Editing Blog:Recieving (not taking) Communion (section)

== "Taking" Communion -? ==
It seems that "taking" Communion is more commonly used by Protestants, and, if so, perhaps it represents a doctrinal diistinction regarding the Holy Eucharist. This website is uninterested in Catholic v. Protestant apologetic debates, so we will not go into the Protestant choice of words here, and, instead, focus on Catholic teaching of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and why one "recieves" and does not "take" Holy Communion. 

A possible source of the confusion may stem from the use of "partake" by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 17:

<blockquote>Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/10?16 1 Cor 10:16-17])</blockquote>

The word "partake" can be found in the Old Testament, such as in God's instructions to Aaron on sacrifices,

<blockquote>"You shall eat them in a most holy place; every male may partake of them. As holy, they belong to you." ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/numbers/18:10 Nm 18:10])</blockquote>

The term "partake" is especially important in the Old Testament in regards to participating in ungodly or demonic sacrifices, such as when the Jews were forced by the Greeks to "partake of the sacrifices" to Dionysus ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2maccabees/6?7 2 Mc 6:7]), whic is likely why Saint Paul, steeped in the Old Testament, warns the Corinthians,

<blockquote>You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons. ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/10?21 1 Cor 10:21])</blockquote>

"Partake" thereby means ''to participate in, to share in'', thus, Paul warns, one cannot "participate" or "share" in the table of the Lord while also attending the "table of demons." (That one must have startled a few Corinthians -- just as it ought startle us today.)  Let's look, then, at the larger context of what Paul means with to "partake of the one loaf":

<blockquote>The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/10?16 1 Cor 10:16-17])</blockquote>

The verses are among those from [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/10?14 1 Corinthians 10:14-22], warning the Corinthians against idolatry in participating in pagan rituals. Paul is not, thereby, describing the act of the Rite of Communion -- "partaking" is its context or its result, not the act itself.  
 
The act is one of reception. When Christ instructs the disciple to "take" the bread and the wine, it is a command through which he gives and they take, but "take" only in the sense of reception. We can only "take" from God what God gives to us. Any larger sense of "take" becomes an act of putting oneself above God.