QUESTION:
11/9/2009: CIX
I am a Latin Catholic and have been asked by some Coptic friends about the practice of receiving Holy Communion under only one kind in our church. As far as I can tell, the Eastern Orthodox Churches recognise this teaching against the Hussites (our Council of Basel-Ferrara-Florence I think), based on the inseparability of Our Blessed Lord's Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity after the Resurrexion, since they allow for the reception of the Precious Blood only by infants; do you know if this is also true of the Oriental Churches? If so, would it be possible to give me some indication either from practice or from formal teachings?
Thanks.
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ANSWER:
The so-called Eastern and Oriental Churches generally have the same practice. The normative practice is to always receive communion under two species and the East sternly condemned the Latins for withholding the cup. However, it should be admitted that communion became very rare during medieval and post-medieval times, so the extent that the dispute was somewhat theoretical. The idea of arguing over inseparability is a very legalistic and Western idea, totally foreign to the Orthodox mindset.
Indeed, all Orthodox Churches allow infants to partake of the Eucharist since they are fully incorporated into the Church at baptism/chrismation. |
