Martha wanted to leave Nairobi to visit her mother upcountry. She decided to go to church early Sunday morning and set out immediately from there. She got everything ready for the trip and grabbed breakfast right before walking out the door. The Mass was brief. Short homily. No choir. Her plan was working perfectly.
When she got in line to receive Holy Communion, she glanced at her watch. Only 40 minutes had passed since breakfast. She remembered how the good nuns in primary school insisted on fasting for an hour. She didn’t know what to do. She stood there in the middle of the church, wondering whether to go up to the altar or turn around and go back to the bench.
What happened to Martha has happened to many Christians all over the world—especially if you’re one of those who try to get to Mass during weekdays. You end up asking: “Can I receive Holy Communion without the one hour fast?”
We all know it’s the law of the Church. We have to fast for sixty minutes. But there’s nothing in the Bible about it and, at times, it seems like a nuisance. What difference does it make to God whether we fast for 40 minutes or one whole hour? After all, even the apostles received Communion at the Last Supper just after they finished eating the food prepared for the Passover.
ANOTHER STORY
To put this in perspective, look at what Saint Philip Neri once did to teach a woman the real meaning of Holy Communion. Keep in mind that we’re talking about 500 years ago when the Eucharistic fast was longer: Christians—priests included—could not eat anything from 12 o’clock midnight until receiving Holy Communion.
The woman was very pious and had a reputation for being a good example of living the Gospel. She went to Mass every day and often received the Eucharist. For whatever reason, she seemed to understand this practice merely as something a Christian does to be good, more or less the same way you try to show up at work on time every day if you want to keep the boss happy.
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One Response to “Fasting before Holy Communion”
December 1, 2020
Slavic Christian SocietyYEAR OF THE EUCHARIST 2008
“I AM THE LIVING BREAD” JOHN 6:51 – COMMUNION THANKSGIVING: THE DIVINE PRAISES
Blessed be God.
Blessed be His holy name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
Blessed be the holy name of Jesus Christ.
Blessed be His loving and sacred Heart.
Blessed be His Body and Blood.
Blessed be His passion and resurrection.
Blessed be Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Giver of life.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
Blessed be Holy Mary, the Virgin Mother of God.
Blessed be her Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.
Blessed be our God, always now and for ever and ever. Amen.
•This Thanksgiving prayer takes 1-2 minutes and fills in a glaring omission, that of thanking God for the great gift of the Holy Communion. There are prayers after Communion now, but they are still a ‘give us’ not a ‘thank you’ – eucharistia. What guest with what manners would rush out after a dinner without complimenting/thanking their host? The exposition of the Blessed Sacrament takes place par excellence at every Holy Communion. Can the Body and Blood of Our Lord be ever more exposed in this life than at Holy Communion?
•More important still, is to receive Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ, worthily (1 Corinthians 11:28-29, Matthew 5:23, 6:15) – to be free, beforehand, from serious sin, to pray at least the biblical act of contrition, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner. Remember me, O Lord, in Thy kingdom”, and to go to Confession when necessary.
•Rightly we complain about disrespect shown to the Blessed Sacrament. But what does shunting the tabernacle from its front-and-center location to the sidelines tell the Faithful? Towards what do we genuflect? Restoring the tabernacle with its perpetual candle to the middle of the altar area –its universal location for many centuries and still its location in some churches– would rectify the schism between the altar and the tabernacle and would showcase the Eucharist as the center of Church life. Also, an image of the Last Supper by the altar, such as the one at Saint Maximilian Kolbe church in Mississauga, the Consolata Missionaries’ chapel in Toronto and in many other Orthodox and Catholic churches, from Rio de Janeiro to Jerusalem, would call to mind the roots of the Eucharist.
Slavic Christian Society / Société Chrétienne Slave / Slăviansko Xristianskoe Sŏbranie, Mississauga, http://slavxrist.org 2000, 2004, 2008.