Attendance at the Liturgy

[James Blackstock]

I am confused about this issue. As an ex-RC, to miss mass was a "Mortal Sin" that required confession. When I came to Orthodoxy I was told by my priest that it was ok to miss Liturgy for any reason that "was worthy of a blessing" what does that mean? Recently I missed due to work and once because I was simply too tired to go. Please someone clarify this issue.

[Herman Blaydoe]

The Holy Apostle Paul advises us not to forsake the gathering of the brethren. In the canons of the early Church, if you missed three opportunities for communion in a row, it was grounds for excommunication. That obviously means that missing one or two was not considered a "mortal sin".

The difference is that Orthodoxy sees "sin" as a sickness to be healed, not a crime to be punished. Your doctor tells you to get a physical once a year. If you miss a year, do the police show up at your door? Does the doctor condemn you to sickness because you missed a physical?

Attendance at Divine Services are certainly a blessing and we should take advantage of every blessing we can. It is there for our benefit, not as an "obligation". We are told that St. Mary of Egypt partook of Holy Communion only twice, once at the beginning of her life in the desert and once at the end. Her life is read every Great and Holy Lent as an inspriation to us. Obviously we Orthodox have a different take on the matter than the Catholics.

We are under no "obligation" to love God and spend time with Him. It is a free gift. At least that is my understanding of the Orthodox teaching.

[Herman Blaydoe]

There are good reasons to miss a Liturgy and there are not so good reasons.

If you are ministering to someone or taking care of your family and it precludes your attendance at Liturgy, that is worthy of a blessing. If you simply sleep in or don't want to miss the football game, that is probably not so much worthy of a blessing.

A fireman or nurse working on Sunday ought to be worthy of a blessing. Working to support your family seems worthy of a blessing. Missing Liturgy to make a little extra overtime to buy that fancy new car might be less of a blessing.

Does that help?

[James Blackstock]

Yes! Herman, that does help! Thank you so much for your perspective. I am 65 years old, and I work as a carpenter. I have been working many hours, not for a new car, but simply to pay the bills. I guess I just felt guilty for being too tired to go to Liturgy. I think it was just the enemy of my soul making me feel like a slug!

[John Charmley]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Mr. Blackstock's question, like Herman's answer raises another one in my mind, which relates to how we read what St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30

11:27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
11:29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
11:30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
Is this advising one to stay away from the Eucharistic feast if one feels oneself 'unworthy'? Or is this an essential Protestant reading, because as that non-Orthodox Saint, Thomas a Kempis wrote:

If you had the purity of an Angel, and the sanctity of St. John the Baptist, you would not be worthy to receive or handle the Sacrament.
I am unsure how the Chalcedonian tradition reads this.

My own Coptic one reads it in the scopos of the whole of Corinthians and sees it as a warning against the way some of the new Christians were celebrating the Eucharist; that is it sees St. Paul warning against an 'unworthy' way of celebrating the Eucharist feast, rather than as a warning against the individual being unworthy. Becoming 'worthy' for us is a free gift which we receive through faith, baptism and chrismation, and is based on the incarnation, death and resurrection of the Lord.

In his Homilies on First Corinthians St. John Chrysostom states, on verse 27, that:

Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord
he suggests this is because when he pours it out, he makes the thing appear a slaughter and not a sacrifice; again, the emphasis would appear to be on the manner of celebration rather than on the spiritual state of the individual.

St. Ambrose, in one of the earliest Latin commentaries from the second half of the fourth century, writes:

He calls him unworthy of the Lord who celebrates the mystery differently from the way it was handed on by him. For he who receives it otherwise than it was given by its Author cannot be devoutso again, the emphasis is not upon the spiritual state of the individual, but in the manner of celebration.

One of the Coptic commentaries I have goes on to say that:

A division in the Body, the despising of some members by others, is the mortal sin of the Church of Corinth (1 Cor. 12:20-26). This becomes more serious when the neglect and the despising are directed towards the weak members, 'the least of Christ's brethren', whom He considers the continuation of His Incarnation (Matt. 25:40). We would be receiving the Eucharist unworthily and for our condemnation if we ignore Christ in His little members (1 Cor. 11:29). We may end losing our right in Christ's free salvation, and have nothing to wait for but to hear the verdict of condemnation from His mouth on the Last Day (Matt. 25:41-46).

Would this conform to readings in the Chalcedonian tradition?

In Christ,

John

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

John Charmley wrote:


Is this advising one to stay away from the Eucharistic feast if one feels oneself 'unworthy'? Or is this an essential Protestant reading, because as that non-Orthodox Saint, Thomas a Kempis wrote:



If you had the purity of an Angel, and the sanctity of St. John the Baptist, you would not be worthy to receive or handle the Sacrament.

I am unsure how the Chalcedonian tradition reads this.


I am not sure that there is any one way of reading this. But in general I think the emphasis would be on not receiving the Eucharist in an unworthy manner rather than in not receiving because one felt oneself unworthy. The point here is that even though we are using similar words, "not receiving the Eucharist in an unworthy manner" & "not receiving because one felt oneself unworthy", the meaning is actually very different.

Thus to receive in an unworthy manner can refer to the type of behaviour St Paul warns the Corinthians against in the quote you provide. We also read very similar things as your quote from Coptic sources. In other words to receive the Eucharist must match a certain way of life within the Church. An underlying assumption is also that continual repentance is needed since in fact we do not really live this way of life in a committed fashion. Thus the fairly strict connection for us between the Eucharist & Confession ( the pattern whereby these two are connected varies though).

To refrain from the Eucharist however because one "feels oneself unworthy" almost amounts to legitimizing ones sinful behaviour through non-reception. We have to be very careful here because there are indeed times when a parishioner/spiritual child approaches the priest saying they feel they should not receive due to some sin. What we are talking about here though is specific sins which need repenting of; ie which after confession or an epitimia allow one to receive. This is far from the attitude one can encounter whereby "feeling oneself unworthy" goes hand in hand with a consciously un-churchly life-style. Here both the 'being unworthy' and rarely receiving the Eucharist are worthy of condemnation.

As St Nikodemos the Agiorite explains, we need both a life of continual commitment to Christ along with continual reception of the Eucharist.

In Christ- Fr Raphael