The Lord has left us a sacrament expressly to experience his pardon. It is a means of conversion and reconciliation with God and with others. It is also a preparation for the proper celebration of the Eucharist. On receiving communion, our interior is converted into a dwelling place for Jesus (cf.Jn 6:58). His divine presence deserves the greatest care in providing him with a clean and well decorated room.
The Eucharist which culminates with the consecrated bread, begins with the ‘penitential rite’, which prepares us for listening to the Word of God, the consecration and the sacramental communion. We are unworthy, poor, but the Lord wants to make his home with us. If we feel the living presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, we will recognize the dignity of our whole being through this presence and also the need that this dwelling place which he deigns to inhabit, be the least unworthy possible. This demands that we always seek ‘purity of heart’. St. Paul complained that some celebrated the Eucharist in an unworthy manner (cf. 1Cor. 11: 27-29. Above all, perhaps we need to avoid routine, frivolity or indifference.
Whenever Jesus frequented the company of the ‘impure’ and sinners, the life of those who met him was transformed. In our case it should be no less. When we welcome somebody into our house who is dearly loved or important, we are preoccupied with having it clean and well-ordered so that their stay with us is pleasant. Now Jesus is greater than all these friends or important people. Everything we do to offer him a welcoming dwelling place would seem as nothing.
How frequently or with what attitude do I live my communions? Are they always powerful, ‘moving’ or are they overtaken by ‘habit’? Do I have the capacity for silence and recollection or do my habits of noise and extraversion get in the way?