FRATERNITY AND CONVICTION
It is necessary to maintain, to its practical consequences, the crudity and realism of the words of Jesus, when he invites us to eat his flesh and to drink his blood in order to have eternal life (cf. Jn 6.26ff). It is possible that in our days, as then, this language continues to be difficult to accept. But it is necessary to insist on the fraternal dimension of the Eucharist, the sacrament of the unity of all in Christ, in whom we find the serenity, sweetness and peace that provides the fact that the brethren live united (cf. Psalm 133,1).
Whoever is not able to accept his brother as he is, should not come to receive communion. He who does not live fraternity in patience and kindness, in the forgiveness of the offense received, in the hope of change in the conduct of the fallen brother; he who does not welcome the immigrant as a brother and believe in the need to unite North and South, committing himself to the destruction of the abyss that separates opulence and misery; he who chooses to keep the separation, perhaps with dishonest mechanisms of kid gloves, should not receive communion. If you do, you will no longer be eating the Lord’s Supper, or enter into communion with his Body, present in every person, “because, the bread is one, and so we, though many, form one body.” (1Cor 10.17).
Love and fraternity lived and expressed in the communion with Christ and with the brothers, without any barriers, is the most fruitful word of evangelization.
Not being in communion with the brothers and coming to receive the Body and Blood of Christ would be the most aberrant of profanities. Therefore, there was a need for a prior examination of love and effective brotherhood before eating the bread and drinking the cup of the Lord (cf. 1Cor 11.20ss). Can I remain calm in my review of love, prior to my communion? What grade would I give to my communions in the key of universal fraternity?
