The Communicant

The Recipient of the Eucharist.—(a) Those Who May Receive Communion.—According to divine law, every living person who has received Baptism of water is capable of receiving the Eucharist, infants and the insane not excluded. Ecclesiastical law requires other conditions, which are justified by considerations of respect for the Blessed Sacrament or other good reason. Communion may not be given, first, to those who have not the use of reason (i.e., to infants and the perpetually insane), nor to those who are unable to understand the essential truths of religion and morality (i.e., to those who have always been deaf and dumb or blind, and who are uninstructed); for, on the one hand, the Sacrament is not necessary for these persons, and, on the other hand, there is great danger of irreverence if it be given them. Secondly, Communion may not be given to those who cannot receive without grave peril of unbecoming treatment of the Sacrament, as in the case of those who cough or vomit continually or frequently, or of those who are delirious, or unconscious, or insane, But if the danger is certainly slight (e.g., if the person can swallow an unconsecrated host without spitting it out), Communion may be given, at least the Viaticum or Easter Communion. Next those persons are denied Communion who cannot receive without scandal (e.g., those who are infamous, such as prostitutes or defamers, persons intoxicated or insufficiently dressed). Finally, no one may receive Communion who has already received it that day, lest the Sacrament become common and be taken without due preparation; but exception is made when it is necessary to communicate a second time in order to comply with the divine law of receiving Viaticum or of saving the Host from profanation (Canons 853-858).

(b) Those Who Must Receive Communion.—There is a divine precept that adults receive the Eucharist worthily (John, vi. 54). It obliges per se, when one is certainly or almost certainly in proximate danger of death, unless one has recently (that is, according to some, within a week’s time) received Communion; for this Sacrament is the wayfarer’s provision for his journey to eternity. It obliges also now and then during life, since the Eucharist is man’s spiritual nourishment for the journey of life. It obliges per accidens, when Communion is necessary to avoid grave sin, for charity to self obliges one to use the means without which serious spiritual harm cannot be escaped. The church law determines the details for the fulfillment of the divine precept. All the faithful who have reached the age of reason, even though they be under seven years, must fulfill the yearly Easter duty (see 2592, 2593). In reference to First Communion, the Church requires that children who are not in danger of death must have a mental and moral fitness, consisting in a knowledge of the chief mysteries of faith and a devotion towards the Eucharist such as is possible at their time of life. In reference to the last Communion, or Viaticum, the Code declares that it is obligatory, no matter what be the cause of the danger of death; it reminds us that the duty should not be put off too long; it recommends that the Viaticum be administered even to those who had communicated the same day before the danger of death arose, and that it be given on distinct days during the danger. For children who are in danger of death it suffices that they are able to distinguish the Eucharist from ordinary food and to adore it reverently (Canons 859-865, 854).