In our day and age people are more squeamish then ever. The Chalice is resisted not because people don’t like the symbolism it brings or because they want to receive the Sacrament differently than their fathers but because they are grossed out. They are afraid of germs and disease. They don’t want to share a cup, any cup, with other people.
And yet, Our Lord instituted the Sacrament with a single cup. A single cup strongly bears witness to the unity we confess in the Sacrament. A single cup can be a weighty and beautiful thing, a vessel more reverent and worthy of the Lord’s Blood than anything made of glass (or worse, plastic). As reverent as we try to be with individual glasses, it is hard to pull off. They aren’t historic (the first LCMS church to use them was in 1918!) and they are reminiscent of other things (shot glasses, toasting, etc.) It is hard to distribute them gracefully, and it is common-place for the trays to be sloppy and sticky with wine after the distribution. Plus, their historic origins lie firmly in the churches which rejected the real presence of the physical body and blood of Jesus in the Sacrament. To this day, outside of North America, there are few places where individual communion cups are common among those who confess the real presence.
Most ironic, though, is that the individual cups tend to be pretty unsanitary. Whereas the Chalice is made of precious metals that react with the alcohol in the wine to create a reasonably sterile environment and the rim is wiped between each sip, the little glasses hold bacteria and have frequent contact with the number-one germ carrier of man: his hands. People reach out and touch the rim of the individual glasses. That is how they pick them up. By the time of distribution they’ve shaken hands with a number of people (in fact this is the number one way disease and colds are transmitted), wiped their noses, touched the pews, the hymnals, etc. Their own hands are their own worst enemies. But their own hands aren’t the only ones. Those glasses have been touched on the rim a number of times before they get there and they are brushed by other communicants. So while the Chalice has the gross-out factor, it is far more sanitary than the cups.
I’m not making this up. The Center for Disease Control, in 1998, studied the use of the chalice in Communion and concluded:
that a theoretic risk of transmitting infectious diseases by using a common communion cup exists, but that the risk is so small that it is undetectable. The CDC has not been called on to investigate any episodes or outbreaks of infectious diseases that have been allegedly linked to the use of a common communion cup… In summary, the risk for infectious disease transmission by a common communion cup is very low, and appropriate safeguards – that is, wiping the interior and exterior rim between communicants, use of care to rotate the cloth during use, and use of a clean cloth for each service – would further diminish this risk.
The truth is, squeamishness aside, shaking hands, pushing a grocery cart, putting on your shoes or standing in line at the movies are significantly more dangerous activities than drinking the Lord’s blood from the Chalice.
But what of this idea that the Lord’s Blood might carry disease or sickness? Is it possible? Yes. There is no promise of physical protection from germs or disease in the Sacrament. The promise is that Our Lord’s Body and Blood are there for us to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins. It will be for our good. That is a sure and certain promise. But sometimes Our Lord sends crosses. It is possible, at least hypothetically, that we could grow sick, be disabled, or even die by something transmitted through the Chalice or a glass that held the Blood of Christ. I don’t think it is likely. But there is no promise of God that it won’t happen. But where Our Lord sends crosses, He also sends strength. If this be His will, so be it. It will be for good.
In the meantime, I count myself highly privileged to consume whatever is left in the Chalice at the end of the distribution, germs and all. If there were something harmful in the Chalice, I would catch it. The truth is, in the over three years since I’ve been doing this, I’ve only been sick once and I’m quite certain I caught it from my kids. But, even if communing from the Chalice should mean a cross, I’ll gladly bear it. For the Blood of Christ will see me through. My sins are forgiven and this is not my home.
