Eucharistic Revival, How Can We Make It Happen?

Eucharistic Revival- How Can We Make it Happen?

It is always a great grace to speak about what Fr Faber called the most beautiful thing this side of heaven—and that is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And it would certainly be appropriate  to do this in the context of the American Bishops’ recent call for a three year program of Eucharistic Revival.

When we mention “Eucharist” and Eucharistic revival we must remember that  we are talking simultaneously  about Jesus,  His Real Presence, our reception of Holy Communion, and the Mass itself-=particularly the Mass as Sacrifice.

And when we are more aware of what actually happens at the Mass—that it is a true, mystical Sacrifice—we are better able to pray—better able  to talk to God and allow God to talk to us.

And the reason we can pray better - is  that when we know that the Mass is more than just the nice priest saying nice words to the nice people—and them making equally nice responses=-- when we know that the mass is  Christs Sacrifice from two thousand years in His moment of oblation and immolation--right there on our altar right now! and in heaven—when we ara aware of that  we are able to place ourselves  on the Cross with Jesus- in His sacrifice before the Father.

We enter into that very sacrifice. We are able to insert ourselves—our minds, our hearts and our souls into that very action of the Mass. We can imagine the Angel swooping down from Heaven  and taking those gifts on the altar— Jesus and us— to the Father.

And then when we receive His Body and Blood—in Holy Communion – and knowing and affirming in our heart that this is truly Jesus—the Bread of Life-- the Cup of  Salvation—the Food of Angels-- we experience real communion with --Our Lord—remembering that Communion means—literally-- union with.

As a pastor for more than thirty years, I have always recommended to my catechumens that when they go back to their pews after Holy Communion they lower their  heads-- cover their eyes and then whisper—actually whisper-- their prayers to Jesus.  

I would instruct them: “If it is Jesus—then we talk to Him—just  as  we talk to others. Tell Him what we need. Tell Him what’s in our hearts. And listen for Him to respond

This is what is really meant by active participation at Mass— our ceremonies and prayers tell us what is actually happening and then gently lead our souls to love.

And what the Eucharistic revival is about is trying to revive our belief and love and devotion for Jesus in Holy Communion and bring it back to the way it used to be

The Bishops have  realized that our Catholic people’s faith in the Eucharist is growing weak and maybe even evaporating.

We know, first of all, that not too many Catholics go to Church anymore.

In pre-covid  Chicago—Mass attendance was about 20%. Post Covid—its down to about 10%. That’s not good.

As well-- of all the Catholics in the USA—and that means whoever says they are Catholic-- and which may include people who haven’t been to church since their First Communion-- almost 70% of Catholics do not believe that the Communion Host is the Body of Christ.

It goes hand in hand—if you don’t believe that Holy Communion is the Body and Blood Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus—why would you go to Mass? What’s the point? you can stay home and watch cartoons.

So the bishops  have realized that we have a problem.

And they have called  for  conferences and articles  You sermons--and the occasional procession-- to try to resurrect our old Catholic devotion in the Eucharist. I am glad they are doing it.

 But maybe we are  putting the cart before the horse. Maybe the bishops need first  to discover the causes of our Eucharist malaise. 

Maybe we need to ask ‘Why? What happened ?  What decisions were made over the years that weakened and injured our understanding and love for  Holy Communion

When you lose something you  go back to the last place you had it.

And then and only then can we figure out how to reverse the mistakes and end the crisis.

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Lets do a little of that here today

I recently read an article  by two Catholic authors, Anthony Esolen and Fr Peter Stravinskas  which noted that  the decline in faith and devotion  in the Eucharist may have come about as a result of the systematic and relentless removal of all the traditional devotional supports for the Eucharist.

I am not telling tales out of school but this removal of traditional devotional   that came about after the 2nd Vatican council.

You could make the case that just about everything in the pre-Vatican II Church revolved around and reinforced what we always believed about the Most Blessed Sacrament—the Greatest of all Sacraments.

