✠ Open Communion: The Table of Grace Is Not Closed
The Eucharist stands at the very heart of the Christian life: a sacred encounter with the living Christ, a participation in His body and blood, and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. At its core, it is not a reward for the perfect but a gift of grace for the hungry.
When we look to the example of Jesus, we see a table marked not by exclusion, but by radical hospitality. At the Last Supper, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke 22, Jesus shared bread and wine with disciples who would soon doubt, deny, and even betray Him. Yet He did not withhold Himself. He gave fully.
Likewise, the apostle Paul reminds us in Galatians 3:28 that in Christ, the divisions that separate humanity, Jew and Greek, slave and free, are overcome. The early Church gathered as one body, breaking bread together and embodying a new kind of unity grounded not in uniformity, but in grace.
At the same time, Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 calls believers to approach the table with reverence, self-examination, and discernment. The problem he addresses is not that too many are welcomed, but that the community has failed to live as one body—dividing, excluding, and humiliating one another.
Open communion arises from this tension: the table is both sacred and radically welcoming.
Some Christian traditions restrict the Eucharist to those who are baptized or in full doctrinal agreement, emphasizing the importance of unity in belief and sacramental integrity. This perspective deserves respect, as it seeks to honour the holiness of the sacrament.
Yet another perspective sees the Eucharist as a means of grace rather than a boundary marker. From this view, the table becomes a place where Christ meets people as they are and draws them deeper into communion with Himself. It is not the final reward of the journey, but nourishment along the way.
In this light, open communion reflects the heart of Christ, who fed the multitudes, welcomed sinners, and broke bread with all who came to Him. It proclaims that the grace of God is not limited, and that all who hunger and thirst for righteousness are invited to receive.
The table of Christ is not ours to close. It is His, and He continues to invite.
✠ Homily
Brothers and sisters,
The Eucharist is a mystery of love.
It is not something we earn. It is something we receive.
When Jesus sat at the table in the Gospel of Luke 22, He did not choose perfect people. He chose real people, fragile, confused, even broken. And yet, He gave Himself to them completely.
“This is my body… given for you.”
Not for the worthy.
Not for the flawless.
But for you.
And Saint Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 that the danger is not that too many come, but that we fail to recognize one another as the Body of Christ. That we divide. That we exclude. That we forget love.
Yes, we are called to examine ourselves. Yes, we are called to reverence.
But we must never turn the table of the Lord into a barrier that Christ Himself did not create.
The Eucharist is not a prize for the holy.
It is bread for the journey.
And so we remember:
Christ invites.
Christ gives.
Christ welcomes.
And where Christ welcomes, we must not close the door.