Catholics who kneel for Communion and receive on the tongue are being hated on by Catholics who don't.
And I think it is ridiculous.
I never thought that I would ever live in a Church that is trying to stop me from kneeling before my God, my Saviour who died for my sins. But I do, and it is breaking my heart.
Two times in the past year I have been told by two different people that I should stop kneeling for Communion and stop taking Communion on the tongue. And the reasons they gave are ridiculous.
1. Argument: My kneeling is failing to think of how I am making other people feel.
My Response:I found that argument ironic, because these people fail to understand how I feel.
This is how I see that argument in my mind:
I am sitting at a table with friends, and everyone is eating junk. I decide I would rather not put crap into my body, so I order a healthy meal instead. Then I get pulled aside, and I am told that it is offensive that I chose to eat healthy when everyone else is not, so therefore I should "do as the Romans do" and eat crap like everyone else.
I'm not saying that it is crap to not kneel, but that kneeling feels good and right to me.
2. Argument: My kneeling during the Mass when everyone else is standing is rejecting the community. The community prays as one and we need to have unified prayers, therefore our posture must be unified as well.
My Response: Where do we draw the line at that insane logic? Our posture needs to be the same? So if we raise our hands during the Our Father and ONE person isn't, the prayer is null and void? The old lady who has to sit through the entire Mass because she is too feeble to stand is rejecting the community and her prayers are not heard, or the community's joint prayer fails because she's sitting? Give me a break. It's stupid logic. It is also implying that when I kneel I am not praying with the Community. I sing the hymns along with everyone else, and I pray the same words as everyone else, even when I am kneeling. So to say that I am not being part of the community is ridiculous.
Canon 899.2: "...In the eucharistic gathering the people of God are called together with the bishop or, under his authority, a presbyter presiding and acting in the person of Christ. All the faithful who are present, whether clerics or laity, unite together by participating in their own way according to the diversity of orders and liturgical functions."
Bam.
3. Argument: When you kneel for Communion people trip over you and you are holding up the flow of traffic.
My Response: First of all, NO ONE has ever tripped over me. Secondly, if there is someone behind me who doesn't know me, I tell them that I kneel for Communion so they don't trip over me. Thirdly, since when do we view the Communion receiving line as traffic on a road? Who cares how long it takes for everyone to receive Communion as long as people are being reverent? If Mass took an extra 15 minutes because people were kneeling for Communion and holding up the line, I would be overjoyed.
4. Argument: Taking Communion on the tongue is unhygenic. What if I have a cut on my finger and I am HIV positive and now my cut has touched your tongue?
My Response: First, I don't think about those things when I am at Mass about to receive my Lord in the flesh. Secondly, my best friend informs me that that is a huge ignorance of HIV (she took a course on HIV and AIDS). Third, if you are HIV postive and have a cut on your finger, you probably wouldn't be giving out Communion.
5. Argument: Kneeling for Communion is heresy because it is a rejection of everything that just took place. We are all Tabernacles after receiving, so why don't you remain kneeling always?
My Response: I am kneeling in response to the awe that was put upon my heart by God in witness to the Transubstatiation, the miracle that we witness at every Mass. I kneel because God put it on my heart to kneel because the Mass is the slaughter of Christ on the altar. No, I am not rejecting the resurrection. We celebrate the resurrection after Mass. Is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament heresy? Of course not.
Canon 899.1: "The eucharistic celebration is the action of Christ himself and the Church. In it, Christ the Lord, through the ministry of the priest, offers himself, substantially present under the species of bread and wine, to God the Father and gives himself as spiritual food to the faithful united with his offering."
6. Argument: People didn't use to kneel for Communion or receive on the tongue until who-gives-a-crap century.
My Response: People didn't use to wear clothes, but now we do because we realised we would freeze to death if we didn't.
What these people fail to realise is that I am not kneeling out of arrogance. Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I hate being the centre of attention and I would rather blend in than to stand out. So for me to be kneeling in a room full of people who aren't is incredibly difficult for me. I worry about whether or not people are judging me. I worry that people think "What does she think she's better than us?"
But I know my heart, and I know I am doing what is right.
I think it is incredibly sad that people are trying to crush my form of reverence. It is quiet and silent and not disrupting anyone. It actually disturbs me and makes my stomach turn thinking about it. Our Church has so many issues, and this is what people are going to get upset about? Really? How about you go and try to get people in the door, convince them religion is still worth it, and stop interrogating the ones who are actually still showing up.