Because in Holy Communion, the Eucharist, God,  comes to us not by means of water or words or bread or wine—but as Himself – Body and Blood Soul and Divinity.

External supports like the very prayers of the Old Mass (which are ineffably beautiful) and  kneeling for Communion or Holy Communion on the tongue and fasting from food and drink as well as  genuflections-- single knee genuflections! and double knee genuflections! Adoration, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, Corpus Christi processions, Forty hours all were in large part eliminated or abandoned.

These were the traditional  struts that  served to hold up our belief and strengthen  our devotion.

But those in charge back in the 60s and 70s– the bishops and the liturgists and theologians and seminary professors who were appointed by the bishops took all that away.

They said  that those customs were external and  superficial and unnecessary; They said, “We don’t do that anymore!”

But they still expected the people, without those helps,  to muster the same love and devotion and faith in the Eucharist that they had before.

But that could never work. And why not?  Because we needed all those  traditions and customs and gestures and postures to remind us Who Jesus was—and Who Holy Communion was.

You see every word and movement in the Mass and in our devotional life  was designed and  developed organically over two thousand years to help us focus on Jesus’ Real Presence in Holy Communion.

Take for example—the old Communion fast, and I mean the very  old one, the one where if you were going to receive   Holy Communion the next day you had to refrain from eating or drinking anything (including water) from midnight until the time you went to Holy Communion.

Imagine the effort that that took and the lesson which the person learned— God Himself has become our Food, and our souls as well as our bodies must be prepared to receive Him.

They changed the Communio fast about 1962  to abstaining from food for three  hours and one hour for liquids.

 I remember raising my hand in class and asking Sister Paulita,  “What if you drink  orange juice and it has pulp?”

But that bifurcated fast proved so impractical that In a year or so the Communion fast was reduced to a one hour fast from food or liquid  before receiving.

Truth to tell,  anyone could do that hour just by leaving the house 15 minutes before Mass was to begin.

Yes. We can admit that  the midnight fast made it harder for people to receive,  and so less people at the later morning Masses went to Communion. We can now have afternoon and evening Masses—and all of that is  good .

But there was a trade-off.

We hardly ever think of the fast anymore; and while we all still believe it is the Body of Christ, the Food of the Angels,  we don’t have to make much of any  effort –physical or spiritual. Its as easy as pie.

And that hurts our devotion.

We can use the Traditional Latin Mass as our guide. The very ceremonies at the old Latin Mass were particularly rich in meaning and lessons. Each one was designed to point to Our Lord in Holy Communion.

If you were fortunate enough to have had in your life the Traditional Latin Mass, you know all this first hand.  Nothing was left to chance—there was not a single element in the Traditional Latin Mass that did not clearly reveal Our Blessed  Eucharistic Lord.

Maybe you remember how the priest—after—the Consecration—now that he had touched the Body of our -- would keep his forefinger and thumb together.

The unspoken and visual point was that if there were even a crumb of Communion left on his fingertips it would not fall!  Why! That is Jesus! And we dare not be careless  with the Body of our Lord!

Think of all the genuflections the priest would make as he would cross from one side of the altar to the other passing by the Tabernacle where Our Lord reposed. 

He never  bowed or nodded or wave. He never  even did the now ubiquitous head-bop.

He would get down on his one knee in tribute and homage and worship saying by that genuflection: “This is God! My God—I am His creature. Come let us worship!”

And we in the pews would watch that knee go down and say with the priest in our hearts; “This is God, our God! to Whom the priest is genuflecting. We are on sacred ground!”

Something as seemingly insignificant as the way the priest would fold and unfold the altar linens—particularly the corporal on which was laid the very Body of Christ—was important.

Because-- God forbid that even the smallest particle of the Host should get caught in the threads of the seams!  Jesus! Himself might  be discarded unthinkingly.

People of a certain age might remember how in the old days when the Host was dropped during distribution everyone  stopped. The priest knelt down, picked up the Host and covered the spot where it touched with a little cloth. Then after Mass he would return to the spot and purify the area with holy water just in case a particle of the Host might left behind.

