After singing the Lamb of God and executing the accompanying actions and prayers, everyone kneels down again while the priest genuflects. The priest holds up the Eucharistic host and says, “Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb,” and everyone responds, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” Let’s break this down a little bit.

As we’ve discussed before, kneeling and genuflecting are common postures people take when recognizing the awesome presence of Jesus. Here, the Blessed Sacrament is about to be lifted up for all to recognize, so we lower ourselves before Him. Then the Church has the priest recite lines that point to two passages from the Bible. We discussed before that John 1:29 has John the Baptist announcing Jesus’ identity: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” A similar announcement is here, made with the eyes of faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Revelation 19:6-9 is the other passage here. There is an image and a shout of praise from the great heavenly marriage banquet where the marriage of the Lamb to his Bride the Church is celebrated. In Holy Communion, the Church is declaring that we are already participating in the heavenly banquet each and every time we come to Mass, where Jesus gives Himself to his Bride in sacrifice and Communion. Beautiful!

The response to this joyous declaration comes from Matthew 8:5-13, the story of the centurion who sought healing from Jesus for his servant. Jesus responds by saying he will come and heal the servant. The centurion, careful to avoid making it seem like he is commanding Jesus to come, says, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.” Jesus then responds by saying he has not found such marvelous faith in all of Israel and so heals the servant just by his word. He then mysteriously draws upon an image of what the Jewish people know as the Messianic Banquet - a reference found in Isaiah 25 - where people will come from all over the world to sit at table in the kingdom of heaven. Combined with the image of the heavenly marriage banquet found in Revelation 19, this sounds like what we’re doing at Mass! Incredible!

Sometimes people ask what the “word” is that Jesus must say. It is the effective Word of Christ — the same Word that heals, forgives, consecrates, and brings about what it declares. Just as He said to the centurion, “Go; be it done for you as you have believed,” so He heals us according to our faith and trust in Him.

The priest then prays quietly, “May the Body of Christ keep me safe for eternal life,” and receives the Host. He then prays, “May the Blood of Christ keep me safe for eternal life,” and consumes the Precious Blood. Only after he has received does he distribute Holy Communion to the faithful. Afterward, the Church provides a Communion Antiphon — usually a verse from Scripture connected to the Mass of the day — which may be chanted with a Psalm, recited, or accompanied by a hymn. Its purpose is to keep our focus on the mystery we are receiving. We might talk more about our selection of songs later on. 

We’ll talk more about your reception of Holy Communion next week.