FOOD FOR THE SOUL

Very frightening statistics have recently come to light. A recent survey found that two-thirds of Catholics do not believe Church teaching about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

A recent Pew Research study found that just 31% of U.S. Catholics they surveyed believe that the bread and wine used in the Eucharist, through a process called transubstantiation, become the body and blood of Jesus. This is a fundamental teaching central to our Catholic faith.

 I tell Catholics if you do not believe this you need to exit the Church and find another, that caters to your need for socials.  My feeling is the “time is short and the waters are rising” and we need to take a stance to defend our faith and to teach this and future generations the truth!

Sixty-nine percent of Catholics surveyed reported their belief that the bread and wine used during the Eucharist “are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.”

“Overall, 43% of Catholics believe that the bread and wine are symbolic and also that this reflects the position of the church. Still, one-in-five Catholics (22%) reject the idea of transubstantiation, even though they know about the church’s teaching.”

Our friend, Bishop Robert Barron  of Los Angeles, said the study made him angry because it showed poor formation for generations in the Church.  The sad thing is those who never got it in the past are now teaching the present generation.

“This should be a wake-up call to all of us in the Church—priests, bishops, religious, laypeople, catechists, parents, everyone—that we need to pick up our game when it comes to communicating even the most basic doctrines of the Church,” Bishop Barron wrote on his blog Aug. 6.

Father Gerald Murray (on EWTN) says the purpose of Vatican II was to make the Liturgy more accessable to all, which meant making  the doctrine more easily explained and understood.  But we have the exact opposite. It is a free for all- the casual distribution of the Eucharist  (in the hand, not genuflecting, etc). Not only is it not taught by teachers,  but it is how the priest communicates the liturgy.  Father Murray says it makes him sad (and other priests have  told me the same thing) to see people receive with no sign of reverence.  He says we need to return to liturgical order, not the liturgical chaos we have.

I think in a past Blog I wrote how moved I was to read the words of Blessed Charles de Foucauld, who used to sit under the tablernacle in his hut and pray with the knowledge that when we receive the Body of Jesus, we are as close to Him as His Mother was when she carried Him in her womb.  Great food for thought!  When I tell this to people, they always stop in amazement. If every priest got in the pulpit on Sunday and said just this and sat down, people would fall over!

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: "Material food first of all turns itself into the person who eats it, and as a consequence, restores his losses and increases his vital energies. Spiritual food, on the other hand, turns the person who eats it into Itself, and thus the proper effect of this sacrament is the conversion of man into Christ, so that he may no longer live for himself, but that Christ may live in him.

We who receive the bread of angels, who have been invited to the Eucharistic Feast, now have His Divine life within us.  This means we spiritually bring Christ into a world screaming for some new life. We are called to become living monstrances, repositories of the Bread of life for others and our Mother Mary is the model who shows us the way.

Emil Jacques- Cathedral Portland, OR

The English theologian Monsignor Ronald Knox  said this about the Holy Eucharist: “We have never, as Christians, been truly faithful to Jesus, no matter our denomination. In the end none of us have truly followed those teachings which most characterize Jesus- We have not turned the other cheek. We have not forgiven our enemies. We have not purified our thoughts. We have not seen God in the poor. We have not kept our hearts pure and free from the things of this world. But we have been faithful in one very important way- we have kept the Eucharist going.”