"It’s Worth Revisiting" Wednesday - Unlock The Doors Before It's Too Late
Thanks to the generosity and encouragement of Allison Gingras
and Elizabeth Riordan, an ever-expanding group of Catholic bloggers take the time
each week to re-post their favorite articles on “It’s Worth Revisiting”
Wednesday.
Do yourself a favor- go there now (and every Wednesday) and
let these authors bless and challenge you in Faith journey.
During the rest of each week. visit Allison at Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb. You will be pleased with what
they share.
Here is what I am sharing this week:
Unlock The Doors Before Its Too Late
(Originally posted April 1, 2011)
 |
| Image Source: Wikimedia Commons and Bob Jones) |
How
joyful I felt as I drove up to Your place later that same day. I did
not have a lot of time to spend with You, but You can do so much in such
a short period of time. It is nice to end my day with You, however
briefly our time together may be.
I
began talking to You as I walked towards the Church door. As I grabbed
the door handle, I was anxious to be with You. Suddenly, my peace was
shattered. The door was locked. I could not get in. You were there
waiting for me, but I could not get in. It was only 3:30 in the
afternoon!!! Had others come and been denied admittance? So few ever
visit You; how disappointed You must be when finally we come to see You
but cannot get in.
This
is not the first time that I have been locked out. I sometimes stop at
Your other places during my travels but cannot get in. For so much of
my life, I took You for granted and rarely thought of You. Now I am
incensed when we are kept apart. You told St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
that you have a “terrible thirst to be loved by your creatures in the
Most Blessed Sacrament”. You gave us this gift of Yourself. You long
for us to visit and to show You heartfelt appreciation for all that You
have done for us.
I
want to spend time in Your presence. I want my visits to be acts of
reparation for the all the offenses against Your Sacred Heart, including
those that I have committed. I know that You are with me wherever I
am. But You are really, truly and most especially present in the
tabernacles of all the Catholic Churches throughout the world, even if,
in some of these structures, Your tabernacle is hidden. Like little
Francisco of Fatima, I want to spend some time with my “hidden Jesus”.
You are the only thing of everlasting value in these buildings.
Why
(as St. Peter Julian Eymard observed more than 100 years ago) do we
have time for everything except for visits to our Lord and God, Who is
waiting and longing for us in the Blessed Sacrament? Why do so few
visit You? Why are those who try to so often locked out? Why are Your
Church and its members so timid and so silent about this great mystery
and gift? Why have we lost reverence for and belief in Your Real
Presence?
Why
do our activities in Church before Mass more resemble a social hour
than silent preparation for the reception of Your Body, Blood, Soul and
Divinity? How can we show You reverence when we sometimes have no
kneelers? Why is there so often no silent time for us to thank You
after receiving this magnificent gift? How can we adequately thank You
over the music and singing? How can we demonstrate our reverence and
appreciation for this Gift if sometimes we no sooner get to our pew than
Mass continues?
Perhaps
if silence were to return to our Churches before Mass, following the
Eucharist and after Mass ended, reverence for You would be restored.
Perhaps if the use of extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist was not
so ordinary and if we saw all of your priests and people handle and
receive Your Body and Blood more reverently, we would have a greater
appreciation for Your Real Presence. Perhaps if we were reminded each
Sunday at Mass by words and by what we see that You are really and truly
present in the tabernacle, more of us would come. Perhaps if we were
encouraged to visit You, more would do so.
Perhaps
if we knew that “every moment we spend in the presence of the Blessed
Sacrament deepens our union with Jesus, transforms us into the very
image and likeness of God Himself, and makes up for those who do not
know Him or do not love Him”, more would come.
Perhaps
if we knew that our late Holy Father (John Paul II) had asked that
there be Perpetual Adoration in every Catholic Church throughout the
world, more of us would come. Perhaps if we were taught that “every
holy hour draws the world and everyone in it closer to Christ”, more
would come. Perhaps if we knew that “every holy hour lifts up the whole
world to the Father for His blessing”, more would come. Perhaps if we
knew that “every holy hour would save a soul from going to hell and
bring that soul to heaven”, more of us would come.
We
are told that some seventy percent of those who profess to be Catholic
no longer attend Sunday Mass and that only thirty percent of those who
do actually believe that You are really and truly present in the Blessed
Sacrament. How can that be in the Church You founded?
Why
do we fail to “adore and visit Jesus, abandoned and forsaken in His
Sacrament of Love”? Is not the time long past due for all in Your
Church to teach more clearly and more emphatically of Your Real Presence
and the need for us to spend time in That transforming Presence? Is
not our wholehearted response to John Paul II’s plea (echoed repeatedly
by his successor Pope Benedict XVI) that we rediscover “a sense of awe
and amazement in the Eucharist”, also long overdue?
When
I initially wrote this reflection several years ago, I humbly suggested
that the Catholic Church respond to this sad reality by first unlocking
the doors of its Churches and by reinstating “silence” as the reverent
language spoken there.[1]
Small but essential steps, I thought then. “Jesus will be pleased,” I
wrote then. “He will transform our families, our Church, our
communities and us.”
Unfortunately,
not enough parishes have implemented these simple steps. Is there any
wonder then that rampant disbelief in Your Real Presence continues, or
that so many of our “locked Churches” have since been “permanently
closed” and our Lord evicted?
[1] Lest anyone feel that I am trying to impose my own personal preferences on the way we conduct ourselves and worship our Lord in our Churches, I would simply point out that much of what I have suggested here we are either already required to do under the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) or has been recommended in the Encyclicals and Apostolic Letters of our gifted Popes, living and deceased.
[This article originally appeared on The Integrated Life Channel of Catholic Exchange on April 14, 2010]