We Have Lost Our Story
The Real Presence
Photo By: Flickr/catholicimages
A recent poll has found the 2/3 of Catholics don't believe in the real presence. Yep, that's right 2/3 of Catholics don't believe that Christ is found Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist. Of course, these are probably ironically the same Catholics who embrace the "Spirit of Vatican 2". It shows just how ignorant most of us are and have become about our faith, since Vatican 2 proclaimed the Eucharist as the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ and insisted that it is the source and summit of the Christian life.
I am not sure though why so many seem so surprised by this finding. In an era where we embrace our own individualistic ideas and fashions of our Faith, why do we find it so shocking that this is just way too much for so many to believe and to handle. I mean, maybe we should be relieved that so many don't believe in the real presence since they approach and behave so irreverently in the communion line and even in the act of receiving.
Seriously, take a look at how we approach our Lord and Creator. We come to Mass in shorts and flip flops, that is if we decide that meeting and relating to our Lord in such an intimate way is worthy of our time at all. We jovially bounce up the aisle in the communion line shaking hands and hugging those in the seats along the way. We trip over our neighbor trying to shake hands with everyone we can during the peace offering. WE receive in the hand, without a bow or any sign of recognition about the awesomeness that we are privileged to encounter. So, maybe it is better that those behaving in such ways don't believe, because. if they act this way and believe, that could actually be the even bigger and greater tragedy.
Friends, the true tragedy in the Church today is not this sexual abuse scandal, the real tragedy is this, that most of us have totally lost the Faith altogether. Yes, we may be in the pews every Sunday, but that doesn't mean we know why we are there, and how we are to worship our God. Don't think that these two tragedies are not related. The latter is the disease, the former just the symptom. We must treat the disease because honestly it has reached epidemic proportions and still being ignored to such a huge degree. The death that this disease reaps is not just a temporal one, it is death that will last an eternity for many.
So, maybe it is time to embrace that Spirit of Vatican 2 and come to know Jesus more actively, genuinely and gratefully in the Eucharist. Coming to him in a state of humility and awe instead of one of jovially and cavalierly.
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