 A modern from the future might have asked: “What s the big deal?”

But even the altar boys  from those days would have answered “That is the Body of Christ touching the floor!!Thats the big deal!!”

If you are old enough, you might remember  how the vessels,  the chalice, the Paten, the Ciborium, the Monstrance-- because they were in contact with the Body and Blood of Christ-- could only be touched by a priest. Because his hands were consecrated and they were consecrated precisely  so that he could hold the Body of Christ in his hands.

Think of  it this way: when a priest would follow all those external rubrics carefully and intentionally, he could not help,  and neither could the people in the pews help,  but remember and reinforce and drill into their hearts and brains every time they witnessed  even the least of these customs, that the whole Mass was  about the Body of Christ-- sacrificed out of love for us and now,  in its Eucharistic form,  is Food for our souls.

How could priest’s soul  and the souls of his people not be enlarged by such thoughts and prayers?  How could they not burst at the seams at the thought that God has given us the True Body of Christ in our humble Holy Communion?

And when our Catholic people saw all that and lived and breathed all those customs  every Mass every day—they lived Eucharistic devotion in their very bones.

My suspicion is that for the last 60 years,  since the priest has no longer been expected to do any of those things, he and  his people’s  devotion may have grown cold and weak.

All these movements and customs and traditions and rubrics were signs that pointed to Jesus.

 But think about it: when there is no sign, the unspoken message is that there is nothing to point to.

I do a lot of art. I make statues and drawings. I have never been able to stop. In fact all the children  in our family could draw. So my father,  in order to save the walls from our scribblings, made a blackboard for us. We were always  drawing.

So maybe it is genetic, but because of this “drawing thing”  I have always been fascinated by the notion that we can perceive and know and understand  things just by what we see-- by looking—by looking at statues,  at paintings, at buildings, at people.

There are lessons streaming into our brains  all day long. Someone makes a gesture—or arches their eyebrow or whistles a tune—we know exactly what is being communicated--- and wordlessly.  We intuit, we grasp-- almost instinctively-- what we are being told, and we don’t even need words.

We learn not just from books and pamphlets and essays and classrooms and even pulpits but from looking at the world around us.

How utterly crucial is the outward expression of the Mass. How important is that which  we see; the movements,  the gestures,  the genuflections,  and bows, the incense and candles.

How important as well is that which we hear; the language, the volume,  the music.

Each of these elements teach us about Whom the Mass is,   and that teaches us might lessons of belief and prayer.

I could write a 500 page book on the notion Jesus’ Presence in Holy Communion -I will have said more  by one genuflection before the tabernacle than by everything I wrote.

I could listen to a hundred conferences and talks on the Eucharist, but I will have learned more by watching one grandmother genuflect on both knees before the Exposed Blessed Sacrament.

But the whole idea of symbol and gesture and posture and words works both ways: It can also work against belief and prayer.  What we say and what we do—if it is careless with the Faith-- can also cripple devotion and diminish love. Our leaders cannot forget this fact.

I remember at the seminary—it was  about 1968—and a priest  was giving out Holy Communion. He dropped the Host on the floor and told the young seminarian  who was going to receive it  “Pick it up , it’s yours!”

“Pick it up, it’s yours!”

There are no seminarians present that day  who were not harmed or scandalized  by that priest’s words. Some may have resented his words. Others may have said to themselves, “Maybe this Eucharist  isn’t so important after all.” Lessons were learned.

Another time another  priest in our  seminary celebrating Mass and in order to demonstrate  that he wasn’t like those old fashioned priests  who believed all this transubstantiation stuff—received  his Holy Communion, took the paten  and blew across it as his way of purifying the paten. Particles of the Body of Christ, at the mercy of his breath, flew off the paten to be trod on the carpeted floor from now until doomsday.

 I knew officially appointed teachers of our Dioces  who gave missions and retreats and conferences in  parishes-and schools and seminary classrooms on the Liturgy and the Eucharist and who dismissed and mocked Eucharistic Adoration as “Cookie worship”. 

