DECEMBER 3, 2017
ST. MATTHEW ORTHODOX CHURCH (meeting at Parma American Legion Hall)
“PREPARING TO RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION”
A few weeks ago, back in the “pre-fire days”, I gave a homily that was meant to be the first of a 2-part series on the Holy Eucharist, Holy Communion. That homily was about what this sacrament is, what we Orthodox believe about it, what its benefits are, etc. In that homily I briefly mentioned that we need to prepare for it before partaking of it and mentioned that I would go into detail about that in the second homily the next Sunday. Well, the fire happened the day before that “next Sunday” happened!
So, today, I’m going to go ahead and give the “part 2 sermon” that goes along with the “part 1 sermon” a few weeks back……. Today---some detail about how to prepare to receive Holy Communion. So it won’t be a typical homily based on today’s scripture readings, but more of a “how to” list of ways to prepare for the Eucharist.
The Holy Eucharist is an incredible gift to us from God! The actual Body and Blood of Christ given to us to eat and drink! Many blessings and benefits come to us from it: forgiveness, eternal life, becoming a holier Christian….. But in order to partake of those benefits we must actually partake of it, not just believe it’s real and good. Just believing that isn’t enough.
Imagine if you had been sick quite a while and no doctor could figure out how to treat you, what medicine to prescribe for you. Then you went to one more doctor and he was sure what you needed to take. He convinced you this medicine would certainly cure you. He wrote you out the prescription and you went home with it. For the next several days, you showed the paper prescription to your family and friends, telling them that you were sure the prescribed medicine would cure you…….but you never went to the drug store to get the medicine! If you don’t go buy it, then that prescription and that medicine would not do you a bit of good. You would just stay sick. (“Our Daily Bread”, 3/10/81)
Just to believe in the sacrament and how it would be so good for you to partake of it won’t help you at all if you never take it!
So we have to partake for it to be a blessing to us----and before we partake it is important that we properly prepare to do so. We should not take it lightly, a spur of the moment thing (“oh, I’ll guess I’ll just walk up front and get some….”) We need to prepare.
And our Orthodox Tradition tells us specifically how to do that. So today, I’ll tell you what our Orthodox Tradition tells us about this.
But first----just a few words about the announcement commonly given by priests just before the distribution of Holy Communion or printed in the bulletin (or both, like at St. Matthew’s). Something along the lines of ----to partake you need to be Orthodox, you need to be in “good sacramental standing”, and you need to have prepared. To break that down quickly:
----Only Orthodox Christians can receive Holy Communion in the Orthodox Church. And, conversely, Orthodox Christians should not receive non-Orthodox Communion even
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if it would be offered to us. Maybe another sermon on another Sunday to explain that….
----We need to be in “good sacramental standing”. This means that we have no particular barriers to our receiving even if we are Orthodox. This could be various things such as ongoing, unrepentant immorality; having been divorced and not yet having received a blessing from the bishop to return to the sacraments; having had a non-Orthodox wedding and not yet having had an Orthodox ceremony, etc., etc. These barriers can be removed, these problems can certainly be fixed (and very happily so!), but until they are , the person involved can’t commune.
----We need to properly prepare…..and that’s what the rest of this sermon will be about.
How should we prepare to receive each week?
FIRST---Faith. We prepare by having faith in Jesus Christ. And by having faith in the reality and goodness of the Holy Eucharist. Faith that Jesus does not lie. Faith that if Jesus said in the gospels, “This is My Body…..This is My Blood”, then that means Holy Communion really and truly is His Body and Blood.
SECOND---Repentance. We all sin and thus we are all unworthy to approach the most holy chalice. So we must repent of our sins in able to partake. Before communing, we should ask God to forgive us of our sins; to forgive us of the specific sins we are aware of having committed.
We should do this in both our own personal prayers before receiving and we should repent through the sacrament of repentance by going to Confession regularly.
Some Orthodox (including some of you) have the practice of going to Confession each time before taking Holy Communion. And that can be a very healthy spiritual discipline.
