Poisoned Chalice?
Parishioner Mollie Ziegler Hemingway recently wrote about reactions to swine flu among eucharistic Christians (shouldn’t that be redundant?) and its treatment in the press. She noted the CNN web headline: “Poisoned chalice? Swine flu hits church wine.” That, it turns out, is inaccurate fear-mongering. Mrs. Hemingway observes:
It … makes it seem as if, well, swine flu actually hit church wine. Nothing in the story supports that idea. It’s just that the archbishops of Canterbury and York in the Church of England have recommended that parishioners stop sharing the chalice during communion because of fears over swine flu.
She likewise cites the evidence that sharing the communion chalice does not increase chances of disease transmission. This fits with my own experience. For eleven years, I’ve been consuming the reliquae in the chalice at least once a week, after the entire congregation has communed. I do not believe for a moment that it has adversely affected my health.
The deeper problem with communion practice is the statement that individual cups make: I am afraid of my brothers and sisters in Christ – or they should be afraid of me. A fearful attitude of bodily sickness when approaching the Lord’s Altar is the opposite of how we should approach our Lord. He is the Great Physician, who promises that those who eat His body and drink His blood have eternal life, and He will raise them up at the last day. Coming with fear over what participating in our most sacred action will do to the body is to miss the point about, well, what participating in our most sacred action will do to the body!
I won’t say that it is impossible to get sick from the communion chalice. But our real concern should be a good preparation and pious meditation on what the Lord’s gifts in His Supper are.
What God ordains is always good: His loving thought attends me; No poison can be in the cup That my physician sends me. (LSB 760:3)
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Superb – as usual. I linked to this from my blog. I suspect it will grow bigger as fall brings more swine flu and more deaths here.
I totally agree with you. I do have a question, though, which I have never figured out. When you know that other people in the congregation are afraid of germs, when they've talked about how terrible it is that people who have colds come forward and partake of the chalice, when they press for individual cups, then what does somebody like me do when she has laryngitis or a bad cold? I am not the least worried for their health — and it's not for lack of care but because I know that what is in the chalice gives life, not sickness. And when the topic comes up, the Pastor says what you said. When the topic comes up behind the pastor's back, I too have said what you said.
But still, when there are people who are fearful about germs and who will stay away because of that fear, is it better for the sneezer/cougher to "not offend" by going last? Or is it actually a greater offense to lend credence to their fear by staying away so as not to upset them?
Susan,
I think the path of least offense is to commune last in those cases where you are noticeably ill and others may have this fear.
I think if the Archbishops of Canterbury and York were pressed they would agree that chances of catching swine flu from the chalice are not great. They probably know the same Harvard Journal of Medicine report that all of us do, and that being the combination of wine and noble metal eliminate 99% of germs in the wine. Maybe some are concerned about that 1% (the superman germ) that remains. Possibly they are simply making the recommandation so that, in these times of fear (since the UK is the country currently hardest hit by swine flu), people can go to communion without these kinds of worries (as unwarranted as they may or may not actually be). All in all, these are recommendations from the Archbishops. Most, if not all, parishes will follow these recommendations. We do trust that this sickness and fear will pass. We also trust that in the time being, whether we commune by intinction or by one kind, that God will still impart his grace to us in the Sacrament.
Great post. I have often used the same argument: I have consumed the reliquae for nearly 24 years and am still standing!
Does the continued irrational fear of the germs qualify as idolatry?
I know people who stay away when they themselves are sick. I've told them that God would not harm his faithful people in the Supper and encouraged them to go anyway. There's usually a little hem-and-haw and then "have a good week…bye!"
Susan, I and my Dh both have on occasion taken the individual cups because WE had a nasty cold. Rightly or wrongly, I don't know. Mostly, we've done it for appearance to others, because we do have, in our congregation, a wealth of shot-glass users.
Dirty hands make people sick, not chalices. Hope the servers & pastors have all washed their hands….
It would be nice if our pastors were to practice a lavabo ceremony during mass, but I guess this action would be really silly if the pastor were to turn around and bless the children at the communion rail during the distribution.
I try to always bless the children with my left hand, reserving the right for the distribution of the host. A lavabo ceremony would be nice (we don't do it), but we have a vessel available to pastor and deacons at communion that contains rubbing alcohol to cleanse the hands – I'll cleanse my hands 4-5 times each Distribution.