When we treat Holy Communion like it was Lucky Chips—it might as well be Lucky Chips.

After 60 years of all this intentional neglect  does anyone  wonder why we need a Eucharistic revival now?

Well I have a modest proposal to revive our devotion to the Holy Eucharist.,

It may sound radical and revolutionary-- and in certain circles there would more outrage and consternation than were I to propose women priests or a blessing for homosexual marriage--but I truly believe that if the bishops have any hope of  reviving our Eucharistic devotion they must  return to  traditional  past practices—and begin with  at least two: kneeling for Holy communion and receiving the Host on the tongue.

Now I am in no way criticizing people who stand for Communion and take it in their hand. The Church has allowed this for 50 years-, but I would plead with the bishops to actually mandate the old way of receiving—on our knees, with our mouths open and our tongues extended.

Let us  see if  that  doesn’t do more to help our  Eucharistic devotion than a million words in a thousand Zoom conferences.

 It is simple enough—there should be no outrage- but I would believe that the spiritual  benefits would be astounding

Those who never gave up those old customs would no longer feel isolated, dismissed, and belittled as they so often now  feel when they kneel and open their mouths in a modernist church.

And those who have grown accustomed to standing and taking Communion would have to ask themselves every time:  why are we kneeling? and why do we not touch the Host? What is this Holy Communion?  Who is it  Whom we are receiving?

I have no hope that this will actually happen. Our leaders will be content to give talks and conferences and processions, and they will all be good talks and faithful conferences and beautiful processions.

But I don’t think that will be enough;  because  only those who go to conferences and processions will go to conferences and  processions, and  they already believe deeply believe.

If  the bishops were to mandate kneeling and receiving on the tongue, they will have gone a long way to making each person who comes up to the sanctuary  for holy Communion, the young Catholic,  the sometime Catholic, the average Catholic,  and the daily Catholic,  pause each time  to ask themselves: What am I doing?

That one mandate of the bishops-- to restore  the  traditional way of receiving Holy Communion-- would cause more  conversation about what the Eucharist is  than anything that has been tried in the last 60 years.

We would be talking about it in our kitchens,  in our living rooms, at the stores and on the streets.

“Did you hear what they want us to do now? After 50 years? My goodness!”

And that conversation and wonderment would only begin with people who are going to Mass on a Sunday.

Think of all the lapsed Catholic  and non-Catholic people  in our lives who have gone to millions of  funeral Masses and wedding masses and confirmation masses and  midnight  masses and  watched the throng – get into the line to receive the little white chip—and they decide they will do the same. It didn’t seem that odd to get in line and do whatever everyone else is doing.

SO they just walked into the line and the person up front would give you the little white chip.

That scenario has happened in the last 6 years more times than can be counted

But suppose  the non-Catholic or lapsed Catholic is at a funeral or wedding or Confirmation, and this time they see the throng going to the Communion rail and kneeling down and closing their eyes.

And they  watch as the Communicants  open their mouths , extend their tongues; and the priest places the Little white Guest in each mouth.

 The altar boy  is at the ready with the gold plate to catch any crumbs of the Host,  Our  visitor watches as each recipient of the Host makes the sign of the cross,  stands and returns to their place.

The visitor naturally asks :

 What was that little ceremony which I just saw? It is obviously something very special and meaningful to these people.

Of course,  it means nothing to me except that I am curious as to what it means to them. They know what they are doing, and I don’t. But I want to know, I want to learn. I am drawn to this. I am attracted to it. I will call the priest in the morning.

If  the bishops were to mandate the return of Communion rails- the reception of Holy Communion on our knees and on our tongues, they will have gone a long way to making all of us, the young Catholic,  the old Catholic, the sometime Catholic, the average Catholic,   the daily Catholic, and eventually the non-Catholic  examine their soul about what they believe this to be.

It  would make them  pause each  time they go to Holy Communion  to ask themselves “Is this really Jesus? Do I believe that?”

When those questions are asked every time we go to Communion, the Eucharistic revival will have  begun -- – and almost automatically.