The more ancient practice in Orthodox history doesn’t require going to Confession before each receiving of Communion, but teaches that it should happen regularly. How often is “regularly”? There’s no simple, locked-in answer to that. At least several times per year. And perhaps more often than that. If you’re wondering how often you should go, I would be happy to discuss that with you----it can be different for different people. But regular, not rarely, is important.
We are sinners, unworthy of Holy Communion. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t receive. St. John Cassian, back around 400 A.D., wrote—“We ought not to abstain from the Holy Communion because we know ourselves to be sinners.” (Philokalia, Vol. 4, p. 54)
Too sinful to receive? Yes, we are. So should we not receive? No, we should repent of our sins and then we should receive Holy Communion to be forgiven of our sins.
THIRD—Be at peace with all people. Back in the Middle Ages, the wonderful St. Symeon the New Theologian, said, “Take care to never receive Communion while you have anything against someone.”
Try to be reconciled with all before receiving----whether it be family members, neighbors, people at work, people at church. If you’re not getting along with someone, fix it. If the other person won’t reconcile with you even when you try to, then be sure you have forgiven them from your heart.
The “Kiss of Peace” in the liturgy is partly a reminder about this---that we should be at peace with all and should have forgiven all in preparation to receive the Eucharist. But the real forgiving, the real reconciling, of course has to be done ahead of time!
FOUR---Prayer. Before we receive, we should spend some time in prayer. Perhaps the evening before the liturgy, or perhaps in the morning ahead of time. We should pray to the Lord before we receive His Body and Blood.
There are beautiful pre-Communion prayers in our Orthodox Tradition for us to use. These prayers help us to come to the Lord in worship, repentance, and with a plea that we might be sanctified and receive eternal life through the sacrament. Pretty much any Orthodox prayer book will have them in it. Some prayer books may not have that many of them---perhaps 6 or so. Other prayer books will have many more. It’s not that important which ones you pray or how many you pray. Pray them slowly, making their words your words.
In case you don’t have a prayer book, there are today, near the bulletins, some copies of the prayers for you to take.
FIFTH---Fasting. The Holy Eucharist is the best meal we ever eat! Small? Well, yes, in a way----just a little spoonful. But, in mystical reality, very large indeed! The partaking of the Lord!
And so to prepare for this best meal, we do some fasting. Two types---
----On most Wednesdays and Fridays, in a practice going back to the Apostles, we fast. It’s a Lenten type fast, not a total abstinence from food. One purpose of the Wednesday/Friday fasting is to remind us and inspire us concerning our upcoming Sunday morning feast----Holy Communion.
----And there is the actual pre-Communion fasting. That is basically to have nothing on Sunday before receiving the Eucharist. To go without food and drink as preparation for Holy Communion. (Those with health problems, needing to take medication, small children, etc. are allowed to have something minimal to eat or drink.)
The idea is to show honor for the greatest meal by making it the first food or drink of the day to enter our mouth. By so doing, we are showing honor to Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life.
Imagine you are invited by a friend to the most expensive restaurant in the county. It’s a very swank place with incredibly good food---really top of the line, valet parking, dress-up, the works! And he’s paying for it all. On your drive to meet him at the restaurant, when you’re almost there, you see one of those little convenience stores. You swing into the parking lot and purchase a bag of Fritos and munch away on them as you finish the drive to the restaurant. I don’t think so!
You are invited to the greatest meal ever---the Holy Eucharist. And so one of the ways for you to prepare is to make that meal your first meal of the day.
So we have looked briefly at 5 ways that our Orthodox Tradition gives to us as ways to prepare to receive Holy Communion------faith, repentance, being at peace with all people, prayer, and fasting. Prepare----and then come and eat and drink. Experience the presence of Christ. Experience that moment of peace and joy in the midst of a world that often seems out of control.
A moment of peace and joy. A moment with the Lord. It’s the closest we ever get to the Lord in this world. Come and dine with God.
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