My dear people in Christ:

As we stand on Easter at the empty tomb of Christ, made glorious by its very emptiness, we are aware that we have passed from the power of darkness to the Kingdom of light, from the death of this world to the resurrection of the world to come, from flesh to spirit.

“Even God’s own Law is not able to frighten or crush us any more,” as Louis Bouyer, the French theologian has said. The Council Fathers have written of it in terms of sleep: “For it was from the side of Christ as He slept the sleep of death upon the Cross that there came forth the wondrous sacrament of the whole Church.”

These thoughts are fresh and inspiring. It is our new duty as Christians to think them through. They are rooted in the Old and New Testament; they have been shaped and re-shaped by generations of thinking saints and saintly thinkers. The Church has taught them. It is up to us to know and grasp them, breathe and live them, grow and be nourished on them.

In our homes, they will become the climate of harmony and love. In our work, they will refresh our monotony and give meaning to our pace. In our neighborhoods, these Christian thoughts will become our bond of language and friendship. In our nation and the world, they will throw a new focus of divine light into the dark corners of bigotry, hatred, fear, ignorance, poverty and war.

But it will take time because we are not only weak, and apt to fail. Worse, we are lazy and apt to drift. The Church has offered us the Gospel, the Sacraments, the Creed. In her renewal, she is now opening new opportunities for us to make the Easter Message live more vibrantly in our hearts.

1. Communion by both Bread and Wine

On certain special occasions, the Sacrament will be received by the faithful under the appearance of both species. This should not surprise us. The early Christians, in both East and West, received this way as well as under either species, bread or wine. The Eastern Churches (like our own Melkite St. John’s and Maronite St. Joseph’s) still use the two-fold form.

About the 12th century, the Hussites, and in the 16th century, the Reformers, maintained that Christ had commanded the double rite, and were in turn condemned by the Councils of Constance and Trent. Partly to stress that this is not a divine but a disciplinary precept, and partly because reception of the host only would encourage frequent reception, the Council of Trent decreed the reception only by the host.

Now, still preserving Trent’s teaching, the 2nd Vatican Council permits communion under both species on nearly a dozen occasions. Besides those relating to priests and religious, these will be of interest and benefit to the laity:

- Spouses at a nuptial Mass and on anniversaries;

- Adult converts at the first Mass after Baptism (or if already baptized) after the Profession of Faith;

- An adult Catholic following his reconciliation to the Church after a long or public lapse.

- Adult after Confirmation (during Mass).

The rite: the celebrant gives the person (or persons) the host with the usual words. Then he gives the Chalice (or a second chalice) with a cloth purificator to wipe the lips. The words are: “The Blood of Christ” -- “Amen.”

The practice will not surprise us -- if we know its history. And it will not shock us if we know our theology. It may be summed up thus: Our Lord gave us His Body and Blood under the appearance of bread and wine. The entire Christ is really and sacramentally present in each part of the consecrated bread and wine. The practical method of reception (both species, or one) is strictly a matter of church discipline, not a divine precept. Therefore, the Church in her history has employed several methods.

Now, to better express (at least on certain great human occasions, usually linked with other sacraments) the total meaning of the sacrament; and to maintain the principle of the two-fold method without disturbing the very ancient custom and easy distribution by means of the Host alone, -- the Church acts again.

No longer will the communion by host alone be looked upon “almost as a mark of the One True Church,” to use Father James Crichton’s phrase.

2. Concelebration

Another striking change has already taken place -- the offering of the Mass by more than one priest. Today, Holy Thursday, it will be my privilege to concelebrate with the seventeen other priests at the Mass of the Holy Chrism. One “experimental” Mass of this kind has already taken place at the Trappist Monastery in Conyers. Another will take place in the Cathedral on May 8 when four young priests are ordained.

Here again is a limited restoration of a very ancient and indeed normal custom. Irenaeus hints at it in the 2nd century, and Hippolytus describes it in the 3rd. The best known examples are the 5th to 13th century use in Rome when the Pope sent the fermentum (part of the host) to priests in the city churches. Even earlier, bishops would send other bishops, in Syria and Asia, a similar particle (the eulogia) as a sign of the unity of the Church. In the Eastern churches, the practice is common. When the Maronite Patriarch Paul Peter Meouchi was in Atlanta in 1963, he and his companion archbishop offered a concelebrated Mass at the Cathedral.

The Constitution, which permits concelebration in several categories, speaks of it as manifesting “the unity of the priesthood.” While it is to inspire in priests a deeper notion of the collegial nature of the order of priests, surely any Catholic layman attending concelebration will derive a wider understanding of being part of the hierarchic order of God’s people.

Concelebration will chiefly be used at the Archdiocesan Synod, conferences of bishops and priests, clergy retreats, and certain Masses in the parishes. Where our priests are so few, the occasions will be rare because nearly every priest’s Mass is needed for our people. But the fact of concelebration will be more and more a part of the developing liturgical life of our archdiocese.

3. Mass in Private Homes

Another privilege of Vatican II is another opening of our worship to all. It was decided last Wednesday, at a meeting of our Archdiocesan Consultors, to extend the privilege of Mass in the homes of the seriously ill, crippled, aged or convalescent. The pastor will decide upon each case.

Where the individual and the family desire it, friends and neighbors may attend, and all may receive Holy Communion. Although the reason now differs, the practice of having the liturgy in private homes is as old as the state of Georgia. When there were no churches, homes became God’s sacramental dwelling place as in 1847 when Father Shannahan offered Atlanta’s first Mass in the residence of the Lynch family.

All this -- and Easter!

What is the link? Thanks to the movement of the Holy Spirit over the Christian world of our times, we are being moved ourselves to think things through, -- spiritual things, holy things, the things of the Gospels, the Sacraments and the Creed, the things of God. We are crossing over, in Paschal style, from the darkness of our comfortable past with its routine and sentiment to the shocking news of Easter morning:

“He is not here!”

Brides and grooms receiving by both bread and wine will see more sharply, if just for a moment, what Christ’s full act meant. Priests gathered around the altar for concelebration will recognize the bond that links every ordained man in the world. The sick and the aged, in their bed or chair at home, will find their room a new “Upper Room” where the priest is acting as another Christ, and family and friends are other Apostles.

Much has happened in the Church these past five years. Much more is to come. We can resist it as some do by living on tradition. We can exploit it as some do by abandoning tradition. We can drift, not caring less.

Or we can live anew -- as Calvary and the Tomb complete their action in our daily lives. May God complete what He has begun in you and yours. My blessing as His steward and His bishop goes with you.

Sincerely in Christ,

Paul J. Hallinan

Archbishop of Atlanta