This is so silly. Jesus didn’t place the bread on the tongues of His disciples! He tore off a piece and passed to the the disciple next to Him.
This is yet another reason I could never be Catholic, the endless silly rules and rituals that have no connection the the early Church.
Ed
As I wrote to “wbarmy”:
“Jesus did not explain everything. This is why He left us the Holy Spirit and his One Church.”
The article (The History of Communion in the Hand) explains the rest about how the Holy Spirit guided the Church about understanding more and more about the greatness of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.
In the article (The History of Communion in the Hand), one finds:
“Saint Augustine tells us: It was pride that changes angels into devils; IT IS HUMILITY that makes men as angels. Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues. The soul in which this virtue does not exist, there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance. Saint Bonaventure said that without humility, there is not virtue!”
One finds in the Old Testament how God instructed the Israelites to be very reverent even before the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple where Moses entered. In the Catholic Church only, there is the infinite God in the Eucharist. Non Catholic religions do not have the ordained priesthood, and thus do not have the Eucharist, Jesus substantially present as He is in heaven before which all the angels adore!
For those who have not received the fullness of the truth and the fullness of the means of sanctification, it is not surprising that the rules protecting the Eucharist, “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Vat. II: LG 11; CCC 1324), would seem like “endless silly rules and rituals”.
One also finds in the article (The History of Communion in the Hand), one finds:
“John Paul II in his last encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, left to the Church an ardent warning that sounds like a true testament: “ By giving the Eucharist the prominence it deserves, and by being careful not to diminish any of its dimensions or demands, we show that we are truly conscious of the greatness of this gift (...) THERE CAN BE NO DANGER OF EXCESS IN OUR CARE FOR THIS MYSTERY!” (N. 61). The awareness of the greatness of the Eucharistic mystery shows itself especially in the manner in which the Lord’s body is distributed and received.”
But for those who do not recognize this “pearl of great price” (Mt 13:46) I offer the words of St. Thomas Aquinas — ‘For those with faith, no evidence is necessary; for those without it, no evidence will suffice.’