In the Gospel today, Jesus said, “I am the Vine, you are the branches.”“Whomever remains in me and I him will bear much fruit.”
Today, we will look at the fruits of receiving Holy Communion by abiding in Jesus, then we will look at how if we do not abide in Jesus in the Eucharist, through mortal sin, we will not bear any fruit and finally, we will see how each particle of the Sacred Host should be treated with great love and respect to foster our abiding in Him.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church(1391 to 1400) speaks about the fruits of Holy Communion.
It states, the first and principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an intimate union with Christ Jesus. Indeed, the Lord said: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."
The second fruit of Communion is: What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh "given life and giving life through the Holy Spirit,"preserves, increases, and renews the life of grace received at Baptism.
The third fruit of Communion is: For the growth in Christian life, we need the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum. The Eucharist therefore helps us to get to heaven as Jesus said, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever”.
The fourth fruit of Communion is the Eucharist cannot unite us to Christ without at the same time cleansing us from past sins and preserving us from future sins. So when we receive Holy Communion our venial sins are forgiven, but not our mortal sins.
The fifth fruit of Holy Communion is just as bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity. By giving himself to us Christ revives our love and enables us to break our disordered attachments to creatures and root ourselves in him.
The sixth fruit of Holy Communion is by the same charity that it enkindles in us, the Eucharist preserves us from future mortal sins. The more we share the life of Christ and progress in his friendship, the more difficult it is to break away from him by mortal sin.
The seventh fruit is that those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body - the Church. Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the Church.
The eighth fruit, the Eucharist commits us to the poor. To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest.
The ninth fruit, before the greatness of this mystery St. Augustine exclaims, "O sacrament of devotion! O sign of unity! O bond of charity!" The more painful the experience of the divisions in the Church which break the common participation in the table of the Lord, the more urgent are our prayers to the Lord that the time of complete unity among all who believe in him may return.However, the Catechism says, ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation and separated from the Catholic Church, "have not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Holy Orders." It is for this reason that, for the Catholic Church, Eucharistic intercommunion with these communities is not possible.
Sadly, Jesus also said, “those who do not abide in Him will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.”If we commit a mortal sin, Jesus does not abide in us nor will be with Him in heaven. Mortal sin causes the death of the soul, because it mortally wounds our soul. We are deprived of God’s graces and we lose all merit and cannot gain any merit by any deed, until we repent of the mortal sin. Mortal sin causes us to become like the withered branches ready to be thrown into the fire, because we purposely and willfully separate our self from Jesus.
St. Alphonus Ligouri said, “…when a Christian consents to mortal sin, he says to God: Depart from me; make room for the Devil, whom I wish to serve.”The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortalsindescend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternalfire.”
Pope St. John Paul said, the Church is the vine and we the people are the branches. Therefore we are to obey Church teachings. For example, the Church teaches, we are to go to confession if we commit a mortal sin before we receive Holy Communion, otherwise we commit a sacrilegious communion and commit an additional mortal sin.
To miss Mass on Sunday without a serious reason, or to purposely view pornography or commit adultery or have pre-marital relations, or if we purposely fail to tell the priest in confession, a mortal sin, such as using birth control, we are continuously making sacrilegious communions until that sin is finally confessed. Jesus does not abide in us, when we commit a mortal sin. We receive absolutely no graces when we receive Communion in the state of mortal sin and in fact grievously offend Jesus committing a sacrilegious communion. We force Him to leave our soul.
We cannot bear any fruit whatsoever, when our soul is in the state of mortal sin. Jesus said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”, but only if wedo so in the state of grace.
And so one can be like a withered branch separated from Jesus, the vine. But our soul can be restored to grace, by going to confession. In confession Jesus gives us His infinite mercy and opens our soul to become fruitful when we begin to receive Communion in the state of grace.
There is also another way we will bear little or no fruit from receiving Holy Communion. And that isif we were to ignore His presence after we receive Holy Communion. The almighty God, out of His infinite love and goodness comes to dwell in our heart in Holy Communion to give us special graces, and yet some people willwalk out of church immediately after receiving Holy Communion and ignore His true presence.It’s like inviting someone to your house, letting them in and then the owner goes out the back door without paying any attention to who just came in their home. This hurts Jesus because He comes inside the heart in Holy Communion and He is ignored in the heart. How can we bear any fruit, if we are indifferent to Jesus abiding in us.
