Yesterday, I attended Holy Mass at the Cagayan de Oro Cathedral. A small incident happened at communion time. One of the faithful, upon receiving communion by the hand, did not take Our Lord at once, but rather walked off with the Host in his right hand (between his thumb and forefinger). The extraordinary minister of the Eucharist (as we say, lay minister) called his attention but he continued walking. The EME followed him. Meanwhile, the man was moving towards the left grill wall area, and upon reaching the grill, spit out some spittle. Then took Our Lord. In his act of making his mouth "clean" for Our Lord, he gave us all a fright.
While communion by the hand is allowed, sadly it has been more popular and even made as the norm. And even as situations like this incident are scarce, one "abuse" is one too much. I admire the EME for what he did.
If communion by the hand is made scarce, incidents like this are avoided (although I heard horror stories of people taking the Host out of their mouths, I have not seen anyone doing that).
However bad the analogy, I would liken this to the abstinence programs. No sex, no disease, no unwanted pregnancy, no "fright".
While communion by the hand is allowed, sadly it has been more popular and even made as the norm. And even as situations like this incident are scarce, one "abuse" is one too much. I admire the EME for what he did.
If communion by the hand is made scarce, incidents like this are avoided (although I heard horror stories of people taking the Host out of their mouths, I have not seen anyone doing that).
However bad the analogy, I would liken this to the abstinence programs. No sex, no disease, no unwanted pregnancy, no "fright".
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