Before 1970, it would have been unthinkable that a lay person touch the Body of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament with his own unconsecrated hands — let alone distribute the Body of Christ in Holy Communion to others. Not even taking into account the illicit way in which Communion in the hand was introduced into the liturgy of Holy Mass, it is important for us Catholics to ask ourselves the question: Should the lay faithful distribute the Body of Christ to others? What does the mens Ecclesiae (the mind of the Church) teach in regard to this?
In order to explore this question, there is no better master to turn to for guidance than the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas. He was the one, after all, whom, commissioned by Pope IV, composed the Office and Mass of Corpus Christi, along with many of the most famous and most beautiful Eucharistic hymns in the Catholic Church.
St. Thomas Aquinas has an entire article of the Summa Theologica, his theological masterpiece, devoted to the question of who is the appropriate minister of the Sacrament of Communion. I am reproducing much of the article here below since it is very insightful and instructive in our exploration of this topic.
St. Thomas uses as his argument from Church authority a famous work of Mediaeval Church jurisprudence known as the Decretum Gratiani. This important work was compiled and written in the 12th century as a type of textbook on jurisprudence (Church Law) and has been considered to be an authoritative work ever since its publication. It eventually led to the publication of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, which was later updated as the 1983 Code under Pope John Paul II. The passage that St. Thomas Aquinas quotes from the Decretum in response to his question on who is an appropriate minister of Holy Communion (Summa Theologica, Part III, Q. 82, Art. 3) is the following:
It has come to our knowledge that some priests deliver Our Lord's Body to a layman or to a woman to carry it to the sick: The Synod therefore forbids such presumption to continue; let the priest himself bring Communion to the sick. (Decretum, De consecr. dist. 12)
Now the above quotation refers specifically to a priest bringing Holy Communion to the sick. But what it decrees in regard to a pastoral visit to the sick obviously applies a fortiori to the distribution of Communion at Holy Mass.
The Angelic Doctor (St. Thomas Aquinas) then goes on to explain that there are three primary reasons why the distribution of Holy Communion should be carried out only by priests:
The dispensing of Christ's Body belongs to the priest for three reasons.
First, because, as was said above (Article 1), it is the priest who consecrates as in the Person of Christ. But as Christ consecrated His Body at the Last Supper, so also He gave it to others to be partaken of by them. Accordingly, as the consecration of Christ's Body belongs to the priest, so likewise does the dispensing of His Body belong to him.
Secondly, because the priest is the appointed intermediary between God and man; hence as it belongs to the priest to offer man's gifts to God, so it belongs to him to deliver consecrated gifts from God to man.
Thirdly, because out of reverence towards this Sacrament, nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest's hands are consecrated [at his Ordination] for touching this Sacrament. Hence it is not lawful for anyone else to touch it except from necessity, for instance, if it were to fall upon the ground, or else in some other case of extreme urgency.
The above is a very concise summary giving three principal reasons why Holy Communion should only be distributed to the lay faithful by a priest. The first one shows that there must be a profound bond or link between the Act of Consecration and that of distributing Holy Communion. It is only appropriate that the same person who Consecrates the bread at Mass into the Body of Christ distribute that same Body of Christ to the faithful. The one who makes Holy Communion gives Holy Communion to the faithful. This principle is modelled on Jesus Christ Himself, who both made the bread and wine at the Last Supper into His Body and Blood and gave His Body and Blood to His Apostles. Christ is the Maker and the Giver, and therefore the person who stands at the Altar in the Person of Christ (the Catholic priest) should both Consecrate and distribute Holy Communion.
The second argument that St. Thomas gives is based on the role of the priest as a mediator or intermediary. The priest is the one who mediates between God and man. He is the one who offers man's prayers to God and who gives God's gifts to man. Thus the priest is at the Altar at the Offertory doing the offering, offering up along with the gifts the prayers and intentions of the people to God, and at the Communion Rail doing the distribution of Holy Communion, giving the gifts of God to the people. In this way, he fulfills his role as mediator between God and the faithful. If a lay person gives Holy Communion, it implies theologically that the lay person is acting as an intermediary between God and man on behalf of other lay people, which is theologically incorrect.
The third reason that St. Thomas gives as to why only priests should give Holy Communion is because only things that are holy and specially consecrated should touch the sacred species (the consecrated Body and Blood of Christ). Only a priest should touch the Body of Christ and the Chalice containing the Blood of Christ. At Ordination, a priest's hands are specially consecrated. They are consecrated to give him the power to consecrate Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Our Lord; they are consecrated in order to give his hands the power to bless and to absolve people from their sins; and they are consecrated so that he may worthily touch the sacred Body and Blood (the Host and the Chalice) when he himself communicates and when he gives Holy Communion to the laity.
This third argument is not based on the holiness of the priest. A priest may be a saint, but he may also be a wretched sinner. What is important is that his hands are consecrated with a sacred ritual at his priestly Ordination, and through this consecration he is given the special mission of consecrating and distributing Our Lord's Body to the faithful. Of course, a priest should be holy and in a state of grace when engaging in such sacred duties; nonetheless, the third argument of St. Thomas Aquinas is independent of the holiness of the priest in question. I say this because some lay people who are in favour of lay distribution of Communion will say, "Father, do you believe that you are more holy than I?" I usually answer that the fact that only priests should be giving Holy Communion is not based on his personal holiness.
Not only are the priest's hands consecrated to touch the Body and Blood of Christ, but so are all things that touch the sacred species. This is why the Church consecrates Chalices, Patens, Altar linens (such as Corporals and Purificators), etc. Because all these things come into direct contact with Christ's Body and/or Blood, they must be specifically set aside for this purpose. This is what consecration means: it is the setting aside of certain things (or people) for sacred duties and functions.
The image at the top of this blog post shows a holy card depicting the Virgin Mary receiving Communion at Mass from the hands of St. John the Apostle. If anyone is holy enough to touch the Body of Christ and receive Holy Communion in the hand, surely it is she. And yet, all sacred images showing Our Lady receiving Communion depict her as kneeling and receiving her Son on the tongue. She does not take the Body of Christ herself (even though she bore the Body of Christ physically in her immaculate womb for nine months!), but rather she receives humbly the Body of Christ her Son from the consecrated hands of a priest (the Apostle John).
So in summary, here are three reasons given by St. Thomas Aquinas why only priests should distribute Holy Communion to the faithful:
Because it is appropriate that the same person who consecrates the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ by acting in the Person of Christ at Holy Mass be the one who distributes that Body and Blood of Christ to the faithful;
Because the priest is a mediator between God and man, offering man's offerings to God and giving God's gifts to man — including God's most precious Gift of the Body and Blood of His Son;
Because, out of reverence for this august and most holy Sacrament, only that which is specially consecrated should touch it: and only the hands of a priest are consecrated at his Ordination to touch and handle the Body and Blood of Christ.
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