Can Someone Be Denied Holy Communion?

hi my name is father mike schmitz and this is ascension presents so um this might be a little bit of a rough video uh i guess we'll just start [Music] so years ago i work on a college campus that has a medical school and at one point after one of the sunday night masses one of the medical students came up to me and he said father i want to share with you this manifesto that i've written and i and i he told me more about it and he said you know we had an embryology sex section in our medical school and for for weeks we studied um how human life is conceived how human life begins how human life it develops and how human life develops in the womb and it comes to fruition essentially in childbirth and he said we had this whole section on embryology how like the this the mystery and incredible power and beauty of human conception development and childbirth and he said and then at the end of that section they gave us a section on abortion how to how to perform an abortion and he said i said this is wait a second did you or do we not all go through the same class where we just have been studying the fact that this is human life from the moment of conception because think about this like you can ask the question scientifically is this life or not life well it's life scientifically okay what kind of life is it is it human life or other life it's human life so you realize okay this is human life from the moment of conception and now they're teaching us how to end this human life before birth and so he wrote this manifesto saying we're not actually quote unquote you know following the science that we're actually denying science at some level if we can have this course on embryology and we can also say the hippocratic oath right first do no harm but then also give ourselves permission to end this innocent human life just because someone says this is life that's not wanted now when it comes to abortion um obviously it's a loaded topic because i know that you know these videos reach a lot of people i know that there are many people who are going to be watching this or listening to this who that's part of your story part of your story is that you've had an abortion you participated in an abortion you encouraged someone you paid for an abortion that's a part of your story and i i want to let you know like i'm gonna i work with high school students and college students and so i've been part of that story for a lot of people and if you want to say father mike what kind of heart do you have to to people who have an abortion or people who have helped others have an abortion the heart i have is the heart of just someone whose hearts breaks because i cannot imagine i've walked with enough people in this moment but i i cannot imagine the the fear you went through i can't imagine the amount of stress you went through i can't imagine feeling so trapped that this is my only option the only thing i can possibly do with my life is to end the life of my baby i can't imagine that so if you want to know what my heart is for you my heart is just the heart that's broken for you because i don't hate you i'm not mad at you the church doesn't hate you the church isn't mad at you you can't imagine being in that kind of situation can't imagine having to make that kind of decision especially my guess is you're probably pretty young nonetheless we also can't say that that's not wrong in fact mother teresa at one point she said if abortion isn't wrong nothing's wrong right if if killing an innocent human being is not wrong then nothing is wrong that if we can say this is human life but uh it's not life worthy of living because it's unwanted then there's nothing that's wrong that's one of the reasons why again for those people who have been in that situation we're out of fear out of whatever kind of like feeling trapped he chose this again again the lord just he looks at you with love he looks you with mercy god's mercy for you is new every day he's not holding it against you he wants you to come back to him to let your heart be healed to be reconciled to him it's one of the reasons why the church has words of encouragement for you but also has really really strict words of though for those who advocate for abortion right for those who provide abortions for those politicians who would say that this isn't just this isn't uh even a necessary evil but this is a right this is in fact some people say this is a good that you can have to be able to kill an innocent human being in their mother's womb it's one of the reasons why politicians who advocate for abortion i would say that they're um well again i can't make a value judgment on on their hearts or on their souls because i don't know that information but i do know that they are in incredibly dangerous territory it's one of the reasons why recently the bishops have discussed whether um they're gonna make a public statement that would prohibit uh giving holy communion to abortions uh politicians who are pro-abortion and you know that's been met with a lot of uh blowback and people have like a lot of criticisms for that like they maybe think oh the bishops are politicizing the eucharist or they're trying to strong-arm people into you know obeying kind of a situation and in fact there's even a politician who tweeted out something he's a apparently a quote-unquote catholic politician who tweeted out something along the lines of here's all the things that i support and that are against catholic church teaching and he said this he said and i defy the bishops to deny me holy communion i remember reading that tweet thinking i mean i don't know this person i have no idea who they are remember thinking oh my gosh like that is dangerous oh my gosh this is like this is you have no idea how dangerous this is not because this is a about abortion although in this particular case it is but when it comes to holy communion to say i defy you to deny me holy communion if i were to say that my bishop i bishop i defy you to deny me holy communion i think oh my goodness something is something has gone horribly horribly wrong with my relationship with the lord something has gone horribly horribly wrong with the way i approach the eucharist because let's talk about this again it's one thing to talk about politicians one thing to talk about one particular kind of sin that the lord just keeps