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Chapter 32OdoC.2.32

Caput XXXI

The Peril of Unworthy Communion

God's patience in sparing unworthy communicants is no guarantee of safety, for their punishment will be all the more severe, as shown by early Church discipline, the Pauline warning to the Corinthians, and the testimony of Paschasius on angelic judgment, while repentance for such sin demands a twofold grief and can be forgiven only by Christ Himself.

And don't let a false sense of security creep in just because God's patience, for the time being, spares those who receive the divine gifts unworthily — because they will certainly be punished all the more severely, since even now they are judged unworthy by this very correction. Indeed, at the beginning of the Church it was necessary, to make the point clear, that many who transgressed should be punished by bodily punishment as well. This is why the Apostle says to the Corinthians: 'That is why many of you are weak and sick, and many have fallen asleep' (1 Cor.✦ XI, 30) — 'fallen asleep,' that is, the sleep of death.✦ Indeed, by the angels who are appointed for this purpose, such people would even now be struck down — as Paschasius testifies in the aforementioned book — whoever receives Communion even once unworthily, unless the goodness of Christ, by whose judgment all things hang in the balance, were to stay the sword and remove temporal death from some, so that they might repent. Otherwise, the plagues and infirmities we see now would never have grown so widespread, if everyone received that mystery as they ought. But for those who repent, there ought to be a twofold grief in their penitence: either because they have sinned, or because they presumed badly, to their own judgment, upon a heavenly gift. And truly, this offense will be forgiven by no one else but Christ intervening.

Christ the Ram and the Example of Judas

The Levitical ram offered for sin against holy things prefigures Christ the High Priest who intercedes before the Father, a truth concealed by unworthy conduct; the case of Judas illustrates how even one who was warned by the Lord fell after receiving the mystery, underscoring the need for thorough penance and the typology of the kid offered alongside the lamb for penitents.

So in the law, a ram is commanded to be offered by those who sin in matters of the holy — the ram through whom Christ is understood to be offered — so that God and man, the High Priest, may be faithfully believed to intercede for that person before God the Father forever.✦ And through his own character and daily life he covers that same one over — the matter left unspoken. Otherwise, who will pray for the one who sins against God?✦ For although each person may be greatly unworthy on account of other sins, yet by this sin in particular he is weighed down all the more if, being unclean, he touches holy things.✦ This is shown by the example of Judas: although he wavered in his heart, yet before receiving that mystery he was with the apostles and was warned by the Lord.✦✦ But after receiving it, he was handed over to Satan and immediately went out.✦✦ For this reason, then, whoever remembers that he received it unworthily ought to have a twofold grief, as we have said, so that with thorough penance completed he may be able once again to partake of holy things. For it has been commanded for penitents that a kid be taken along with the lamb, so that if anyone has fallen after baptism and has not been able to eat the lamb with those who stand firm, he may instead eat the kid, which is always sacrificed for penitents.✦✦

The Second-Month Passover: Penance as the Second Plank

Christ is not the kid, but according to the diversity of merits each person becomes either a lamb or a kid; thus those who cannot celebrate the Passover of baptismal grace in the first month are commanded to celebrate it in the second month — that is, in penance, the second plank after shipwreck — and so receive the kid of indulgence.

Not that Christ is a kid, but according to the diversity of merits, each person becomes either a lamb or a kid. Hence it is likewise commanded that whoever cannot celebrate the Passover in the first month — that is, in the grace received in baptism — should at least celebrate it in the second month; that is, in penance, which is the second plank after shipwreck, and so receive the kid of indulgence.✦✦

Read the original Latin

Nec ideo securitas subrepat, eo quod indigne sumentibus divina patientia ad tempus parcit, quia certe illi magis punientur, qui in praesenti correptione judicantur indigni. Si quidem in exordio Ecclesiae necesse fuit, ut ad rem demonstrandam plerique transgressores corporali etiam poena plecterentur. Unde Apostolus ad Corinthios: Ideo, inquit, inter vos multi infirmi, et imbecilles, et dormiunt multi (I Cor. XI, 30), somno videlicet mortis. Ab angelis quippe qui ad hoc positi sunt etiam nunc perimerentur; sicut in praedicto libro Paschasius testatur, quicunque vel semel indigne communicant, nisi bonitas Christi, cujus judicio pendent omnia, gladium suspenderet, et temporalem mortem quibusdam ut poeniteant removeret. Alioquin nunc plagae etiam et infirmitates nunquam tantum crebrescerent, si omnes illud mysterium sicut oportet perciperent. Resipiscentibus vero duplex in poenitentia debet esse luctus, vel quia peccaverunt, vel quia coeleste donum ad judicium male praesumpserunt. Quod sane delictum nullo alio nisi Christo interveniente donabitur.

Unde in lege ab his qui in sanctificatis delinquunt, aries per quem Christus intelligitur offerri jubetur: ut apud Deum Patrem Deus homo pontifex in aeternum interpellare pro eo fideliter credatur. Atque ipsum per se moribus et vita quotidie re indictum operit. Alioquin qui in Deum peccat, quis orabit pro eo? Quamvis enim quisque multum sit ex aliis peccatis indignus, tamen ex isto magis gravatur, si sancta contingit immundus. Quod exemplo Judae monstratur, qui licet corde nutaverit, tamen ante perceptionem illius mysterii cum apostolis erat, et a Domino monebatur. Post perceptionem vero traditus Satanae continuo exivit foras. Ob hoc itaque quisquis illud indigne se percepisse meminit, duplicem, ut diximus, debet habere luctum, ut exacta poenitentia possit denuo sancta participare. Namque poenitentibus jussum est ut haedus tollatur cum agno, ut si quis post lavacrum ceciderit, et cum stantibus agnum comedere non potuerit, vel haedum comedat, qui semper pro poenitentibus mactatur.

