Jimmy Akin explains why Jesus’s Apostles probably did not go to Confession before receiving Communion at the Last Supper, and clarifies the absolute condition that must be met to receive Communion.
Transcript:
Host: Antonio in Woodland, Texas listening on Guadalupe Radio, you are on with Jimmy Akin, what’s your question, Antonio?
Caller: Hi, thanks for taking my call, my question is: during the Last Supper, the first Mass, at the Apostles received Communion and I’m wondering if we know that–I mean obviously they must have had no mortal sin on them and their conscience for them to be able to take Communion–so do we know that they went to Confession beforehand?
Jimmy: No, we don’t know that, and the Sacrament of Confession had not yet been instituted, because that’s something that Jesus institutes after the Resurrection in John chapter 20. So presumably they had not been to Confession, but it is not a hundred percent necessary to go… another way to put it is, it’s not necessary in all situations to go to Confession in order to go to Communion.
What one does need to have is–and this is the absolute condition–is one needs to be in a state of Grace. Well, the disciples had been baptized, they had been following Jesus for a long time, they’ve been living lives of holiness, and so consequently they may not have committed any mortal sins since their Baptism and they may have been in a state of Grace for that reason. Even if they had, they could have been reconciled through what theologians refer to as an act of perfect contrition, which is sorrow for sins based on the supernatural love of God, and since they were devoting their lives to Jesus Christ, it would seem that they had the supernatural love of God, and so even if they had committed a mortal sin since Baptism it could have been reconciled in that way.
And so that would in its own way be a reflection of what current Church law is, which is that under ordinary circumstances, if you’ve committed a mortal sin subsequent to Baptism, then you need to go to Confession before receiving the Eucharist; but if there’s a grave reason you need to receive it, and you don’t have the opportunity to go to Confession, then if you make an act of perfect contrition to restore you to the state of Grace with the intention of going to Confession as soon as possible, then you can go ahead and receive it because the fundamental absolute requirement is state of Grace, not having gone to Confession already. So that’s kind of a brief summary of both how their situation could have worked out versus how the law of the Church today is.
Another thing to bear in mind is, even though they had the idea that sin will separate you from God, it doesn’t mean that at this very early stage they had a clear understanding of what constituted mortal sin, and the relation of mortal sin to communion; I mean, they were still struggling to understand Jesus’s identity as the Messiah and the dying and rising Savior. So we don’t want to necessarily impose a more refined understanding of these matters back on them at this point.
Caller: Oh okay, that helps.