Jennifer asked:Does a baby in the womb receive Jesus when his or her mother receives the eucharist?Patrick Madrid replied:"... The actual fact is no. The person who receives Holy Communion is the person who receives the body, blood, soul and divinty of Jesus. The sacrament does not pass through, so to speak, to the unborn child. One of the reasons for that, it's a theological reason ... Because in order to fruitfully receive the Holy Eucharist you have to have sanctifying grace in your soul. Because unborn babies are in the state of, or the condition of original sin they don't have sanctifying grace in their souls so they're unable we can say to benefit from, or to fruitfully receive the gifts of grace that come in the Holy Eucharist ... The sacraments are person speicfic. They come to us individually. We don't receive the sacrament as a herd or as a group of people. The only time that that's different is in the case of the sacrmanet of Holy Matrimony when two people receive it."Copyrights:© 2014 Immaculate Heart Catholic RadioEditor's note: This is an excerpt of the answer provided. For the complete response download the podcast. |  Click icon for archived podcast answering this question in its entirety. Show air date: February 4, 2014 Question appeared in show: 31:18 |
