Why do Catholics drink from the chalice instead of dipping the host in the wine or using individual cups, especially this time of year when colds and flu seem to be everywhere?
Intinction (dipping the bread into the wine) IS actually practiced at some Catholic parishes, coincidently enough at the parish I worked and worshipped at for the past 16 years just before coming to CTR! So, though I’m not a learned liturgist like Fr. Joe, if experience counts, this question is right in my wheelhouse.
Like any public meeting place, there is a very real possibility of encountering germs at church, especially during flu season, so drinking from the shared cup understandably seems a risky choice. But studies show that intinction actually increases the risk of spreading germs. The minute we hold the wafer in our hand it becomes full of germs, and then if we dip it - the wine becomes contaminated too.
Hands are a much more likely source of contagion than the mouth especially among children and, trust me, lots of little germy fingertips make it into the wine in the practice of intinction! So, it may seem counter-intuitive, but the research is pretty clear; intinction is far less sanitary then drinking directly from a common cup.
What concerned me most though about the practice of intinction is how it made visitors and new people feel, especially younger Catholics. A remarkable number of the college students who visited our parish told me they felt like outsiders because they were confused about what to do at communion time. And a surprising number of them also were aware and quite scandalized that this practice was not in line with our own Catholic rubrics found in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal which says, "When Communion is distributed under both species by intinction, the host is not placed in the hands of the communicants nor may the communicant receive the host and dip it into the chalice." (really, of all the things to know?)
I’m not a big “rules and regs enforcer” kind of gal, but since so much of our Catholic identity (again, especially for younger Catholics these days…not in the 60’s…and maybe not in the future…but certainly at this time) is connected to our sacraments and rituals, making choices that stick to the norm and foster connectedness and unity by minimizing the confusion that can come from everyone “doing his or her own thing” seems to make sense and support the deeper meaning of our shared Eucharist. The hope of all our rubrics and rites is that they may help promote a profound and valuable sense of unity.
As St. Paul says when talking about eating meat sacrificed to idols (which was apparently the hot topic “rubric” type question in the city of Corinth of his day) “Everything is lawful for me! But not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.” Even though there is nothing inherently immoral in eating meat sacrificed to idols (or practicing intinction in our case) if it scandalizes or alienates even a few members of our community, Paul says it’s just not worth it.
Almost all Roman Catholic liturgists today discourage Communion by intinction. The health risks increase with dipping into the cup, some people become confused and feel like outsiders when we stray from our set rubrics, and the sign value and adherence to scripture in intinction is not as full as drinking from the cup (and completely lost with individual cups).
Fr. Joe commented though, “If Jesus had been a 20th century American we certainly would not have had the common cup!
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