Whitsunday
Usually, this week, we would be having Morning Prayer on Sunday. However, since it is Whitsunday (the Feast of Pentecost), we will have Holy Communion. I wanted to explain why in this week's article.
Certain days in the calendar are considered more pressing in the Christian life to observe than others. While it is helpful to some to follow the feast days of specific saints, it is part of the Christian life that we remember and form our lives around the solemn feasts and fasts of the Church. It is by these days that we orient our lives to Christ and his work. For a helpful table to show the list of these days, you might look at pages l and li in the front of your BCP. In the Christian life, we must take these days seriously and remind ourselves of the mission of God in the world and our participation as the body of Christ in his workings. These chief celebrations often land on Sunday, as they are joined to the work of Christ's resurrection, which we celebrate every Sunday.
Within the history of the Church, it has been the custom for Christians to receive Holy Communion on Sundays. Over time, however, the frequency of receiving the Sacrament lessened. Some suggest that it was due to the fear that they might receive unworthily. In the 1549 BCP the rubric at the end of Holy Communion states:
"[There] shall always some Communicant with the Priest that ministreth...Someone at the least of that house... to whom by course after the ordinance herein made... shall receive the holy Communion with the Priest... [and] when their course cometh, may therefore dispose themselves to the worthy receiving of the Sacrament. And with him... all others, who be then Godly disposed thereunto, shall likewise receive the Communion... Furthermore, every man and woman is bound to hear and be at the divine service... with devout prayer, or Godly silence and meditation, to occupy themselves. There to pay their duties, to communicate once in the year at the least, and there to receive, and take all other Sacraments and rites...."
In other sections, it is made even more explicit that the priest is not to celebrate without someone else to receive Holy Communion. But it is clear from the excerpt that it is expected for people, at least one from each house, to receive Holy Communion after they have "disposed themselves to worthily receive (i.e. having gone to confession and letting the priest know of their intent to commune). The rubric ends by saying everyone must receive the Sacrament at least once a year. However, jump to later editions, like the 1662 BCP, which states that everyone is to receive "three times a year, of which Easter to be one."
So, what are the other two dates? Traditionally, the custom is that people receive on the High Holy Days of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. Perhaps these days were chosen because they were spaced three times throughout the year and were based on the High Feast Days, but I think there is more to it. Christmas reminds us of Christ coming into our midsts by taking on flesh for the healing and redemption of the world, a fitting day to receive the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood. Easter is fitting because it is the culmination of the Christian year. The day we celebrate Christ's defeat of sin and death. Easter is the grounds for the Christian life, the recreating and redeeming of all things. And Pentecost is appropriate because it follows the example of the Disciples. As one commentator on the BCP puts it, "In the first fervor and joy of their Pentecostal life the disciples of our Lord 'continued daily with one accord in the Temple' observing the hours of prayer, and daily also celebrating the Holy Communion in one of their private assembling places, 'breaking bread from house to house' (Acts 2:46)."* The Holy Spirit is the one who comes and sanctifies the gifts in Holy Communion, who joins us together as the Body of Christ, unites us to Christ, and feeds us in this Holy Mystery.
I feel as though sometimes Whitsunday, or Pentecost, is often overlooked in the Christian year. But as our lectionary has been reminding us, it is Christ who tells us of the essential coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. He is the one sent to us to aid us in the Christian life and unite us with the crucified and risen Christ. For this reason, it should be just as it is, one of the chief Holy Days in the Christian year.
*Blunt, John Henry, The Annotated Book of Common Prayer: Being an Historical, Ritual, and Theological Commentary on the Devotional System of the Church of England, re-issued by The Anglican Expositor, North Courtny BC, 360-361.
God's Peace,
Fr. Aaron