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A Reader Says 1 Cor. 11:28-29 Does Not Bar Grave Sinners from the Eucharist

A Reader Says 1 Cor. 11:28-29 Does Not Bar Grave Sinners from the Eucharist

Last updated on: March 4, 2018 at 11:18 pm by Scott Eric Alt

A Reader Says 1 Cor. 11:28-29 Does Not Bar Grave Sinners from the Eucharist 2018-03-04T23:18:31-04:00 Scott Eric Alt

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In his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11, St. Paul tells us why it is so important to have a proper disposition before we receive the Eucharist. In verse 18, he begins by rebuking the Corinthians for their “divisions” and “factions.” (The more things change.) He also condemns some abuses that crept into the common meal prior to the Eucharist. The rich, who could bring a large share of food and drink, ended up gorging themselves to the disadvantage of the poor, who were not able to bring much. As a result, according to Paul, “one [man] is hungry and another is drunk.” “Do you despise the Church of God,” he asks, “and humiliate those who have nothing?” (The more things change.) Paul has to remind the Corinthians that, in receiving the Eucharist at Mass, they “proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

The Church tells us that these words bar a person guilty of any mortal sin from receiving the body and blood of Christ. Gluttony, drunkenness, and stealing from the poor are not the only ones. We read in the Catechism §1385:

To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.” Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion.

But according to one reader, this is an illicit addition to Paul’s meaning.

When St Paul spoke of examining conscience and discerning the body he was talking about paying attention to what was taking place and why they were gathering, backed up by his earlier context of not sharing food and getting drunk. It didn’t imply anything to do with the current concept of grave sin and lack of confession as a barrier, it was just about examining motives for why they were partaking in the communal meal and making sure they were correct.

Now, that exegesis is just strange. No other way to put it.

One glaring problem with it is that it unnecessarily limits St. Paul’s general principle about the right disposition to receive the body and blood of Christ to the specific mortal sins he happens to be rebuking at the moment. There’s no warrant for that. In verse 28, Paul says whoever receives the Eucharist “in an unworthy manner” is guilty of the crucifixion itself. He has turned, in his discussion, from the specific abuse to the general principle.

And one does not have to look very far to find out that Christians from the very beginning understood St. Paul’s words in the wery same way the Catechism does. Just turn to the first-century Didache:

But every Lord’s day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. [The Didache also has Malachi 1:11 in mind here.] But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, says the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations.

The Didache certainly did imagine that Paul’s words had something to do with “the current concept of grave sin and lack of confession as a barrier.” The Didache recognizes that a state of sin “profanes” the Eucharist. You must confess first.

There is no earlier source than the Didache for the practice of the Church at the earliest time. If the Church “added” to Paul’s meaning, it certainly did so very early. It added to it so early, in fact, that there is no earlier record of anyone understanding Paul’s words in a different way.

But two later authorities—St. Cyprian and St. John Chrysostom—reiterate what we read in the Didache.

Here is St. Cyprian, writing in A.D. 251. Commenting on 1 Corinthians 11, he says:

All these warnings being scorned and contemned—before their sin is expiated, before confession has been made of their crime, before their conscience has been purged by sacrifice and by the hand of the priest, before the offense of an angry and threatening Lord has been appeased, violence is done to His body and blood; and they sin now against their Lord more with their hand and mouth than when they denied their Lord.

Those who eat this bread and drink this cup “before their conscience has been purged” do “violence” do Christ’s body and blood, just as Paul had said. They are guilty of the crucifixion. According to St. Cyprian, yes, you do have to go to Confession first and rid yourself of mortal sin. To not do so is an additional, and even graver, sin.

And here is St. John Chrysostom, writing in the 4th century. He too says what the Didache says. In his Homily 28 on 1 Corinthians, he writes:

Since if even that kind of banquet which the senses take cognizance of cannot be partaken of by us when feverish and full of bad humors, without risk of perishing: much more is it unlawful for us to touch this Table with profane lusts, which are more grievous than fevers. Now when I say profane lusts, I mean both those of the body, and of money, and of anger, and of malice, and, in a word, all that are profane. [Any mortal sin bars you from communion.] And it becomes him that approaches, first to empty himself of all these things [i.e., through confession.] and so to touch that pure sacrifice.

The Church’s understanding of Paul’s words—that mortal sin bars you from the Eucharist, unless you confess and receive absolution—is not some later invention. It dates back to the Didache, and it has remained to this day.

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