Why Can’t I Go to Communion?

http://calvin2catholic.com/?p=348

What lies beneath this question is an often unstated assumption about the meaning of the Church and the sacraments. 

when the Catholic Church says, “No, we’re sorry, you can’t come to communion,” the Protestant assumes we are writing him off completely, that we are denying he is really a Christian.

fathers of the Second Vatican Council repeatedly affirmed that elements of truth and sanctification are found among non-Catholic Christians, and that their communities “have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation.” (Unitatis redintegratio)

The problem, rather, is that Catholics do not share the Protestant conception of Church.  

Christ founded one Church, in which there is but one faith and “one baptism.” (Ephesians 4:5, Ephesians 5:23, Matthew 16:18)  When St. Paul writes on the Church, he insists on both doctrinal and liturgical uniformity. (1 Corinthians 1:10, 11:16)

n the confessional, likewise, the priest is a kind of icon of Christ as well as Christ’s minister. He is the visible representation of that authority: ” Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them.” (John 20:23) To receive these Sacraments is to say, “I believe the Church that offers me these sacraments.”

Catholic Church doesn’t say to Protestants, “you’re not a Christian,” but rather, “you’re missing something. You are missing that full, visible communion with Christ’s faithful to which we are all called.” (John 17:21) 

When Protestants ask me about receiving Catholic sacraments, I usually ask them a question: Do you believe everything the Church teaches? Do you understand that taking the Eucharist is a pledge of your faith and obedience to the Catholic Church? If you do believe that, then why on earth aren’t you a Catholic? But if you don’t believe that, then why would you want to testify by your actions to a faith you reject? Once I put it in these terms they usually rethink their objections.