“With the fear of God, with faith and love, draw near” (Invitation to Holy Communion)
The highlight of the Holy Liturgy is the invitation from the altar to approach and receive the sacred Body and Blood of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ. You have prepared yourself by fasting and reciting the prayers before Communion. Now three requirements challenge you as you approach the holy chalice.
A. With the fear of God. Fear is a negative term, something to avoid at all costs. That type of fear is not what this phrase means. Fearing God is the beginning of wisdom. A better term would be awe. Another term is reverence. In reality, by fearing God I am liberated from being afraid of anything in the world. To fear His power is to render powerless all that may hold me in fear here on earth, whether it be the fear of poverty, or suffering, of any person or creature that might intimidate me, or even of death itself—all that is nothing to me, because I know that the Lord is more powerful than anything He created. And that gives me confidence. If we know nothing else about God, we understand that He is holy. He is beyond all possibility of sin—but I am a sinner. I am a fool to saunter up the aisle as though I deserved to take His sacred body and blood into my mouth. How dare I? Yet because of His great love for me, a love so powerful that it transcends any concept I can conjure up in my mind, I dare to accept His great gift of Himself. Why does He do it? Why did He come to the world I live, in, accept to be born that way I was and to go through a human life without once sinning, only to be treated in the most horrid way, the evidence being His crucifixion, only to snatch me up from sin and take me to His Father? All of that amazes and overwhelms me. What can I do, other than to accept it as the most precious gift conceivable, and thank Him for it by showing in some way that I am grateful. But how could I possibly do that? All this fills me with awe.
B. With faith. Faith is the trust in the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ, a conviction about something I can neither see nor prove, much less comprehend. If I don’t have such amazing faith, I ought to turn around and return to my pew. If I call Him Lord, yet do as I please, I make a mockery and pretense of being His follower. If I have a sometimes faith that I discard whenever I choose, I have no faith at all. If I am disturbed by one or another teaching of the holy Church yet do nothing to reconcile my doubts, then I am a doubter, not a believer. If I am afraid, then I am not free to offer my life to the Lord; instead, I am a prisoner of whatever holds me in its grasp.
C. With love. No word is more used and abused than love. I must be careful when I use it in relation to the Lord. He loves me—that I know, because He proved it by the cross. But how can I respond to His love, when I don’t even know myself very well? I can say it, but how can I prove it. It’s not right to accept a gift without offering one in return, yet I go on taking from the Lord everything that I have, and all that I am. He says that I ought to prove my love for Him by loving everything that He loves. And how do I do that? Regardless of the lopsided relation we have, I’ll promise to do my best for Him, and so despite all my inadequacies, I will
D. Draw near. I will receive into my body everlasting life. I, a mere human, now imbibe the divine. On my way to death, I am now energized with immortality. All this is mine not by my merit but by the grace of God through His love for me.