forgetting that the Mass is the reenactment of Christ’s Sacrifice on Calvary.

During the Consecration of the Mass, Christ’s Sacrifice is reenacted through the commemorative formula commanded by Christ to his Apostles—This is My Body, This is My Blood. Upon consecration, when the priest elevates the bread and chalice, the substance of bread and wine is changed into the very substance of Jesus Christ. It is no longer the substance of bread and wine but the substance of Christ, only and entirely, without any other substance mingling with it. Only the accidents or physical properties of bread and wine remain.

The liturgy of the Mass in all its detail, i.e. the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Gospel, the Creed, the Sanctus, the Canon, etc., is like a censer wherewith to render honor and glory to Christ’s physical and supernatural presence on the altar, which in turn renders honor to the Father, for which reason the Mass is referred to as the “Sacred Liturgy.”

New Mass Detracts From Christ

However, this could never be said of today’s new liturgical rite (Novus Ordo), for while Christ’s Sacrifice is reenacted in the new Mass, the aberrant inventions of the new rite, e.g. Mass facing the people, women lectors, “responsorial psalms,” rather serve to profane Christ’s presence on the altar.

More specifically, the practice of receiving Communion in the hand and employing lay “Eucharistic ministers” to administer Communion at Mass are insults to the Divine Majesty that undermine the Faith. It is specifically these abuses to the Eucharist that have wrought the greatest damage in the Church.

Eucharistic Ministers a Farce

The Council of Trent puts to shame today’s farcical practice of allowing lay people to distribute Communion. “To priests alone has been given power to consecrate and administer to the faithful, the Holy Eucharist.” (Council of Trent) Pope John Paul II, lenient as he was, made it clear that the Sacred Host is not something that lay persons may touch. “To touch the sacred species and to distribute them with their own hands is a privilege of the ordained.” (Dominicae Cenae, Feb. 1980)

This stems from the fact that lay people’s hands are not anointed to touch the Eucharist, unlike the hands of a priest. St. Thomas Aquinas beautifully articulates this teaching in his Summa Theologica.

“Because out of reverence towards this Sacrament, nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest’s hands, for touching this Sacrament.”

The hands of lay people are not consecrated to touch this Sacrament as in the priesthood, and allowing them to do so fosters the heretical idea of the laity being a “common priesthood,” which was Luther’s idea.

Sacrilegious

But too, it is illicit and sacrilegious. God struck Oza dead for merely reaching out with his hand to catch the Ark of the Covenant when it began to tilt while being pulled on a cart (2 Samuel 6:6,7), so what is in store for laymen or women who dare to touch the Creator Himself Who dwells in the New Testament Ark – the Tabernacle?

Touching the Eucharist warps our conception of Christ and nourishes contempt for His Divine Presence in the Eucharist. Receiving Christ in the hand promotes personal uncleanness and fosters the general mentality of transgressing into forbidden realms (touching that which we ought not), which calls to mind the transgression of Eve when she rose up in her pride and partook of the forbidden fruit.

Such is the work of the devil who is given great strength to work in the Church through this practice. The ancient dragon seeks to destroy the monarchical concept of the Church where Christ is seen as a mere man “symbolized” by the Host, and Communion in the hand has been an effective tool in hand wherewith to advance this heresy.

If Catholics today no longer believe that the Eucharist is the Creator Himself in Person, it is largely because of this diabolical practice that has cheapened their religion and nurtured this apostate mentality. Where do priests find the room to fuss over the Covid “pandemic” when they have a real plague wreaking havoc in the Church?

Christ spoke of the Pharisees who “strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel” (Mt. 23:24), and unfortunately there are priests today who make issue of small-minded things (like face masks) while ignoring the real issue – the profanation of the Holy Eucharist. The ugly hand of Communism has reached in today to desecrate the Body of Christ so clergy should cease from novelty and focus on ridding the Church of modern practice, lest they be eternally banished. Let them ponder the words of Holy Scripture concerning religious leaders who neglect their duties.

“Because being ministers of his kingdom, you have not judged rightly, nor kept the law of justice, nor walked according to the will of God. Horribly and speedily will he appear to you: for a most severe judgment shall be for them that bear rule.” (Wisdom 6:56)