Phobias Amid Certain Gatherings

So, growing up our family did not attend church often. Mom considered herself Catholic and dad Baptist. I remember the few times as a child I went to church with mom thinking about the strange way they did communion, at least that’s the way I saw it. First it made me mad that only people who had completed communion classes could take communion. I, of course, had not had communion classes nor was I ever enrolled in them. I used to say to myself what gives them the right to hold communion from me simply because I had not attended or completed the classes. I also wanted the Body of Christ, and I knew that Jesus would not keep it from me simply for not showing I had completed some classes that apparently was the only way I was worthy of receiving communion. And then there was the “Blood of Christ” and as much as I wanted to drink from the cup, I knew I would never do so even if I had completed the communion classes. All I could think of is how person after person would drink from the same cup with just a wipe with a cloth between people. It did not make sense to me; it just completely grossed me out. I liked going to my dad’s church because there you would be given communion and there were no criteria you had to meet. The Body of Christ was a piece of a saltine cracker, and the Blood of Christ was grape juice in a small paper cup kind of like the ones that were or maybe still are used in hospitals when they hand you your medication.

The only times I have attended a Catholic church since then has been for funerals or a wedding here and there. No disrespect to the Catholic church but even as a child I realized that religion was not for me. Over the years while at church I sit out the communion process and no I still have not taken the classes nor do I intend to. Once I thought how would they know if I have or have not, if I want communion by gosh, I will get communion! But no, I do not get in line. While this drinking out of the same cup as other people does not appeal to me, it does not apply just to the Catholic church. I remember when in my heydays I would go see the male strippers, screamed and hollered at them along with my friends enjoying their performance but, when they started to come up to the crowd to start kissing women I would quickly move way back where they could not see me. My thought was how ghastly of them to move from mouth to mouth and the women happily receiving them. YUK!

When Covid hit I was thinking that maybe the practice of everyone drinking from the same cup in church would be a thing of the past. I believe they stopped doing that during Covid, but they went right back to it after Covid although Covid has never completely disappeared. Recently I went with my husband to a funeral of his cousin and yes it was a Catholic service. When it came time for communion the people started to line up and walk up to receive it. Sitting on the pew I watched as again people are drinking from the same cup while the cup is cleaned with one swipe of a cloth after each drink. Does that one swipe really clean the cup to where cooties aren’t passed from one person to the next I wondered.

I am pretty sure this tradition has been part of the Catholic church for a long time if not since its conception and will continue to be a part of it from here on out. The one thing I am happy to see is, now the Father does not always put the Body of Christ in your mouth, you can request to have him put it in your hand and YOU can put it in your mouth. Again, no disrespect to the Catholic church, this story is more about my own phobias.