calling people back to repentance and experience experience by mercy if you've fallen into that sin of abortion come back to me and be forgiven like be reconciled be made whole again that's that's one thing and again it's another thing to fall into the trap of being able to say i want to point to these politicians and and criticize them and i point to these politicians and condemn them that's a whole other thing as my friend dave ramsey he's not my friend but i listen to him a lot as dave ramsey says he says it's a lot easier to pay attention to what's going on in the white house than what's going on in your own house but that's what we have to do right what we have to do today in this video is not necessarily pay attention to what's going on in the white house or what's going on in someone else's house but what's going on in my house because that tweet saying i defy the bishops to deny me communion that could be any one of us because a lot of us we might whether we like it or not we might have our own kind of particular like pet sins our pet things that the church says do not do this and we're like you know what i'm the exception to that the church says you have to do this i'm like no i don't have to do that and i defy you to deny me holy communion but here's the the earth shaking shaking and just horrible horrible potential thing here it's more about the eucharist than it is about uh anything else more about our hearts than about anything else the eucharist is not a right that if you're catholic the eucharist is not your right it's not my right it is a gift it is always in everywhere a gift and it is a gift that when we receive it worthily we're given eternal life but if we receive that gift unworthily scripture says we eat condemnation upon ourselves another way to say it in first corinthians chapter 11 if we eat and drink holy communion in conscious of conscious immortal sins then saint paul says we are eating we are guilty of the body and blood of the lord basically his murder is on our hands that if we again do we keep keeps in mind you know the gift of the eucharist is such that if we receive him worthily that we he gives us eternal life but if we receive the eucharist unworthily we are eating condemnation upon ourselves that's one of the reasons why the church has always taught regardless of what the mortal sin is it doesn't matter what the mortal sin is that if i'm conscious of mortal sin i may not receive holy communion until i go to confession first or else what am i doing i'm doing exactly what saint paul said in first corinthians chapter 11. i am eating and drinking condemnation upon myself i am guilty of the murder of jesus christ that's why again this isn't just about those who have fallen into this particular sin of abortion it's not just about politicians living in whatever house it is about you and about me because we might find in our own hearts this this this willingness to defy the bishops or the willingness to defy the lord or to defy the church and say i defy you to deny me holy communion and yet the words of scripture are absolutely clear we must if we're conscious of mortal sin we must go to confession before receiving holy communion or we are eating and drinking condemnation to our eternal to our eternal salvation or the loss of our eternal salvation our eternal damnation and i know that there is such a thing as like when it comes to the eucharist like when it comes to the gift of mercy right pope francis had said very clearly he said the eucharist is not the reward for perfection and not the reward for those who are you know spiritual superheroes but he said it is medicine for the sick and you can say like what father i thought holy communion is medicine for the sick it is but it is not medicine for the dead and if i'm guilty of mortal sin that's it's called mortal sin because it means i have spirit my soul is spiritually dead i'm spiritually cut off from the lord so yes when it comes to venial sins we continue to approach the lord jesus in in is in confidence in hope knowing that the eucharist is medicine for the sick but if we're conscious of mortal sins we do not approach the eucharist because the eucharist is not medicine for the dead confession is medicine for the dead to bring us back to life so that we can go and receive holy communion again this is a heavy heavy word isn't it a heavy word today for the ascension present stuff usually it's really upbeat usually it's kind of a pick-me-up kind of a situation and yet from the beginning to the end this is heavy it's not sad but it is grave god calls us all back to himself if i've wandered away from him if i've rebelled against him if i've rejected his teachings he says today let this be the moment of reconciliation let this be the moment of coming back to confession so that you and i can come back to communion and not eat and drink condemnation upon ourselves but receive the gift not the right the gift of the eucharist and the gift of eternal life i'm praying for you and again if you've received if you've had an abortion you help someone have an abortion you are not you are not alone you're not abandoned you're not disqualified you're invited back home and if you're a politician who has been in defiance of the lord and defined to the of the church come back you can also you can come back too and if you're just like me and you have a broken heart and you keep sinning just like me let's go to confession let's be united reunited to the lord and to his family to his body and let him pick you back up we all need his mercy which is why his mercies are new every single day and they're here for you and for me too which is great for all of us here at ascension percents my name's father mike god bless [Music] you

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 87,450

Rating: 4.9469614 out of 5

Keywords: Fr. Mike, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents, Ascension, Ascension Youtube, Ascension Press, Father Mike Schmitz, Fr. Mike advice, Father Mike advice, fr. mike schmidt, abortion, eucharist, mortal sin, denied communion, excommunication, biden denied communion, bishops denying communion, denying holy communion, canon 915, pro-choice catholic, politicians denied communion, catholic politicians, receiving unworthily, supporting abortion

Id: Lzd7JYnWx0I

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 18 2021