I recently led a spiritual pilgrimage that included Mass each day at different shrines and churches that requested us to bring our own supplies. To ease our luggage burden, each participant brought some of the items needed for Mass to each site. One day, the couple in charge of bringing the wine for Mass forgot the bottle. They said: “Why do we need wine?” Others chimed in: “We never have Mass with wine in our parish,” and “Why can’t we have Mass without it?” Another said: “Why would we need the wine if we already get holy Communion?”
Some of these comments were no doubt inspired by annoyance that we had to take 45 minutes to go to a convenience store 10 kilometers away and buy a bottle of wine. But my own parishioners, who regularly have the precious blood of Christ distributed at Mass, said that there is a need for catechesis and a revival of the practice of distributing Communion under both species in our country.
We still have time in our ongoing National Eucharistic Revival to renew our liturgical practices. One such renewal would be to make it possible for people to more fully experience and understand the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist in both the bread and the wine. For a true Eucharistic revival in our nation (and perhaps other parts of the world too), we need to take seriously the command of Christ and the “General Instruction” of the Roman Missal to increase our efforts to give everyone a complete experience of the reception of holy Communion.
Practical options
What are some ways we can do that in our parishes?
Bring back the procession with the gifts. The procession is a meaningful reminder that the people are offering their gifts of bread and wine—the work of human hands. For time management’s sake, especially at weekday Masses, many churches do not have the procession any more—or perhaps they never implemented it. The Mass is an offering of ourselves to God: bread and wine symbolize this offering and change.
Offer the precious blood. There are more and more people who have celiac disease; a chalice should always be present for these members to receive. A priest would feel himself deprived if he did not receive the precious blood (and indeed, the Mass rubrics require that both bread and wine be consecrated). Can a priest—even one concelebrating—consider himself as having participated in Communion if he has not himself received the wine? In our ecclesiology, why should this be different for the laity? Aren’t they sharers in the body of Christ? We need to review the words we have repeated for centuries following Christ’s command to “take and eat,” “take and drink.” This doesn’t mean the cup should be mandatory for all—the laity should be free to accept it or not for their own reasons—but it should be offered to all.
Stress singing during Communion. In Cardinal Roger Mahony’s pastoral letter to his diocese in 1997 during a Eucharistic renewal for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, he stressed picking six or seven hymns for the people to learn and sing by heart for an entire year. Look at how we teach one another to sing: through repetition and ease. Rotate just these six or seven for a year.
I know many a musician who said they become bored with the same music. But the average congregant needs some time to learn the songs they are expected to sing. And we need songs that are easy to sing along with, not long-worded refrains. Have them be Eucharistic, highlighting the importance of the Communion rite. And we should sing from the moment that distribution begins, to demonstrate its priority.
The “General Instruction of the Roman Missal” is pretty clear that we begin singing while the priest receives holy Communion so that we may enter into the participation and have the song represent our communion with one another. Think about how folks sing “Happy Birthday” at a birthday party or how they join in at a sporting event (the national anthem). The Communion procession should be that celebratory, joyous and participatory for everyone.
Share holy Communion from the altar and not the tabernacle.Nowhere in the instructions of the Mass does it say to retrieve a ciborium of hosts from the tabernacle and place it on the altar during the Lord’s Prayer or the “Lamb of God.” Instead, the “General Instruction” states that we ought to receive Communion from elements consecrated at that same Mass. Most parishes, shrines and oratories have the former practice, which breaks the significance of receiving Communion from the sacrifice of the Mass we are currently celebrating.
The lack of connection between our theology and practical considerations (getting the number of hosts right, for example) can make this difficult. But think of any celebratory meal: We do not go to the refrigerator to pull out food from a previous meal and serve it instead. Why do we do this for the most important memorial, sacrificial meal, the Eucharist?
There is a great need for catechesis and pastoral practices to improve this part of the Mass, but it is important to repeat, because so many do not see any difference between a previously consecrated host and one that they are to receive at their current Mass. (What to do with a tabernacle full of hosts is another pastoral problem for another practical article.)
Mass and memory
For the Eucharistic Revival to truly take root in our country and in others around the world, we need to recall Christ’s command at the Last Supper not only to “take and eat” but to “take and drink.” We need to see that we offer ourselves, our lives and our gifts, and that our lives are called upon to be changed. We are called to live this reality joyfully, uniting our thanksgiving in song and procession.
If we have not seen our Eucharistic elements brought up in a procession of gifts and then distributed during the Communion rite, but instead warehoused in a tabernacle until needed, we should perhaps wonder if this has something to do with the number of Catholics who do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We believe it is the community’s Eucharist; let’s make it so through offering, singing and sharing in the blood of Christ and the entire Eucharistic mystery. Then we will always know why we need wine!
