Every Wednesday, Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan invite Catholic bloggers to re-post their favorite articles
on “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays. Consider dropping in each week. I have no doubt you will read something that will touch your heart and stir your soul.
Go there now (and every
Wednesday). During the rest of each
week. visit Allison at Reconciled To You and
Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb.
Here is what I am sharing
this week:
The Elephant In Our Midst
(Originally posted May 5, 2011)
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| (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
More than a century and half ago, St. Peter Eymard made the following observations:
“Alas,
it is but too true: Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is not loved! He
is not loved by millions of pagans, by millions of infidels, by the
millions of schismatics and heretics who either do not know anything of
the Eucharist or have no notions about it. Among so many thousands of
creatures in whom God has placed a heart capable of loving, how many
would love the Blessed Sacrament if only they knew it as I do! Must I
not at least try to love it for them in their stead? Even among
Catholics, few, very few love Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. How
many think of Him frequently, speak of Him, come to adore Him? What is
the reason for this forgetfulness and coldness? People have never
experienced the Eucharist, its sweetness, the delights of His Love. They
have never known the goodness of Jesus! They have no idea of the extent
of His love in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Some
of them have faith in Jesus Christ, but a faith so lifeless and
superficial that it does not reach the heart, that it contents itself
with what is strictly required by conscience for their salvation. Moreover,
these last are but a handful among so many other Catholics who live
like moral Pagans as if they had never heard of the Eucharist.”
Things have not improved much since this lover of the Eucharist uttered these words.
When
will we stop ignoring the elephant that sits so prominently in our
Churches – the rampant disbelief in and lack of reverence for the Real
Presence of Our Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament? Polls indicate that
fewer and fewer Catholics believe this fundamental and essential truth
of their faith. Some polls conclude that as little as 30 percent of
Catholics who attend Sunday Mass actually believe that Jesus is really
and substantially present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Sacred
Eucharist.
This
is the greatest crisis confronting our Church today. Yet when was the
last time you heard this issue addressed from the pulpit?
Which
topic would you think is more deserving of being the subject of three
successive weeks of preaching: the lack of belief in and reverence for
the Holy Eucharist or the need to increase weekly collections?
You
might be surprised at the choices some Dioceses have made in
determining the relative importance of these two matters. For some, more
money in the weekly collection baskets rather than an all out effort to
catechize and foster reverence and belief in the Eucharistic Christ is
the preferred solution to the crisis of unbelief infecting Christ’s
Church. What a tragic choice.
We
have permitted this destructive elephant of irreverence and disbelief
to feel far too comfortable and welcome in our Churches. Evicting this
faith destroying monster from our midst must be priority number one.
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