INTERCOMMUNION
Roman Catholicism says the Blessed Eucharist or the Mass
is an act of worship wherein the bread and wine are turned
by the priest, who uses the power of God, into the body and blood of Jesus Christ
who is true God and true man.
Intercommunion is members
of one Church taking “Holy” Communion in another sect.
In 1997,
If communion is meant to
be a sign of membership in the Church that celebrates it then this is
wrong. Some argue that all that matters
is not what denomination you belong to but you belonging to the family of God
which is to be found in every Church.
The Roman Catholic Church says that she is the true Church and that God
gave the Eucharist so that she would maintain this visible unity. Hence, it is bad to let Christians of other
sects receive communion off her. This is
saying that visible unity, being one organisation, is more important than being
outside it and being sincere and in union with Jesus. This is certainly intolerance. It is better and more important to be sincere and good than to
be in the organisation. A person who does
not have the true faith could be closer to God than people in the true
Church. Being in it will do no good
unless you are kindly and genuine. It is
more important for unity to have Jesus in your heart than to receive his body
and blood. If Jesus spiritually dwells
in Catholics and Protestants the unity argument is no reason why they can’t
receive his body and blood for the main thing is having Jesus’ spirit inside
you and not his body and blood which are no good without the spirit anyway.
If Jesus is in the
Eucharist he would want the Church as an organisation to grow more solid and for his body to
be given to those who don’t belong to it so that they may be carried by the
Spirit a step closer to visible unity with this Church. There is no proof that intercommunion is
wrong.
The Catholic Church
permits giving Protestants communion if they are in danger of death and express
belief in the miraculous change of the bread into Jesus Christ. And Catholics on holiday in
If intercommunion leads
people to the notion that one Church is as good as another which no true
Catholic can accept then that does not disprove its goodness. It only proves that the Church has not
educated them and that the Holy Spirit is not trying to keep them in the truth
and make them see it. So it could not be
the fault of intercommunion.
Catholics declare the Holy
Communion of the Protestants to be invalid, to be devoid of grace. They say it appears to be the Eucharist but
it is not. Their Eucharist, they say, is
the only true one. They do believe that
in so far as the Protestant version is a prayer for grace it can give grace but
that it is not sacramental. They do
believe that in so far as it is a seeking of the presence of Jesus to have it
within, it succeeds. But there is nothing
special about it and taking holy communion gives the body and blood of Jesus
that nothing else can do not even the most fervent prayer. So a Protestant
service of Holy Communion is as good as a Catholic praying for grace and for
Jesus to dwell within the heart. The
reason Protestants are supposed to have an invalid Eucharist is because they
are not ordained right. The power to
celebrate the true sacrament has to be inherited through the bishops from the
apostles.
It seems plain from this
that the Catholics cannot take communion in a Protestant service because it is
not communion. But this is a
mistake. The sceptical Catholic can
partake even if it is administered by a Church that requires her to believe it
is communion. The requirement is that
Church’s problem. The Catholic can take
it as a sign of Christian fellowship, as a way of receiving Jesus’’ presence
and grace. The Catholic who thinks it is
real communion can take it because communion belongs to Christ and not the
Church. It is not a declaration of
membership of the other Church but of membership of Christ. It is a declaration of approval of the
goodness in the Church but not necessarily of approval of the error and evil in
it.
The Protestant who does
not believe that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus cannot
receive communion in the Catholic Church which does believe all that. The Protestant will hold that it is because
God forbids idolatry, the worship of what is not God as God and might say, “Catholic communion
is unholy if it is idolatrous. The Devil
dwells in it for the apostle Paul said that heathens sacrifice to Devils though
they mean to honour good gods.” The
Protestant would have to answer, “Amen”, when the priest says, “The Body of
Christ”, and that would be insincere and traitorous of him. Should the Church discard all the rites in
the Mass that convey the notion of transubstantiation and leave the
interpretation of the Eucharist open? No
the meaning would still be there so it would be no help.
Conclusion:
The ban on intercommunion in the Catholic Church is just bigotry.