I have tried to maintain contact with people by phone over the past 2/3 weeks. Last evening I was talking with Fr Kevin Clinton. Kevin and I both retired from active ministry on June 30, 2019. I was talking to him about some of the “guidelines” the Archdiocese had sent priests and deacons about sacraments during this time of quarantine.
As Catholics, we believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament (the hosts consecrated at Mass). There are some who are devoted to the honorable practice of meditation in front of the Blessed Sacrament. The recommendation was that if this devotion was to continue in parish churches, social distancing has to be strictly observed and the church disinfected at regular intervals to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Other suggestions was to have the Blessed Sacrament exposed from a window so that people can sit in their parked cars and meditate. One priest in New Brighton has been bringing the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance (in reality a big, golden reliquary) to city parks so that people can meditate from their cars in the parking lots of the city’s parks. I do not poo-poo Eucharistic Adoration, however, if one only finds the real presence of Christ in a consecrated host placed in a overly decorated golden vessel, then it is problematic. This is not Eucharistic adoration, but more Eucharistic magic. It basically denies the real, incarnate presence of God in all of creation.
We cannot isolate God to a consecrated host in a monstrance. God is everywhere, in the air, the earth, our water, all living creatures, and especially in one another. The Eucharist is not magical, it is very concrete. When we receive holy communion, the presence of Christ becomes very much one with our corporal bodies, becoming part of our very breath, our blood, our flesh, our hearts.
As Kevin and I were talking about this, he told me that one of the priests who is a part of the AUSCP (Association of United States Catholic Priests) spoke to him about some young priest in his diocese who had a camera trained on a Consecrated host so people could do “virtual” Eucharistic Adoration. I said it reminded me of the “Yule Log” loop that is on a cable station during the Christmas season, in which you see the same fire place with burning logs on a recorded loop on your television. Every now and again a virtual hand stirs up the burning logs. I said that this “virtual Eucharistic Adoration” reduces Eucharistic Adoration to a “sacramental Yule Log.” I suggested, tongue in cheek, that perhaps the priest could film the Blessed Sacrament, putting it on a recorded loop with Benediction every two hours.
To think we can control and confine God to just one form is poor and bad theology. It reduces the Blessed Sacrament/Eucharist to magic. I remember visiting a young man who was dying. While he had been baptized Catholic, he hadn’t really lived his faith during his lifetime. He had rosary beads hung around his neck like a magical talisman. He put all his trust, in his words, “in the beads.” I visited him a week later. His condition was growing worse. He complained that “the beads weren’t working”. I asked him if he ever took them off from around his neck and tried praying the rosary? He hadn’t. He died a couple of days later. His belief that a rosary was a magical talisman that would somehow prevent his death, didn’t prevent his dying. The rosary is a form of prayer, like many other forms of prayer. You must put it into action.
While praying before the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is a good practice, I think it far more important in respecting and honoring the presence of Christ in ALL of God’s Creation. When we open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to the real presence of God all around us and within us, we don’t have to confine ourselves to the darkened nave of a church to pray in the presence of God. We can do this anywhere, any place, and any time. Simply, staying home, finding a quiet place, sitting down in silent prayer will sustain us as well if not better than sitting in a parked car in a city park and looking at a golden monstrance with a consecrated host. As Archbishop Hebda expressed so very well, it is Catholic teaching (Catechism) “That God is not bound by the sacraments.” I think this is an important teaching at this time of isolation.
While it is true that God is not bound by the sacraments he chooses to bind Himself to them. I think that equating the way in which God is present in the Eucharist (body, blood, soul and divinity) to the way he is present in his creation undermines the greatness of the Blessed Sacrament. We would we need to receive Him in the Eucharist if he us already present in his creation i.e. us?
