May 29, 2005

Last week all of us were happily moved by the first communions of some of the children of the parish. Aesthetically and ascetically, in beauty and in truth, I think all of us prayed that we might be able to make our communion with our Lord as directly and purely as did our newest communicants.

Today is the feast of the Body of Christ, Corpus Christi. He is truly with us, body and blood and soul and divinity, in a mystery beyond all adequate description but which the saints of the Church have called Transubstantiation and have fallen down and adored.

This is the heart of Christian life. Some ardent Christians who seek the power of the Holy Spirit have grown impatient with the forms of worship which Jesus himself ordained and have drifted off into various heretical sects. Others continue to call themselves Catholics while substituting their own minds for the Infinite Wisdom which comes to us under the outward appearance of bread and wine. It is sad to seek Christ and settle for a substitute, but this is what the sectarians do when they remove themselves from the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. I recently received a letter from a couple in California who came to the fullness of Faith by reading the Fathers of the Church on the mystery of the Eucharist. By God’s grace they survived a superficial catechesis in preparation for their reception into the Church. On a subsequent visit to Manhattan, they came into our church and saw our Lord enshrined in the Tabernacle and were guided in making a good confession. A national Catholic newspaper also recently featured our Tabernacle in a front page article, remarking how the restoration of the Real Presence in the center of the sanctuary has issued in many conversions. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto myself.” No longer is the pastor’s chair high and lifted up. Christ is.

Poor catechesis has obscured this. A result has been that the majority of people who call themselves Catholics (a majority!) in the United States no longer discern our Lord as truly present in the Mass. The Holy Spirit has begun a powerful return to the truth. Pope Benedict XVI is praying powerfully for this, and we should offer our confessions and communions to strengthen his hope. The Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput, recently said: “Whenever the Church is criticized, she understands herself better and is purified. And when she’s purified, then she better serves the Lord. We’re at a time for the Church in our country when some Catholics — too many — are discovering that they’ve gradually become non-Catholics who happen to go to Mass. That’s sad and difficult and a judgment on a generation of Catholic leadership. But it may be exactly the moment of truth the Church needs.”

Fr. George W. Rutler