Section — Koch–Preuss
Section 2: The Easter Communion
- The precept of the Easter Communion is formulated as follows in the new Code of Canon Law: “Every Catholic of either sex, who has reached the age of discretion, that is, attained the use of reason, must receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist once a year, at least during Easter time, unless he should deem it his duty to abstain therefrom temporarily on the advice of his pastor and for some reasonable cause.”1
1 C. I. C., can. 859, § 1; cfr. P. Chas. Augustine’s Commentary, Vol. IV, pp. 237 sqq.
This precept is divine so far as its substance is concerned, but purely ecclesiastical in regard to the time appointed for its fulfilment. In other words, it is a divine commandment to receive the Body of Christ, aye, to receive it frequently as a nourishment of the soul; and an ecclesiastical precept to receive it at least once a year during Easter time.
- The time within which the Easter Communion must be made, is the paschal season, which is reckoned from Palm Sunday to Whitsunday, but may be prolonged by the diocesan Ordinaries so as to embrace the period from Laetare to Trinity Sunday.2 In this country the bishops still enjoy the privilege of extending the time to the first Sunday in Lent. (See Appendix, p. 418.)
2 C. I. C., can. 859, § 2.
This precept is a grave one, both in itself and with regard to the time appointed for its fulfilment, and hence a Catholic who culpably neglects to receive holy Communion within the Easter season, commits a sin which is per se mortal.
The determination of the time within which this precept must be fulfilled was made not ad finiendam, but ad urgendam obligationem; consequently, if one has not received holy Communion during the paschal season, he is bound to do so afterwards, though it is not necessary that he do so as soon as he can;3 for, as De Lugo observes, “when the paschal Communion is impossible, all that remains is the precept to communicate once a year, which can be satisfied at any time.”4
3 C. I. C., can. 859, § 4.
4 De Lugo, De Euch., disp. XVI, n. 69. Cfr. Noldin, Summa Theol. Mor., Vol. II, p. 717. Others take a stricter view.
No one is bound to fulfil this precept as long as the paschal season has not yet commenced, even though he may foresee that he will be prevented from making his Easter duty later. But if the paschal season has commenced, he is bound to communicate as soon as possible in case he anticipates an impediment, nay, to remove the impediment, even though it be grave (because the precept is divine and grave), and he should, therefore, communicate once more during the Easter season if he can, even though he has done so already by anticipation.5
5 Cfr. C. I. C., can. 861.
One who has received holy Communion during the paschal season as viaticum (per modum viatici), has complied with his Easter duty and need not go to Communion again because the intention to fulfill the law is not required by the law.
This precept is not satisfied by a sacrilegious communion.
- The place where the Easter Communion should be received is one’s parish church; those who comply with their Easter duty in some other parish are advised to notify their pastor of the fact.6 There is no longer a strict command, therefore, to communicate in one’s parish church.
6 C. I. C., can. 859, § 3.
Can. 859, § 3 says: “Who satisfies the precept in some other parish.” This seems to make it obligatory to receive the Easter Communion either in one’s own or in some other parish church, to the exclusion of churches that are not strictly parochial, and of public oratories. However, in Fr. Ferreres’ opinion, this is not the mind of the legislator. “As there is no obligation, but merely a counsel to receive the Easter Communion in one’s own parish,” he says, “there can, a fortiori, be no obligation to receive it in some other parish church.”7
7 St. Alphonsus, Theol. Mor., n. 207; Ferreres, Compend. Theol. Mor., Vol. I, pp. 388 sq.
- The question at what age children should be admitted to first Communion has given rise to many controversies and considerable differences in practice. The matter was definitely decided by a decree of the S. C. of the Sacraments, Aug. 10, 1910, which says that children should be ad- mitted to confession and Communion as soon as they have arrived at the age of discretion, which generally happens about the seventh year. Of course, they should first be duly instructed. The fitness of a child to be admitted to first Communion in forma privata is to be judged by the confessor and the parents. Children who are not able to grasp the elementary truths of the Catholic religion are not permitted to receive holy Communion.8 If confessors and parents neglect their duty, the pastor is obliged to see to it that the children are admitted to the Holy Table as soon as they have attained the use of reason and are properly disposed. For this purpose he may hold an examination if he sees fit.9 But to admit children to first Communion is not strictly a parochial right, and all synodal decrees or particular customs treating it as such are abrogated by the new Code.10
8 C. I. C., can. 854, § 1, n. 1; cfr. P. Chas. Augustine, Commentary on the New Code, Vol. IV, pp. 226 sqq.
9 C. I. C., can. 854, § 5.
10 Ferreres, Comp. Theol. Mor., Vol. II, p. 241; P. Chas. Augustine, Commentary, Vol. IV, p. 228.
Parents, confessors, teachers, and pastors are in conscience bound to see to it that all minors entrusted to their care comply regularly with their Easter duty after they have been admitted to first Communion.11
11 C. I. C., can. 860.
- The history of this precept has been traced at length by Villien.12 In the early days of Christianity no law was required to induce the faithful to receive holy Communion frequently. But already in the time of St. Augustine the practice of communicating on certain days, or at certain periods, was imposed either by custom or by a law or precept.13 The Council of Agde, in Gaul (506), treated those who did not communicate on the three great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, as apostates.14 This ruling was substantially adopted by other councils, and finally through divers collections of canons and capitularies found its way into Gratian’s Decretum and thereby became, so to speak, a universal law.15 In course of time some churches succeeded in inducing the faithful to receive Communion every Sunday in Lent, but the main obligation, the minimum below which no one was allowed to fall without being cut off from Christian fellowship, was annual communion.16 The fourth Lateran Council rendered the discipline uniform by requiring nothing more than the minimum universally accepted. Its famous twenty-first canon, “Omnis utriusque sexus,” has substantially found its way into the new Code.
12 History of the Commandments of the Church, pp. 189–223.
13 Villien, op. cit., p. 193.
14 Ibid., p. 194.
15 Ibid., pp. 195 sq.
16 Ibid., p. 203.