Thank you Daniel for your thoughts. The importance of the Eucharist I do not question one bit. It is, as the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Vatican II) states that is the font from which all grace flows. However, as Catholics, we tend to limit the only experience of God to the Eucharist. We still make Jesus a prisoner of the tabernacle and have a tendency to think that the only “sacred space” in which to encounter God is the dark interior of a church. I believe that it behooves us to learn from Francis of Assisi who worshiped God in nature as intensely as he worshiped God in the Eucharist. Francis was able to see within all life, no matter how lowly its form might be, the presence of God, going so far as to remove earthworms from the roadway to prevent them being trampled by the hoofs of horses along the road. After all, God is Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth. All things were created through God and hold, figuratively speaking, God’s DNA. God is not constrained to human rituals and rules. When we begin to worship the real presence of God in all of our environment at the same level we worship the real presence of God in the Eucharist, then we will be well on our way of building the reign of God in our world.
Deacon Bob
Thank you so much for this post. I am a lay Catholic missionary in the Ecuadorian Part of the Amazon jungle. We often go without sacraments and our communities sometimes go years without being able to attend mass. I have learned to encounter Jesus, to expect to encounter him in the poor, in the beauty of nature, in silence, in the joys and sorrows of those we encounter. How sad it would be if these people could only travel to encounter Jesus in His “real” presence. He comes to us, seeks us, draws her to us and is really present in many ways. Thanks again.
Good morning Jonathan,
Again, I apologize for responding to you so late. I cannot begin to express the admiration I have for you. When I was a kid, many, many, many years ago, the nuns use to regale my class with stories of missionaries. Of course, as a grade school kid, we all had romantic notions of what it would be like to be a missionary. Then, informed after many, many years of ministry in the Church, one quickly casts aside the romanticism of ministry as one is introduced to the rigor of ministry. It is hard enough ministering to people in rural, small town, inner city, and suburban parishes in Minnesota (the Archbishop kept moving me to wherever he need me … each with a reduction in salary … sigh), I cannot believe the challenges you are facing in the jungle of Ecuador. Of all the parishes in which I have served, the one that altered my life the greatest was running an inner city parish in Minneapolis that served the poor. The parish had a homeless shelter that served 41 men every night. It was all run by volunteers. We fed the poor five days a week. We had outhouses in the parking lot of the school so that the homeless would have a dignified place to go to the bathroom. It was said that one pastor, Fr Ed Flavin genuflected in front of the poor as he genuflected in front of the Blessed Sacrament at Mass. His successor was said to have genuflected in front of the poor on both knees, as he would in front of the Blessed Sacrament. When the Archbishop assigned me to run the parish (he couldn’t find a priest who wanted to be pastor), I followed in the footsteps of these two priests. My life was changed, challenged, and transformed by the poor. When the Archbishop’s successor decided to close down everything (the successor had to resign in disgrace four years later), I really felt a great loss. Living on the margins of the Church was a very blessed place to be, as hard as it could be. A good friend of mine once said, “When I was ordained, I found myself walking in the middle of the road of the Church. After all these years I find myself walking in the left ditch alongside the road of the Church.” Years of ministering to the poor, including a number of years in Venezuela, transformed him incredibly. While I will never dismiss the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, as you have discovered, the Divine real presence is not just isolated to consecrated bread and wine. Rather, the Divine real presence is everywhere, especially in the people we serve. As Hans Buber so succinctly state in “I and Thou”, the three thresholds in which we have relationship with God is nature, interpersonal relationships, and interiorly. I love the metaphor Buber uses for the second. Our relationships with others is a window upon which we look on the face of the Divine Thou. Last but not least, while at that inner city parish, I ministered to a large Latino population, half of whom were Ecuadorian. We celebrated in great joy La Virgen de Cisne in January, and El Divino Nino in July. When I had my monthly meeting with the Latino parish council, I always would know who prepared the food for the meeting. The Mexicans loved their chicken spicy, while the Ecuadorians loved their chicken a little less spicy. It was all good. Blessings to you during this Holy Week!
Bob Wagner