Fr. Edward McNamara, LC, regularly answers liturgical questions for the Zenit news service. Unfortunately, his answer this week is seriously flawed.
Here’s the question as it was posed to him:
Q: My parish priest made a regulation that anyone who arrives in Mass after the Gospel is not allowed to take Communion. According to him, the reason is that Jesus is "the Word made flesh." Therefore we must recognize Jesus in the Word before we recognize him in holy Communion. Another priest, who is a professor of liturgy, has another opinion. He said that people who arrive late in Mass with a valid reason (for example, an unusual traffic jam, attending sick children, etc.) should not be denied Communion. Could you please give a clarification on this matter? — B.E., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
His answer begins as follows:
A: We dealt with the question of late arrivals at Mass in one of our first columns, on Nov. 4 and Nov. 18, in 2003.
Then as now, I would agree more with the second priest: that someone who arrives late out of no fault of their own should not be denied Communion.
His answer goes wrong right there–not in stating that the person should not be denied Communion but by introducing the condition that the person was late through no fault of their own. The remainder of his column is seriously flawed as a result of this flawed point of departure.
Fr. McNamara’s thought on this point appears to go wrong because he conflates two separate issues: (1) what is required to fulfill one’s Sunday obligation and (2) what is required to receive Communion.
Fr. McNamara rightly points out that one is obliged to attend the whole of a Sunday Mass unless one has a valid excuse for missing all or part of it (e.g., arriving late through no fault of one’s own, needing to leave early because you’re in serious back pain, etc.). He also counsels against drawing arbitrary lines in the Mass about what’s "okay" to miss, which is prudent given the current state of liturgical law on this point. If, for whatever reason, you have missed the substance of the Mass without a legitimate excuse and you can attend another one then you should do so. All that’s fine.
But it has nothing to do with the question of whether you can receive Communion if you show up late.
The controlling legal document governing who can receive Communion and when is the Code of Canon Law. It provides the following:
Can. 843 ยง1. Sacred ministers cannot deny the sacraments to those who seek them at appropriate times, are properly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them.
This provision lists three criteria that, if they are fulfilled, prevent the sacred ministers from denying the sacraments–including Holy Communion–to the faithful.
The first condition is that the faithful "seek them at appropriate times." This is to prevent the faithful from seeking the sacraments at bizarre times without a sufficient reason. For example, the faithful do not have a right to demand the sacraments at any time of the day or night, irrespective of what the priest is doing, unless they have a counterbalancing reason. You cannot, for example, demand that a priest hear your confession right this minute if it’s 3 a.m. in the morning and he’s asleep and you’re not in danger of dying or about to ship out to Afghanistan and won’t have the opportunity of confession for months, for example.
But receiving Communion during Mass–when Communion is already being offered–is plainly an appropriate time to seek it within the meaning of this canon.
The second condition is that the faithul are properly disposed. This means things like they aren’t in an unconfessed state of mortal sin, they’ve observed the Eucharistic fast, etc. The Code doesn’t go the needed dispositions in detail, but the Catechism does, saying:
1384 The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist: "Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."
1385 To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself." Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion.
1386 Before so great a sacrament, the faithful can only echo humbly and with ardent faith the words of the Centurion: "Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea" ("Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul will be healed."). and in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom the faithful pray in the same spirit:
O Son of God, bring me into communion today with your mystical supper. I shall not tell your enemies the secret, nor kiss you with Judas’ kiss. But like the good thief I cry, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
1387 To prepare for worthy reception of this sacrament, the faithful should observe the fast required in their Church. Bodily demeanor (gestures, clothing) ought to convey the respect, solemnity, and joy of this moment when Christ becomes our guest.
You’ll notice that there’s nothing in there about having to attend a certain portion of Mass–or even being in Mass at all (since one can receive Communion outside of Mass). So if someone has the proper dispositions (listed above), this condition is fulfilled.
The third condition is that the faithful not be prohibited by law from receiving Communion. If, therefore, one were to find a way to deny them Communion based on how late they arrived at Mass, it would have to be in this category.
But one can’t do that, because there simply is no legal prohibition on people receiving Communion if they have come to Mass late.
It is desirable, of course, that people have a substantial participation in the rite within which Communion is being distributed, but–and this is the point–it is not required.
Now, perhaps one would want to say that it is kinda crypto-required, that it’s understood but not stated expressly anywhere that you have to attend a certain part of Mass, or even all of it if you don’t have an excuse, to go to Communion. Perhaps we could fudge that in under the "appropriate times" or "properly disposed" requirements–contrary to the obvious purpose of these provisions in the canon.
Nope.
The Code further provides:
Can. 912 Any baptized person not prohibited by law can and must be admitted to Holy Communion.
Even though the Code has already said that sacred ministers cannot deny the sacraments to those who seek them under the above three conditions, just to make sure that we understand the point in the case of Holy Communion, it singles this sacrament out specially to stress that, if you’re baptized, you cannot be denied Communion unless you are prohibited by law.
And there’s no prohibition in the law regarding how much of a Mass (or Communion service) you must attend.
But what if we really, really want to shoehorn such a requirement into the law at this point? Is there any way to do that?
No, sorry.
The Code also provides:
Can. 18 Laws which establish a penalty, restrict the free exercise of rights, or contain an exception from the law are subject to strict interpretation.
And it provides:
Can. 213 The Christian faithful have the right to receive assistance from the sacred pastors out of the spiritual goods of the Church, especially the word of God and the sacraments.
If you want to restrict someone’s right to receive the sacraments then you’re going to have to have a law allowing you to do that and you’re going to have to subject it to strict interpretation.
This is particularly the case with Holy Communion, which uniquely among all the sacraments has its own canon singling out the fact that it can’t be denied unless there is a prohibition by law.
And there just is no law requiring the faithful to attend all or any of a Mass in order to receive Communion. You can be literally walking through a church at Communion time and, if you are properly disposed, you can receive.
Now, if you do that and it’s a Sunday or a holy day of obligation then you’ll need to attend a different Mass in order to fulfill your obligation to attend Mass, but that’s a separate question from whether you can receive Communion.
It is to be understood that Fr. McNamara is a liturgist and thus that his primary expertise would be in the Church’s liturgical documents, but as a liturgist he should be familiar with at least those parts of canon law touching on the liturgy and the faithful’s access to the sacraments–particularly the Eucharist.
His columns for Zenit regularly include an addendum clarifying confusion resulting from previous columns. Hopefully a future column will clarify this issue and properly separate the two subjects.
