Monday Musings - It Is So Hard…It Is So Heart-Wrenching…It Is So Painful

(Photo by Laura Allen on Unsplash)

What is so hard, so heart-wrenching and so painful?

The lack of belief in, and reverence for, Our Lord and Savior, really and substantially present in the Blessed Sacrament!

So relatively few Catholics believe this fundamental and essential Truth of our Faith.

Only a scant minority treasure this most Precious Gift.

For the most part, we have abandoned, ignored and disrespected our imprisoned Lord.

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Many souls were denied access to Him from the outset of this pandemic. I, and many others, fear that few are the Adoration Chapels which chose to close, that will ever fully reopen.

Knowing this lack of belief to be true, should not our primary catechetical focus be on re-establishing a sense of awe, amazement, belief in, and excitement for, our Eucharistic Lord?

You would think so, wouldn’t you? But let me share just two recent experiences that shed some doubt on that expectation.

The first public Mass my wife and I were permitted to attend since the pandemic arrived on our shores happened to be in another state where we traveled to celebrate our grandson’s high school graduation. Mass was still unavailable in my home parish at the time of this trip. This was the very first public Mass this parish celebrated since the Churches had been closed in March.

This Church had been rebuilt just a few years ago with a tabernacle centered in the middle of a clearly defined sanctuary. In less than a year, the tabernacle was removed and placed somewhere else in the Church complex (It was certainly not in a prominent place.) Nonetheless, my wife and I were grateful to attend Holy Mass, and on the feast of Corpus Christi no less. Sadly, the homilist uttered not a word on the gift of God’s Real Presence among us. He made no mention of what this great Gift meant to him or whether he even spent time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. He extended no invitation and offered no recommendation that his sheep come to visit our Lord. He simply read one section on the Eucharist from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

There is nothing I heard or saw that morning that would have fostered in me or any of the other souls present there (so few in number though we were) a greater belief in, and reverence for, our Eucharistic Lord or would have encouraged any of us to stop in during the week to visit and spend time with Him.

A few weeks later, I received an e-mail that included a link to a diocese’s Office of Catechesis which left me dumbfounded.

Remember now how few are the Catholics who still believe in Jesus’s physical presence among us and how few have returned to Mass where it is being offered. The following excerpt (though literally truthful) demonstrates how little He is really appreciated:

“Did you know that Christ is made present in four ways during the Mass? You may already know that Christ is present (my emphasis) in the Eucharist, but Christ is also present as the Assembled People, in the Word Proclaimed, an in the person of the Priest.”

My response to the author of these words: No, most Catholics don’t know that Jesus Himself is really, substantially and physically present in the Sacred Eucharist and until they do, it is fruitless to discuss “the other ways” He may be present.

You may already know? But if you don’t, we will just move on to something else. Are you kidding me?

Oh, how my heart aches for the indifference and ingratitude I and others have shown our God. How tormented must be the Sacred and Pierced Heart of our loving Lord!