The Cup of Salvation: Receiving Eucharist under Both Forms
The sign of communion is more complete when given under both kinds, since the sign of the eucharistic meal appears more clearly. The intention of Christ that the new and eternal covenant be ratified in his blood is better expressed, as is the relation of the eucharistic banquet to the heavenly banquet (The Order of Mass).
In obedience to Christ’s command at the Last Supper to “take and eat… take and drink,” it has always been and continues to be the Church’s practice to celebrate the sacrament of Eucharist by taking bread and wine, which in the power of the Holy Spirit become the Body and Blood of Christ. Our Savior desires to nourish us at his table with both food and drink. Just like any meal would be less complete without a beverage, the sign of communion is less complete when given only under the form of bread. Receiving communion from the chalice manifests the new covenant sealed in Christ’s blood and foreshadows the joy of the wedding feast of the Lamb in the Kingdom of Heaven . Though the Church has never celebrated the Eucharist without using wine, there have been times throughout its history that the consecrated wine was not offered to the laity.
The practice of the early Church clearly indicates that the laity received communion under the forms of both bread and wine for the first twelve centuries of Christianity. However, this practice began to shift in the West in the 12 th and 13 th centuries, when Latin rite (Roman) churches reserved reception of communion under the form of wine to the priest. (In the East, the practice of distributing communion under both forms to the laity persisted to the present day.) This Western development occurred for varied and complex reasons. First, the doctrine of concomitance allows for the reception of communion under only one form. This doctrine teaches that we receive the entire Christ—body, blood, soul and divinity—even if we receive communion under only one form, be it the form of bread or wine. Second, by the 1200s, Catholic piety focused more on the adoration of Christ present in the Eucharist than on the reception of communion. As a result, the laity received communion very infrequently and eventually were not even offered communion at all! This situation resulted from a severe lack of proper instruction for the clergy and the laity, and it became so serious that the pope at the time (Innocent III) insisted that the laity must receive communion at least once every year. The third reason that the consecrated wine was no longer offered to the laity was in reaction to the Reformation. Some Protestant reformers insisted that the laity be offered the chalice in order to be faithful to Christ’s command at the Last Supper, an assertion that resulted in the rejection of the doctrine of concomitance. With the hostility and misunderstandings surrounding the events of the Reformation, the response of the Church was to deny the laity communion under the form of wine.
This practice remained in effect until the years following the Second Vatican Council, when the Church found it fitting to restore the ancient custom of distributing communion to the laity under the forms of both bread and wine. Since 1978, the distribution of communion under both forms has been permitted in all the dioceses of the United States , though this practice has been introduced gradually in some places. On April 7, 2002 , the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a document entitled “Norms for the Distribution and Reception of Holy Communion under Both Kinds in the Dioceses of the United States of America ,” which encourages distribution of communion under both forms. To implement these norms, Bishop Paul Bootkoski, Bishop of Metuchen, expressly desires that the Eucharistic Banquet be offered to the laity in its more complete form: under the forms of bread and wine at every Mass. It is in response to this desire that the Catholic Center chaplains have taken these weeks before Lent as a time to reflect more deeply on the gift of the Eucharist and to acquaint the Catholic community at Rutgers with these new norms so they may more actively, knowledgeably and reverently participate in the liturgy.
If it has not been your practice in the past, we encourage you to consider receiving communion under both forms, as it is a more complete expression of the Eucharistic meal. Some people may be worried about the spread of germs from drinking from a common cup. To allay this concern, Eucharistic ministers wipe both the inside and the outside of the chalice and turn it after each person has received. No one has ever contracted a serious infection that can be traced back to receiving communion from the chalice. Further, common courtesy would recommend that a person with a cold or other virus refrain from receiving from the cup until they are well. The decision to receive communion from the chalice belongs to each person. If you do decide to receive communion under the form of wine (and we hope that you do), simply approach the minister who is holding the cup. After you bow in reverence, they will offer you communion with the words “The Blood of Christ,” to which you respond “Amen.” Then carefully receive the cup, take a sip of the Precious Blood, and return the cup to the minister.
~ Jean-Marie Dimech-Juchniewicz
February 23, 2003