© Copyright 2002 Grace D. MacKinnon
Grace MacKinnon is a syndicated columnist and public speaker on Catholic doctrine. Readers are welcome to submit questions about the Catholic faith to: Grace MacKinnon, 1234 Russell Drive #103, Brownsville, Texas 78520. Questions also may be sent by e-mail to: grace@deargrace.com. You may visit Grace online at www.DearGrace.com.
It is good that you have written because I am certain there are many other divorced Catholics who wonder about the same things as you do. Your situation has apparently caused you some confusion about your standing in the Catholic Church. Allow me to say from the beginning that your being civilly divorced has not separated you nor broken your communion with the Catholic Church. If, on the other hand, you had remarried outside the Church after your divorce, then that would be a different story. But you say you have not.
The reason that being remarried outside the Church would be a different situation is because the Holy Eucharist, or Communion, is the sacrament by which Catholics most clearly express their unity as the Body of Christ and One Church. When a person in a valid sacramental marriage contracts a civil divorce and marries another, then, by their actions, they have stepped outside the teaching of Jesus Christ and His Church which declares that marriage is indissoluble (Matthew 10:11-12). By doing this, they have broken the bond of unity with the Church and may not receive Eucharistic Communion while the situation persists (CCC #1650). This, however, is not your case.
There are obviously numerous questions divorced Catholics may ask, but let us address the two issues that you bring up. First, I must tell you that unfortunately you received some wrong information in your younger life regarding the reception of Holy Communion. The Catholic Church does not make it mandatory that the faithful receive Holy Communion at every Mass. What the Church does teach is that all Catholics, after they have been initiated into the Most Holy Eucharist, are bound by the obligation of receiving Communion at least once a year, and this precept must be fulfilled during the Easter season unless it is fulfilled for a just cause at some other time during the year (920; 920, §2).
There is also nothing in the Church’s teaching or laws to prevent you from becoming an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist. You may offer to serve in this position but the right to do so must come at the request of your priest and with approval of the bishop. I hope this clarifies for you the issues you have been concerned about. You have done nothing wrong in going to Mass and receiving Holy Communion. Your civil divorce does not prevent you from doing this.
One very essential point to make in this discussion, however, is the importance of realizing that we are to receive Jesus in Holy Communion out of love and devotion and not only out of fear of rejecting Him. You seem to be expressing in your letter that you have been going to Mass and receiving Communion after your divorce mainly because a priest told you that not receiving Holy Communion would mean that you were rejecting God. This is where part of your misunderstanding lies.
Are we rejecting God when we do not receive Holy Communion? Yes, in a way, we are. But is it a sin? No, it is not. However, although the Church does not require that we receive the Lord in the Holy Eucharist at every Mass, she most certainly does encourage that we do receive Him when we are disposed to – in other words, when we are not conscious of having committed mortal sin. When we partake of this Most Blessed Sacrament, we receive Christ in His body, blood, soul, and divinity. Why would we who believe not want to receive Him when He offers Himself to us?
So, I suppose we could say that not receiving the Lord is like rejecting Him in the sense that it grieves Him, but it is not a sin if we do not do it intentionally. I think the best thing is to focus instead on how much we love and adore Him. And we show God this love and adoration in many ways, most especially when we unite ourselves to Him in Holy Communion.