Non quod Christus haedus sit, sed pro diversitate meritorum aut agnus, aut haedus unicuique fit. Hinc item jubetur, ut qui in primo mense, id est in ea gratia quam in baptismo percepit, Pascha facere non poterit; saltem in secundo mense illud faciat, id est in poenitentia, quae post naufragium secunda tabula est, haedum indulgentiae percipiat.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩1Cor.11.30 — Because of this, many among you are weak and sick, and a considerable number have died.
  2. ↩1Cor.11.30 — Because of this, many among you are weak and sick, and a considerable number have died.
  3. ↩Lev.5.15-Lev.5.16 — If a person acts unfaithfully and sins unintentionally against any of the holy things of the LORD, he shall bring his guilt offering to the LORD: a ram without blemish from the flock, valued by you in silver shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary, as a guilt offering. Lev.5.16 — And he shall make restitution for what he has sinned against the holy things, and he shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven.
  4. ↩1Sam.2.25 — If one person sins against another, God will arbitrate for him; but if a person sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him? Yet they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the LORD desired to put them to death.
  5. ↩Lev.7.20-Lev.7.21 — But the person who eats flesh from the sacrifice of well-being that belongs to the LORD while his uncleanness is upon him—that person shall be cut off from his people. Lev.7.21 — And if anyone touches any uncleanness—the uncleanness of man, or an unclean animal, or any unclean detestable thing—and then eats the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings that belong to the LORD, that person shall be cut off from his people.
  6. ↩John.13.21-John.13.30 — After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, saying, "Truly, truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me." John.13.22 — The disciples looked at one another, uncertain about whom he was speaking. John.13.23 — One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining at Jesus' side. John.13.24 — So Simon Peter motioned to him and said to him, 'Tell us who it is he is speaking about.' John.13.25 — So after reclining back against Jesus' chest, that one says to him, 'Lord, who is it?' John.13.26 — Jesus answered, 'It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it.' So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. John.13.27 — And after the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus said to him, 'What you are doing, do quickly.' John.13.28 — But none of those reclining at the table knew for what reason he said this to him. John.13.29 — Some thought that because Judas held the money box, Jesus was telling him, 'Buy what we need for the feast,' or that he should give something to the poor. John.13.30 — So after receiving the piece of bread, he went out immediately. And it was night.
  7. ↩Matt.26.20-Matt.26.25 — When evening came, he was reclining at table with the twelve disciples. Matt.26.21 — And while they were eating, he said, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me." Matt.26.22 — And they became deeply grieved, and each one began to say to him, 'Surely not I, Lord?' Matt.26.23 — He answered, 'The one who has dipped his hand with me in the dish—this one will betray me.' Matt.26.24 — The Son of Man goes as it has been written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Matt.26.25 — Then Judas, the one who was betraying him, answered, 'Surely not I, Rabbi?' Jesus said to him, 'You have said so.'
  8. ↩John.13.27-John.13.30 — And after the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus said to him, 'What you are doing, do quickly.' John.13.28 — But none of those reclining at the table knew for what reason he said this to him. John.13.29 — Some thought that because Judas held the money box, Jesus was telling him, 'Buy what we need for the feast,' or that he should give something to the poor. John.13.30 — So after receiving the piece of bread, he went out immediately. And it was night.
  9. ↩1Cor.5.5 — Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
  10. ↩Num.9.6-Num.9.12 — But there were certain men who were unclean from contact with a dead body, and so they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. Num.9.7 — And those men said to him, 'We are unclean by reason of a dead person. Why should we be kept back from presenting the offering of the LORD at its appointed time among the children of Israel?' Num.9.8 — Moses said to them, "Stand here, and I will listen to what the LORD commands concerning you." Num.9.9 — And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Num.9.10 — Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'Any person who becomes unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a far journey — for you or for your generations — shall still keep the Passover to the LORD. Num.9.11 — In the second month, on the fourteenth day, between the two evenings, they shall keep it, eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Num.9.12 — They shall not leave any of it until morning, nor shall they break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it.
  11. ↩Exod.12.5 — Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
  12. ↩Num.9.6-Num.9.12 — But there were certain men who were unclean from contact with a dead body, and so they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. Num.9.7 — And those men said to him, 'We are unclean by reason of a dead person. Why should we be kept back from presenting the offering of the LORD at its appointed time among the children of Israel?' Num.9.8 — Moses said to them, "Stand here, and I will listen to what the LORD commands concerning you." Num.9.9 — And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Num.9.10 — Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'Any person who becomes unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a far journey — for you or for your generations — shall still keep the Passover to the LORD. Num.9.11 — In the second month, on the fourteenth day, between the two evenings, they shall keep it, eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Num.9.12 — They shall not leave any of it until morning, nor shall they break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it.
  13. ↩1Pet.3.20 — who formerly disobeyed, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few—that is, eight souls—were brought safely through the water.

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