"Dirty hands make people sick" – quite right. And there generally is little option but to grasp the individual cup by its lip in order to extricate it from the tray
My husband, a pastor has always asserted what you stated above. In fact, the incident which I recall on this topic is a conversation between a fellow worshipper at a relative's church and my husband. She was a nurse and talked about all things contagious which could be contracted from sharing the chalice. My husband made his point of it turning Gospel into Law. The conversation ended with a "draw" as the service was about to start. One of the communion hymns was the one quoted above, of which I had never considered before that day.
Pr. Esget,
You state that using individual cups is saying: "I am afraid of my brothers and sisters in Christ – or they should be afraid of me", and that such people approach the Lord's Altar with a "fearful attitude of bodily sickness."
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
What does this mean?–Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, [think and] speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.
As for my own practice, my family of nine virtually always sits in the front pew, and we are therefore the first to receive communion. I am either the very first, or among the very first, to receive communion. I still receive via an individual cup. Why? Not out of fear of contracting a disease. Rather, since I know that transmission of disease via a common drinking vessel is possible even before you realize you are sick, out of love for my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ I do not want to expose them to any pathogens I might be unknowingly carrying. I do not try to talk common cup users in my parish into not using the common cup. They obviously are not fearful of contracting a disease and I do not believe my use of the individual cup risks causing them to think I am saying they should fear me or my germs.
I am a dentist who is well educated with regard to the transmission of pathogens via the mouth. I do believe, on scientific grounds, that the use of a common drinking vessel is a vector for disease transmission. I do not wish to argue the science on your blog, but only mention this to point out that the motives of some, including myself, are not irrational phobias or unfounded "fears". You yourself do not deny that it is possible to get sick from the common cup.
Christ took a common loaf and broke it. That fact is also included in the words of institution. The important symbolism of "one loaf" is also noted by Paul. The Sacrament is even referred to in Scripture as the "breaking of bread". Yet, for centuries we have used individual wafers that have never even been part of a loaf. Why? The reasons I have heard proffered could be characterized as "fears". However, I believe that would be an unkind characterization.
The fact that the Apostles drank from one cup should be of no more or less concern than the fact that they shared one loaf that Christ broke for them, yet I do not see an equal concern on the part of the clergy to re-institute the practice of breaking bread from a common loaf, shared by all.
The demand on the part of the Calvinists in the Prussian Union that the Lutherans had to break the bread in order to be faithful to Christ's institution caused the Lutherans to refuse to break the bread. Perhaps those who say that we must drink from a common chalice in order to be faithful to Christ's institution should be careful not to provide yet another reason for refusing to use a common cup.
In any case, it is best to explain everything in the kindest way. I have tried to do this here, but please forgive me if I have failed.
Dr. Heidenreich,
Thank you for your comment and your several concerns.
I would agree that it would be a better practice to break one loaf. (That, of course, raises its own challenges, namely, reverently catching and properly treating crumbs broken off in the process.) I suspect that there is not the same level of concern about that because there are, in most parishes, other sacramental problems (e.g., frequency, use of grape juice, open communion, etc.) that it is not something that can be addressed at this time.
I have read your postings on this topic on other blogs, and (I'm sorry to say) have not been convinced. I trust what I've read from the CDC and other scholarly sources, and believe that with proper administration of the chalice, chances of transmission are very low.
My dentist is a member of an LCMS congregation – perhaps I'll ask him what he thinks next time I'm getting my teeth cleaned.
The first LCMS church I attended had one tray of individual glasses. A member had donated it, because she had an arrested TB and while she was not infectious she knew that some members were afraid of it. So she, her husband and a few others used the glasses. The habit did not spread while I was a member there.
The LCMS church I grew up in never used the chalice, only individual cups. When I moved and went to another church, I only used the individual cup even though the chalice was also used because that's what I grew up with and didn't think anything of it. However, when I visited several times at a new mission plant nearby, my practice was challenged because the new mission only had the chalice. The pastor, who had been a missionary in Africa for many years (all four of his children were born there), talked about how they would use only a common cup even though there were believers there with all sorts of diseases. For all his years there, he did not see anything to convince him that diseases were being passed via the common communion cup.