Near-Sacramental Experiences

Why do people want what is almost, but not quite, Jesus Christ? And what do we do when someone really cannot receive the sacraments right now?

Count your blessings if you have no idea where this question comes from, and I paraphrase:

“Are there actually real people out there who would be interested in something similar to Catholic confession, except confessed to an AI-generated chatbot rather than to a real priest?”

The questioner was dubious. Certainly the scenario must be strictly a lab-hypothetical, right?

I was not nearly so convinced. My reasoning? People ask *all the time* for things that are like a Catholic sacrament but aren’t quite there. For example, with respect to . . .

Baptism: It is very difficult to persuade Catholics and non-Catholics alike that invalid forms of Baptism don’t confer the sacrament. They reason that the intentions are good and God will make up the difference. They argue that if a previously-attempted baptism is found to be invalid, it shouldn’t negate any downstream sacraments (ordination in particular).

Communion: One of the most painful situations with respect to the Eucharist is when there is a good reason someone requests to use invalid matter for Communion (for example wheat-free hosts or non-alcoholic grape juice) in response to a serious medical problem. It is very common for affected individuals to feel hurt and excluded when told these options are not possible.

Marriage: My goodness where to begin! Fundamentally sacramental marriage is not like the usual practice in our wider culture. It takes tremendous grace to accept the news that what truly feels like the right marital situation is not, in fact, consistent with the practice of the faith.

We could go on and on.

In my experience, many people likewise want something that "counts" as sacramental confession, but which bypasses the in-person encounter with the priest. This could be due to practical obstacles, due to bad experiences with the sacrament in the past, or due to simply not understanding why the sacrament is how it is.

Likewise many non-Catholics experience a desire to confess their sins, because it just plain feels good to get them off your chest and start fresh.

Thus I can easily imagine where someone in good faith would reason that as long as there was personal repentance and a desire to get right with God, maybe the bot is okay in a pinch? (It’s not. Sorry.)

How are we to respond to all this?

#1 Sincerely recognize the heart behind the desire.

These various types of requests for near-sacraments almost always come from a good place. They represent a genuine longing for closeness to God and to the Christian community.

We should scrupulously avoid ridiculing or demeaning those who are struggling to understand why their longings for holiness cannot be fulfilled the way that they had hoped.

#2 Acknowledge that the answers aren’t always obvious.

Never assume someone is being willfully obstinate. You and I might geek out on theology questions, but most ordinary people *do not* know the "fine print" of the Catholic sacraments.

Regular people think through their situation as best they can, take a stab at a reasonable answer, and sometimes it turns out they are mistaken. Theology geeks do that too, every now and then. It happens.

#3 Make it as easy as possible to fix the problem if it can in fact be fixed.

This is probably one of the greatest needs for reform in the Church today — we have a bad habit of making it far too difficult to be Catholic. Our goal in parish life isn’t to set up an obstacle course to Jesus. We aren’t here to create tests so people can prove just how badly they want the sacraments.

Rather, we should view it as our mission to clear every barrier to help those in need of grace get closer to the Lord.

#4 Find ways for those who can’t receive the sacraments to still be enfolded and embraced within the parish community.

Saint Paul writes about the Church (1 Corinthians 12: 22-26):

22 On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so adjusted the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, 25 that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

If there is no one in your parish who is unable to receive the sacraments, you aren’t evangelizing.

Evangelization means reaching out and welcoming and bringing into the community people whose lives aren’t all the way pulled together yet. People with big problems. People whose situations won’t necessarily get tidied up in a timely fashion.

The sacraments are the fountain of grace within the Church, and yet . . . if your parish only has room for people currently able to “fully participate” your parish is an exclusive club of nasty, heartless, self-centered dolts.

Don’t be this way. There is so much the Church has to offer in her treasury of devotions for those who are most in need of mercy and gentleness! Identify some of these that are helpful and meaningful to your members who are in sacramentally-precarious situations and make them central to your parish community.

Let those who think themselves such strong Christian warriors suck it up and forgo their favorites so that the parish has the time and energy to offer what succors those most in need.

This is what an evangelizing parish does.

Artwork: The Defenders of the Eucharist by Peter Paul Reubens. Guide to the saints depicted, from the Museo Del Prado (links provided by the museum):

This panel depicts seven saints who worked to safeguard and promote the Eucharist. On the left are Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory the Great. In the centre is Saint Clare of Assisi, who is given the features of the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, Rubens’s patron who commissioned this series. The bareheaded Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas asserts the doctrine of the Eucharist and its inspiration in the Holy Spirit above. Next to him are Saint Norbert and Saint Jerome, who reads his Vulgate translation of the Bible.