"We have recently been instructed by Cardinal DiNardo that the chalice is to return to the people on the weekend of the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord: January 7 & 8.  For some, this is very exciting and moving news.  Others may wonder…does it matter? Is receiving from the chalice necessary to celebrate the Eucharist?  Do I have to receive from the chalice?

We know that the Eucharist is a celebration.  We sing about it and pray about it and sometimes we feel it.  It is not just a gathering but a feast and re-membering of the Mystical Body of Christ, the people, to give thanks to God.  The Church teaches that the celebration of the Mass should be the source and summit – the foundation and the peak – of everything in our lives.  In an ideal world, every time we celebrate the Mass, we celebrate.  We bring our whole lives with our joys and our struggles, our gratitude and our shame and we embrace a ritual that should not be entered into half heartedly but with our very self as we encounter a God who gave his very self to feed, sustain and save us.

And therein lies the importance of the chalice.  With it, we are able to more fully engage in the symbol of feast.  With it, we are able to more fully embrace the idea of nourishment and coming to the table of the Lord.  Now there is a fear that many people mistakenly think of the Eucharist under the form of bread or hosts as fully Jesus and that the Eucharist under the form of wine is “extra” and somehow some sort of “bonus” Jesus.  This is, of course, false or incomplete notion as reception of communion under either the form of host or wine is indeed receiving the entirety of Jesus.  We are all aware that there might be times and circumstances when a person can only receive communion under one form as we have and may continue to experience as we continue to forge ahead and out of a time of pandemic.

What have we been missing then?  It seems appropriate that the chalice will return on the weekend when we celebrate the “epiphany” or revelation of God to us.  It is a good reminder that God wants to make himself known to us at all times and in many ways.  In the celebration of Mass, the fullness of the experience of feast is best known by eating and drinking.  There will continue to be times when we should refrain from receiving from the chalice, such as when we are sick. There will be some people for whom receiving from the chalice at this time feels unwise due to flu season or other reasons.  Let us remember that it is completely acceptable to refrain from receiving from the chalice if it makes you uncomfortable or if you are sick.  However, let us take this step forward towards post-pandemic life and remember the ways our God comes to reveal himself to us: in the fullness of a feast and that we are all invited to the banquet." 

-Fr. Bob

"For it is in the liturgy,
especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist,
that "the work of our redemption is accomplished,"
and it is through the liturgy especially
that the faithful are enabled
to express in their lives and manifest to others
the mystery of Christ
and the real nature of the true Church."

-Sacrosanctum Concilium 2