Q. How many times in one day can a Catholic in the state of grace receive Holy Communion? If a well-disposed Catholic goes to morning Mass on Saturday, and then to a funeral Mass, and to the vigil Mass for Sunday in the evening, can he receive Communion at all three Masses? Different priests have given me different answers. — J.F., via e-mail.
A. Canon 917 says that “a person who has received the Most Holy Eucharist may receive it again on the same day only during the celebration of the Eucharist in which the person participates, with due regard for the prescription of canon 921 §2.” That latter canon says that those in danger of death may receive the Eucharist more than once a day. So canon law says that a Catholic not in danger of death may receive Communion at two Masses in one day, provided that he or she is physically present at each Mass. One cannot, for instance, come into the church only in time to receive Communion.
So there would be no problem for J.F. to receive Communion at a regular Saturday morning Mass and then again later in the day at a funeral Mass. We’re not sure about a third time at the vigil Mass for Sunday. Yes, it’s a different liturgical day, with the prayers and readings for Sunday, but perhaps one ought to receive only twice on Saturday.
The reason for prohibiting multiple Communions in one day, by the way, is to discourage a superstitious or misguided attitude toward the Body and Blood of our Lord. We mean an attitude that assumes if one reception of the Eucharist is good, many receptions on the same day will be better. Every Host is of infinite value, of course, but one should not collect them like trophies.
Q. At Mass this morning, the first reading was from 1 John 5:16-17, where he says that “if anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly.” Can you explain this passage? — J.C., via e-mail.
A. While it is not completely clear what St. John meant by sin in the first instance, he was probably referring to mortal sin since he said that life would be given to the sinner who petitions God, primarily through the Sacrament of Penance. The “deadly” sin probably refers either to apostasy (the total rejection of the Catholic faith by one who was baptized in the faith) or to final impenitence (the stubborn rejection of God’s love and mercy at the moment of death).
John was not saying that we shouldn’t pray for those who are steeped in mortal sin because only God knows whether a person is finally impenitent or not. We know from Scripture that God wants all persons to be saved (cf. 1 Tim. 2:4) and that He takes “no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man’s conversion, that he may live” (Ezek. 33:11). So by all means pray fervently for sinners, for as Our Lady of Fatima said, “Many souls go to Hell because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them.” That’s why she taught the three children this prayer to be said after each decade of the rosary:
“O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fire of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.”
Q. I believe that I once read that if one, before committing a mortal sin, planned to confess it at a definite time in the future, he would be committing an additional sin of presumption, requiring Confession of that sin as well. Doesn’t it seem, though, that if someone has developed a difficult habit of sin, he or she would be well aware of the availability of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and plan to avail themselves of it as soon as possible? Is it not sufficient, at the time of Confession, to have sincere sorrow and a firm intention to avoid sin in the future? — K.B., via e-mail.
A. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 2092), “There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God’s almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).”
In his Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon, SJ, says that presumption “is a result of pride, which makes a person overestimate his abilities and blinds him to his deficiencies. It also leads one to expect graces from God without doing anything to obtain them, and even when acting the opposite, as when sinning, the person presumes that forgiveness is assured.”
Neither one of these descriptions of presumption seems to fit the case you cite. The person in question is not presuming that he will be forgiven without conversion, nor does he expect graces from God without doing anything to obtain them. On the contrary, he is planning to seek forgiveness as soon as possible, according to your scenario, apparently realizing that he must approach the Sacrament of Penance with sincere sorrow and a desire to amend his life to gain forgiveness for a mortal sin. But to be completely clear about this, the penitent should ask a priest for clarification.
Q. While thinking about the Baptism of the Lord by John, I wondered if Jesus and John had known each other before their meeting at the River Jordan and, if not, how was John able to recognize Jesus as the Lamb of God? — P.R., via e-mail.
A. The Gospels are not all that clear on what John knew about Jesus and when he knew it. While Luke says that Jesus and John the Baptist were related, and that they recognized each while in their mothers’ wombs during Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth (cf. Luke 1:39-45), there is no indication that John and Jesus had any contact with each other as they were growing up. In his Life of Christ, Giuseppe Ricciotti explained why:
“The fact that John does not know Jesus [at the Jordan River] is not surprising if we remember his life. As a boy he had already left his father’s house to live in the desert, and there is nothing to indicate any periodic returns to visit his relatives during the twenty-odd years of his solitude. . . . Perhaps this is also the reason why he had not tried to know in person the mysterious son of Mary who had been born six months after him. He knew him spiritually, and for the rest his faith told him that God in his own good time would have him know him personally” (p. 271).
Ricciotti said that the Baptist had “a kind of premonition,” and the Gospel quotes him as saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God” (John 1:32-34).
It is puzzling, however, that sometime later, after John had been imprisoned by Herod, he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus replied, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me” (Matt. 11:2-6). Doesn’t this mean that John had some doubt about who Jesus was?
No, said Ricciotti, explaining that “this opinion is contradicted by John’s whole life up to this point. Many of the Fathers and numerous modern commentators consider John’s question merely an expedient to make his disciples go over to Jesus and convince them that he was the Messiah. This explanation is undoubtedly a true one, but it contains only part of the truth. Recent studies, which reveal with increasing clarity the gradual way in which Jesus manifested himself as the Messiah, particularly favor the explanation given above, which, while it in no way excludes John’s desire to make his disciples join Jesus, takes into account both the gradualness with which Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah and the anxiety which that gradualness excited in John” (p. 343 fn.).
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress