The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
Meditate, also, on the words of Thomas Theodidactus (de Imit . Christi, lib. iv. c. 2) : “ When you celebrate or hear Mass, it ought to seem to you as great, as fresh , and as joyous as if at that very moment Christ was for the first time descending into the Virgin's womb, or hanging on the Cross , and suffering and dying for us men and for our salvation.” S. Cassius, Bishop of Narnia, thus thought and did. S. Gregory writes (Hom. 37 in Evang.): “His custom was to offer the daily sacrifice , and when he came to the hour for the sacrifice , he was wholly overcome by tears, and offered himself with contrite heart a willing sacrifice.” Therefore he merited to hear his Lord saying : “Do what you are doing: finish the work you have begun , let not thy foot cease nor thy hand tarry ; on the birthday of the Apostles you shall come to Me, and I will pay you your great reward.” He died on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, and his soul was taken to heaven. In the same way S. Gregory, too, daily celebrated Mass, with careful preparation and perfect contrition. On one occasion he discovered that a poor man had died in a remote place, and for some days he abstained from the Mass, and gave himself up to grief, to expiate his fault, as though it had been by his negligence that the poor man had died of hunger. On the contrary, his charity, and the trouble he took, were so great that he provided with the necessaries of life all the poor, not only of Rome, but also of nearly the whole of Italy. So S. Thomas Aquinas, when at the point of death, prepared himself with a flood of tears for the Holy Communion.
Ver. 29 . — For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, &c. This is, say Photius and Anselm, he that treats it as ordinary and everyday kind of food. For, as S. Justin says (Apol. ad Ant. Pium): “ We Christians take the Eucharist not as common food, but we believe that, as by the Word of God the Son of God was made man, so by the words of consecration are the body and blood of Christ made to be present in the Eucharist.” Therefore, too, S. Francis, writing to the priests of his order (tom. v. Biblioth. Pat.) says: “ Listen , my brothers: if the Blessed Virgin is rightly honoured, who bore Him in her holy womb ; if S. John Baptist trembled and was afraid to touch the Lord's head; if such honour is paid to the tomb in which He sometime lay, how holy, just, and worthy ought he to be, how should he quake and fear who handles with his hands, takes in his heart and mouth, and gives to others Him who is to die no more, but lives for ever in glory, upon whom the angels desire to gaze. . . . A great and pitiable weakness is it, that when you have Him present in this way you should care for anything else in the world . Let the whole man tremble , all the world quake , and the heavens rejoice , when Christ, the Son of the living God , is upon the altar in the priest’s hands.”
Ver. 30. — For this cause many are weak . So at the present day, says S. Anselm, are many taken with various diseases after the Eucharist, because they have received unworthily the Lord’s body.
And many sleep . Die prematurely, and sleep in death, because they have communicated unworthily and without preparation . So S. Anselm and Chrysostom. They were even vexed by the devil because of this sin. Cf. S. Chrysostom (Hom. 5 in 1 Tim.). S. Cyprian (de Lapsis) gives examples. He says that some who had eaten things offered to idols, and then received the Eucharist, were struck dumb ; another pulled out her tongue ; a girl, after eating of idol-meats, vomited the elements. Francis Suarez piously warns us from this how careful a watch should be kept by every communicant over his tongue, because the tongue is the first member to receive Christ, and is the instrument by which He begins to be assimilated.
Ver. 31. — But if we judge ourselves. That is, according to the Latin Fathers, punish ourselves; according to the Greek, condemn ourselves ; or thirdly, prove and examine ourselves to see if there be any sin in us, and then expiate it by contrite confession, as was ordered in ver. 28. So Cajetan and Gagneius. This third meaning is the best and most literal.
We should not be judged. Not be punished by the judgment of
God with diseases and death, as in ver. 30. So Erasmus and
Vatablus. S. Augustine ( Senten . 210) well says: “Sins, whether small or great, cannot go unpunished. They are smitten, either by the repentance of the penitent or by the judgment of the Great Judge. But Divine vengeance gives way if man's conversion forestall it. For God loves to spare them that confess their sins, and to refrain from judging them that judge themselves.”
Ver. 32. — But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, &c. When we are punished in this present life with diseases and death, it is to prevent us from being condemned with unbelievers and sinners. We are warned by God’s chastening to expiate the sin of unworthy communion by repentance, and so be saved. So
S. Augustine (Sent. 274) says: “When God corrects the human race , and troubles it with the scourges of holy chastening , He is exercising discipline before judgment , and for the most part He loves whom He chastens , being unwilling to find one to condemn .”
Vers. 33, 34. — Wherefore , my brethren ... if any man hunger , let him eat at home . The Apostle here gives orders that after the Eucharist they all wait for each other before beginning the agape ; or rather, as was said at ver. 21, that they wait for each other at the supper which preceded Communion, so that they all might come together at the same time for this feast with common charity and concord, and recruit themselves in it moderately and soberly, and so not approach afterwards to take the Lord’s body unworthily, viz., in drunkenness and discord. If there is any one who cannot wait for this meal, the Apostle bids him go home and eat it there. He says this to shame them. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Œcumenius.
It is deduced from this passage that it was then the custom for those who were going to communicate to fast for the whole day until the common meal ; this is why the Apostle says that they came to it hungry. Anselm says somewhat differently, that if any one cannot fast till the time for Communion, let him eat at home, but not communicate afterwards. But the first meaning is the better.
That ye come not together unto condemnation . Because of your pride, gluttony, drunkenness and disobedience.
The rest will I set in order when I come . The other things, that is, which make for the worthy and decent celebration of the Eucharist. This is a well-known passage in support of the traditions of the Church. S. Augustine (Ep. 118) says: “ The Church's tradition is for the Eucharist to be taken fasting, although Christ instituted it after supper.” Another tradition is for water to be mingled with the wine. Cf. S. Cyprian (Ep. 63 ad Cæcil.). Another is for the Mass to be offered for the living and the dead, and with a well-defined form of words, and ornaments of the priest and altar, &c.
Christians formerly communicated in this way: (1.) They fasted till the Lord’s Supper, as was seen at ver. 34 : “ If any man hunger, let him eat at home.” (2.) The people offered in the Church bread and wine to the deacons at a certain place. By them their offerings were taken to the altar. Little tables were set up for those who were going to communicate, just as now-a-days the people communicate
at a table covered with a cloth. Before communion a deacon cried out, “ Holy things for the holy.” The priest in communicating any one said, “The body of Christ.” The answer was given, “Amen.”
They received not with the mouth, but in the hand, the man with his right hand ungloved, placed over his left in the form of a cross, whence the hands were washed beforehand ; the woman with her hand covered with a clean white piece of linen called the “ dominical.” The Council of Auxerre (can. 36) enacted that no woman should take the Eucharist with bare hands, and also that each woman should have her “ dominical ” when she communicated. If she had not got it, she was not to communicate till the next Sunday (can. 39). Cyril of Jerusalem ( Catach . 5) says : “ When you approach for communion, do not come with outspread hands, or fingers disjoined, but make the left hand a throne for the right, which is to receive so great a king, and with hollowed palm receive the body of Christ with the reply, ‘Amen.’” Moreover the Eighth Council of Constantinople (can. 101) enacted the same thing in the words : “If any one of unstained body wish to communicate, before he do so let him put his hands into the shape of a cross to receive the sacrament of love . Those who make receptacles of gold or other material to do the duty of their hands in receiving the Holy Communion are not to be admitted, inasmuch as they prefer some inanimate form of matter to the image of their God.” Again, each one put into his mouth the Eucharist he had received in his hand, that is the species of bread, and it was taken daily, fasting. In S. Cyprian's time they received the Eucharist also under the species of wine, in order that in times of persecution they might be strengthened to shed a martyr's blood by receiving the blood of Christ. Hence S. Cyprian (Ep. 56 ad Thibarit.) says : “ A more severe and more bloody fight is at hand, for which the soldiers of Christ ought to prepare themselves with uncorrupted virtue and robust faith , recollecting that they daily receive the chalice of the blood of Christ for the very object of enabling them to shed their blood for Christ.” As S. Chrysostom says, “ We leave that table like lions breathing out fire, and made terrible to the devils.”