A few years ago, the American bishops were shocked, dismayed and perhaps a
bit depressed by the result of a survey, which had shown that only thirty-one
percent of Catholics in the USA believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in
the Eucharist – in other words, only around one third of all Catholics said that
they believe that at Mass, the Holy Spirit changes the bread and wine into the
Body, Blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, leaving behind only the
outwards appearances of bread and wine. Flip the figure the other way, and it
was saying that sixty-nine percent of all people in America who were saying
they were Catholic, when it comes to the Eucharist, are actually Protestant in
their beliefs.
Around the same sort of time, something of a similar type happened on-line:
the militant atheist Richard Dawkins decided to attack Catholic beliefs in the
Eucharist. Catholics then responded with something along the lines of: “That’s
not what we believe; this is what we believe”, and in the process, showed that
their beliefs were Protestant. It then took other Catholics to respond, correcting
the first group of people, and to then explain why Catholic beliefs actually
make sense.
So in America, the bishops didn’t just give up and go home. Instead, they put
together a three-year programme of Eucharistic revival, which earlier this year
involved processions from four points in America, tracing a cross across the
country, with a meeting point in Indianapolis, where sixty thousand people
gathered for a Eucharistic congress, with others joining via live stream.
But that is not the end. The idea was not just for people to attend, tick the box,
done that, now go back home and back to normal again. The focus of next year
is then on going out and bringing others back to Christ. Those who have been
healed, converted, formed and unified by the Eucharist have a mission. As the
revival website says: “We all need healing, yet many of us are separated from
the very source of our strength. Jesus Christ invites us to return to the source
and summit of our faith – his Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist.” (See
https://ewtn.co.uk/article-updated-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-national-eucharistic-revival/ and https://www.eucharisticcongress.org/ )
In today’s first reading, the people of Israel have seen all the wonders God has
worked leading them out of Egypt, through the desert and into the Promised
Land. They now have to make a decision. They can go and serve the false
gods of their ancestors, the false gods of the Amorites, or they can go and
follow the Lord. The people choose the Lord, saying why should they bother
with the other ones when the Lord is the One who has revealed Himself in such
an awe-inspiring manner and has done so much for them over all these years.
The idea behind the Eucharistic revival is that it will do something similar in
America – having experienced the grace of the Eucharistic processions and
various liturgies and Masses, and taken part in the Eucharistic Congress, they
will then want to re-commit themselves to the Lord, and also draw others in to
serve Him as well. Jesus wants more than people just to give Him a few likes
on Facebook.
In the Gospel, the people that are scandalised by the Lord and reject Him are
not those already opposed to Him – it comes instead from His disciples, the
crowds that were following Him. We all know people who have fallen away
from their Catholic faith, and it might well include people of our families, as
well as people perhaps at work or even friends where we don’t know that they
used to go to Mass many years ago. Even though a similar programme hasn’t
been arranged for this country so far, there are still various retreats we can book
into, talks and videos on-line, and our church is open during the day until
sunset for you just to pop in and pray for as short or as long as you like – it
doesn’t need anything too complicated; Jesus is here in the Blessed Sacrament
in the tabernacle. You can come and pray in your own words, sing hymns from
the hymn book in your head, reflect on the life of the Lord whilst praying the
Rosary, read through the Bible and see what takes your interest and inspires
your prayer, bring to Him your concerns and worries and those of other people
around you, and other forms of prayer as well. It can be a life-changing
encounter with the Lord, when He shows you that He is real and that He really
is here among us, what Pope St Paul VI referred to as the living heart of each of
our churches (see the Credo of the People of God). Then, like St Peter, we can
say to the Lord that yes, others have fallen away, but we will not. “Lord, who
shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know
you are the Holy One of God.”
Curious about exploring things further? If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk
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