The Last Supper Chalice (Valencia) |
If you had a party at your house and invited me to finish the remainder from a common cup of wine from which everyone else had already drank, I would respectfully refuse. I would not finish the dregs. No thank you.
At Mass priests and deacons are frequently required by their pastors and by their bishops to finish the dregs of the common "cup," in their own house, the house of God under their charge! And the repugnant circumstance is not with mere wine, but with God's Blood itself! Talk about bad bishops and priests abusing their authority and abusing their inferiors. No one should be obligated to treat the Sacred Species so disrespectfully and with such total disregard for the religious sensibilities of the ministers of God under their charge.
That is just one more argument against the use of the common communion "cup." It is at a forced banalization of the most sacred Thing, Jesus Christ Himself.
Another reason not to have the common "cup" is that it routinely creates an artificial "need" for extraordinary ministers for the distribution of Holy Communion on a daily basis, in quite ordinary circumstances. The creation of such a false need is condemned by the Church, here.
Also, the passing of the "cup" is always communion in the hand. The people have to self-communicate.
All priests and deacons are in charge of the defense of the rights of God in The Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Do you duty. Defend the Body and the Blood of the Lord against every abuse. Refuse the common "cup."