Alzheimer’s and Holy Communion

Some time ago, a person asked a similar question. Here is the question and answer that became an article in Forward in Christ.

“Dementia leads my elderly father to speak like he has lost his faith. To make matters worse, our pastor will not give him Communion. What am I to think?”

Like you, I’m saddened when anyone loses physical or mental abilities, especially when it is a family member. God’s design was that we have perfect bodies and minds here on earth, but sin’s entrance into the world introduced physical and mental suffering and, ultimately, death. You asked what you are to think of your father’s current situation. Here is what I would encourage you to think about.

Faith is a matter of the heart

While a book of the Bible like James teaches us that Christian faith is living and active (James 2:17), visible and audible in daily living, we want to keep in mind that faith is a matter of the heart. Faith is trusting in Jesus Christ as the Savior from one’s sin. The fact that your father cannot always express Christian faith does not mean that faith has vanished. I would liken his situation to a child.

Was your father baptized as an infant? Were you? I was. Could any of us right after Baptism express with our mouths the Christian faith the Holy Spirit planted in our hearts? No. The physical and mental abilities to do that had not yet developed. Still, the inability to confess Christian faith with the mouth at that young age did not mean faith was absent. Adults like your father can be in a similar situation at the other end of the age scale; diminished physical and mental capabilities can make it difficult for him to confess Christian faith consistently.

So is there a way to nurture and preserve his faith? That’s where your second question comes in.

The Word of God is powerful

While it is certainly understandable that you would like your father to receive Holy Communion—and your pastor shares that attitude—we want to remember what God says about the distribution and reception of the Lord’s Supper.

Scripture instructs us that “a man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28). God requires that people who desire to receive Communion examine their hearts beforehand. A proper examination leads to a confession of sins and a confession that Jesus gives his very body and blood in the Sacrament for the forgiveness of sins. The very young are not able to make this kind of examination and confession, and so we do not commune them until they can. In other cases, such as your father’s, waning mental capabilities may prevent Christians, periodically or continually, from examining themselves or expressing the results of an examination of the heart. In those instances, pastors have to make a judgment call and withhold Communion. And while family members like you can be frustrated about such a decision, I also can assure you that pastors are saddened to arrive at that course of action.

All this does not mean that your father is cut off from the means that will strengthen and preserve his faith. The simple spoken Word of God can penetrate his heart. When your pastor speaks God’s Word to your father and points him to the cross and the empty tomb, the Holy Spirit uses that Word to deepen and sustain faith. The Word is that powerful (Romans 1:16). Praise God for that power—and his promise to perfect our bodies and minds on the Last Day!