Another way, we can hurt Jesus in the Eucharist is how we receive Him in Holy Communion. You have probably not been told this before, yet what I am going to say is true. The ordinary way the Church intends for us to receive Holy Communion is on the tongue. I repeat, the ordinary way the Church intends for us to receive Holy Communion is on the tongue.
In 1969 Pope Paul VI gave an indult, which is a permission to receive Communion in the hand, due to an abuse in Holland and the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship gave warnings about receiving on the hand: it said, it could be an occasion of regarding the Eucharist as ordinary bread.. or treating it as though it was just another religious article. It warned about particles of the Eucharistic bread that can fall or be scattered. It warned about people receiving Communion with dirty hands. It warned there could be a lessening of faith in the Eucharistic presence. It warned there is a danger of profaning the Eucharist. It warned it could be a cause for some to be shocked at how others receive the Host. And it warned there is a danger of irreverence.
Some countries like Sri Lanka did not use the indult, and maintained the long held tradition of receiving only on the tongue. Dioceses around the world no longer permit Communion in the hand such as San Luis, Argentina; Lima, Peru, and Mostar in Bosnia Herzegovina. The bishop of the diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, last year asked the people to receive on the tongue. This is an option fully supported by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. When Pope Benedict was pope, he had those who receive Communion from him to do it only kneeling and on the tongue.
I have seen many ways Jesus is hurt by the way people receive Communion. Some will take the Host and treat it as though it was a religious object by kissing it before receiving Communion. I have seen people receive Communion with dirty hands. I have seen some take the Host all the way back to their pew before they receive Communion. Some treat the Host as ordinary bread.
At St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Wichita, we found over 20 Hosts in hymnals. One was found under a pew and another was found in the parking lot. At Blessed Sacrament in Wichita, people stole Hosts. At Sacred Heart in Halstead, Kansas, I saw a person step aside to put the Host in her mouth and when she did, I saw ¼ of the Host break off in her hand and fall to the ground and she then stepped on it.
Jesus said, “Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks by Blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him on the last day.” Many patients here at St. Francis believe these words. Dying patients and very sick patients greatly desire to receive Holy Communion to help them in the midst of their great suffering. When a patient is dying or is no longer able to swallow food, as long as they are able to dissolve the tiny particle in their mouth, and when approved by the nurse, the priest can give the patient a very tiny particle of the Host.The Council of Trent states,”…Christ, whole and entire, is contained not only under either species (bread or wine), but also in each particle of either species.”
The Church teaches each particle, no matter how small is the whole and entire person of Jesus. When a person receives Communion in the hand, particles of the Sacred Host are often times on the person’s hand and they don’t know it. I will give you an example. If I were to put my hand in a plastic box of unconsecrated hosts and then wipe my hand on a black cloth and you would see white the particles on the cloth. Once consecrated, these particles can end up on your hands and then on the floor.
Suppose a mother with her infant returns home from shopping with her many plastic bags of groceries. She takes the baby out of the car seat and holds the baby in her right arm. In her left arm she grabs 4 bags of groceries and when she gets to the door of the house, she tries to take the key out of her purse and suddenly drops the baby. She takes the crying child to the emergency room to discover the child has a broken leg. Did she intend to hurt the baby? No. But she did-- because she was careless.
How many times have we dropped Jesus on the floor and did not know it? What is the safest way to receive Jesus in Holy Communion on the tongue or in the hand? What best helps one’s Eucharistic faith? What way increases devotion to Jesus’ true presence in the Eucharist? What way best expresses one’s love for Jesus in the Host? What way shows greater humility? What way helps adore Jesus better? What way best expresses an outward manner of one’s Eucharistic faith?
Finally, recall the words of Jesus, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” My dear friends, if you want to abide in Jesus and bear fruit-- receive Jesus in Holy Communion only while in the state of grace, receive Communion often and with the humility, love, respect and devotion the Virgin Mary received Jesus in Holy Communion.