Is Holy Communion Safe?

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread,  and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.  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.  That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.  But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged.  But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

I Corinthians 11:23-32

The Covid-19 pandemic brought up the question of “Is Holy Communion Safe?” This question has come up in other times of illness, like the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, or SARS or other widespread diseases. People who are outside of our faith are sometimes critical of how we distribute Holy Communion and for those seeking to come into our faith, this can be a stumbling block as well. We will answer this question in two ways, both taken from I Corinthians 11:23-32.

When Jesus instituted the Eucharist, He did so by consecrating bread and wine and revealing them as “This is My Body,” (v. 24) and “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.” (v. 25) We believe, as Orthodox Christians, that in the Divine Liturgy, we present ordinary offerings of bread and wine, and through the descent of the Holy Spirit, these ordinary substances are consecrated, becoming the Body and Blood of Christ. We receive them in a way that we can handle them. Think of the sun outside. We receive the sun in a way we can handle it—its rays and its warmth. We cannot look at it, we would burn up if we got in a spaceship and flew to it, but we receive its energies in a way we can handle them. None of us can handle the essence of God, at least not in our fallen state in our fallen world. We can handle Christ revealed in the Eucharist. Verse 26 reminds us that “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” There is a benefit in partaking of the Eucharist, in that is strengthens faith, fills us with the real presence of Christ, and prepares us to participate in the fullness of Christ in the Kingdom of heaven. On a practical level, Holy Communion is received after careful preparation, and so the exercise of preparing to receive should bring us into a state of heightened vigilance and focus on Christ, on loving Him, and serving others. Preparing to receive Holy Communion requires commitment to the Christian faith (why we always recite the Creed before receiving as part of the Divine Liturgy), a relationship with Christ (prayer), obedience to the commandments (moral living, and when we fail at this, going to confession to talk about our failures and to repent), reconciliation with our fellow man (not being angry with others), worship at the Divine Liturgy (Holy Communion is received in the context of the Divine Liturgy) and fasting (getting control over our passion for food so that we in turn gain control over our other passions—like greed, lust, ego—that cause us to sin). 

Back to the question of safety from a physical health perspective. There has never been a documented link between receiving Holy Communion and transmitting disease. Every priest in the world, after the completion of the Divine Liturgy, consumes the remainder of the Holy Gifts. That means, whatever remains in the chalice at the end of the Divine Liturgy, the priest eats and drinks all of it. He then rinses out the chalice with water which he also drinks. On a given Sunday in my parish, I commune hundreds of people. Some of those people undoubtedly are sick. I rarely get sick. After everyone has received, after I have put the spoon in the chalice hundreds of times, I put the spoon in my own mouth to consume the Gifts. If a person could get sick from Holy Communion, every priest in the world would be perpetually sick from consuming the Gifts, and we aren’t. I’ve consumed the Gifts for over 27 years, and I’m just fine. So are the thousands of other priests who do this regularly.

What is NOT safe in regards to Holy Communion, is receiving it improperly from a spiritual perspective. St. Paul writes “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. This is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” (v. 29-30) The far greater threat to our health comes from partaking of the Eucharist without proper preparation. All of us are guilty of this to a certain extent, and some are very guilty—they receive Holy Communion in almost a flippant manner. This would be people who only come to church once a year and go and receive Holy Communion, completely out of context when compared to the rest of their Christian life. This would include people who come into the Divine Liturgy extremely late, i.e. during the Lord’s Prayer, who receive Holy Communion but not in the context of worshipping—they basically “drive through.” This would include people who are living in habitual sin, like cohabitating before marriage, or cohabitating with no intention to be married. Receiving Holy Communion should be done with some self-examination, and I can’t say I do this each time I receive. As a priest, I am required to receive, and so I receive habitually but not necessarily with proper self-examination each time. And I would venture to say that many of us do it in this same way.

The Prayer of Consecration from the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom offers six potential benefits from receiving Holy Communion—So that they may be for those who partake of them for vigilance of soul, remission of sins, communion of Your Holy Spirit, fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven, boldness before You, not for judgment or condemnation.” (Prayer of Consecration, from the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom) And Jesus Himself, in speaking of the Eucharist, said in John 6:54, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”  There is great benefit from receiving the Eucharist; however, it must be received with proper preparation, or there is a danger.

How shall I, who am unworthy, enter into the splendor of Your saints? If I should dare to enter into the bridal chamber, my vesture will condemn me, since it is not a wedding garment; and being bound up, I shall be cast out by the angels. Cleanse, O Lord, the filth of my soul, and save me, as You are the one Who loves mankind. In Your love, Lord, cleanse my soul, and save me. Master Who loves mankind, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, let not these Holy Gifts be to my judgment because I am unworthy, but rather for the purification and sanctification of both soul and body and the pledge of the life and Kingdom to come. It is good for me to cleave unto God and to place in Him the hope of my salvation. (Prayers in Preparation for Holy Communion, from the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom)

Holy Communion is safe from a physical perspective. It is only dangerous from a spiritual perspective if it is received without proper reverence, manifested in how we prepare to receive, and how we are living outside the context of the Divine Liturgy.