Your answers
. . . A seagull swooped down in what appeared to be an attempt to grab the Host held up for the communicants. If the seagull had consumed the Host, would it have received the Body of Christ? [Answers, 28 August]
I am perplexed by Canon Palmer’s answer. He is correct in his assumption that, when a communicant is offered the Host, he or she does indeed receive the Body of Christ. The “discernment” on the part of the communicant, however, in no way affects the nature or reality of the sacrament.
The elements, once consecrated, become and remain the Body and Blood of Christ until consumed or allowed to decay by some natural biological process. If we are to understand that “discernment” is of fundamental importance for the efficacy of the sacrament (this sounds to me like “receptionism”), then what of all those Christian souls who are incapable of such “discernment”: young children who are deemed of age to receive the sacrament, but, as yet, lack that discernment which comes only with maturity; those Christians who no longer possess the mental faculty to discern what they are receiving (patients with dementia or other progressive mental deficiencies); or those who, through no fault of their own, have never been capable of “discernment”?
The Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is conferred not by the individual on reception, but by the Holy Spirit through the actions of the duly authorised woman or man, the priest, in the celebration of the eucharist.
So, to answer the question of the seagull and the Host: yes, the seagull would have received the Body of Christ. What the effect would have been for the seagull I cannot speculate. Almighty God, however, “saw all that he had made, and it was very good”.
(The Revd Dr) Arthur Parkes
Pontprennau, Cardiff
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