Keep those confessionals humming, if you please, before and during mass if necessary, so that all can be absolved and go to communion . . .
Too much to ask?
An astute reader picked up on Receiving holy communion at mass. . . . Everybody does it, which ran in this space recently.
“The most pastoral move a priest can make is to offer confession before Mass and remind the faithful of the requirements for reception of the Blessed Sacrament before Mass,” he noted.
Which would be putting up front the long-standing warning from Paul,
27 Whoever . . . eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
The Church teaches that there are two basic requirements Catholics must meet in order to receive Holy Communion worthily.
First, one must be in a state of grace.
To be in a “state of grace” means to be free from mortal sin. As the Catechism states, “Anyone aware of having sinned mortally must not receive communion without having received absolution in the sacrament of penance” (CCC 1415).
What is a mortal sin? The Catechism explains that a mortal sin “destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God” (CCC 1855).
For a sin to be mortal, or deadly, one must be aware that the act is sinful and conscientiously commit it anyway.
As a kid, we were told three requirements — “serious matter, sufficient reflection, full consent of the will.” The sisters made it clear, so we’d remember.
Matter? what you did. Reflection? what you thought. Consent? what you chose.
Or: You did what? What were you thinking? Was it on purpose?
My friend further: “Amazing that even for traditional/conservative priests, this seems to be an insurmountable logistical challenge.”
Adding piquantly: “I am wholly in favor of the Eucharistic Revival, but it seems like a Penitential Revival is a necessary precursor.”
Lent would be a good time.