40 Reasons for Coming Home: Reason # 12

Reason # 12: The Promise. The Lord Jesus makes some pretty powerful promises to those who faithfully and fruitfully receive his Body and Blood in Holy Communion: I am the bread of life, who ever comes to me will never hunger…I am the living bread that comes down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world…Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day…whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him…the one who feeds on me will have life because of me…Whoever eats this bread will live forever. (John 6:35ff).

 

So here is a central reason to come home: Holy Communion is not some empty ritual; it is a partaking of the living Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus. Many people today have lost touch with the power of the Eucharist. Sadly, many people put more faith in Tylenol than in the Eucharist, since when they take Tylenol they expect something to happen. But they expect little or nothing from Holy Communion. But look at the promises of Jesus! He promises radical transformation and new life to those who receive with faith. Take Jesus at his word!

 

Try not to understand the Eucharistic promises in a magical way. Sacraments, in order to be fruitful, require that we receive them with faith and that we be open to their full effects. It is an absolute truth that everyone who receives Holy Communion truly receives the Body and Blood of Christ. But not everyone receives it as fruitfully. Picture two people at an Art Museum. One person is a well-trained artist who appreciates art history; knows color, shadow, and techniques; knows the personal styles and stories of artists and the subjects they paint. The other person has no such training, or even an appreciation for art. Now both of them look at the same work of art, say a Rembrandt, but the one appreciates it richly while the other is downright bored. This is how it can be with the Sacraments. The Lord makes wonderful promises to us if we receive the Eucharist, but what we bring to each Holy Communion is also important. Beg the Lord to help you grow in appreciation for his greatest gift—the gift of his very self in Holy Communion. If you do, I promise you, Jesus will bring forth in you new life and powerful transformation that will usher you right into eternal life. It is Jesus who promises, and Jesus always keeps his promises. Reason # 12  to come home is the promises of Jesus in the Eucharist. He promises his True Presence and amazing transformation to those who receive it with faith.

The following video explores the true presence and recent miracles that confirm Jesus’ promise in the Eucharist. I think the video is very balanced and scientific in its exploration of these miracles.

Back to Basics!

The following comment and question came in from a reader and presents a very soul-searching insight.

I am a Catholic in my mid thirties, raising a family and faithfully attending Mass. But I must admit I have some concern that the Church is missing the mark in reaching out to people my age and younger. It seems that all the concerns of the Church are about internal things like translations and where tabernacles should be. Don’t get me wrong, as a faithful Catholic those things are important to me. But these discussions take all our time, and, meanwhile, the world around us gets more and more secular. Many young people I know are practical atheists; God and the Church aren’t even on their radar. Yet we continue to go on and on with our internal preoccupations. Any comments?

Yes, this is a very important insight. There is always the temptation for any organization with humans involved to become primarily inward-looking and to lose sight of its essential mission. Obviously our fundamental mission is to announce Jesus Christ, to go to all the nations and teach them what the Lord Jesus taught for our salvation. We are to bring people into living, conscious contact with Jesus Christ; to bring them into a transformative relationship with Him through Word, Sacrament, and witness. But too easily we can spend all our time consumed with internal procedures and policy, debates about furniture and buildings, etc.

As you point out, some attention has to be paid to internal issues; there can be some very important theological and faith-related issues in such details. But the danger is that this becomes all-consuming. Meanwhile we have lost the culture around us, and even more sadly, many indviduals.

What to do? I would answer that we as a Church should continue the very discussion you have begun. As we both seem to agree, the answer is not simply to disregard internal issues, but rather to continue to summon the Church to her fundamental mission. Your insight is powerful and is a profound call to awakening. If we do not listen to your wake-up call, we risk the proverbial fate of “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.” Some will counter that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Church, hence we could never be the Titanic. True, but no such promise is given to our western world, which increasingly has lost its way through secularism. Souls are being lost and error is spreading. We have to renew the good fight and take our message back out into the world as never before. That is one hope that underlies both this blog and the fundamental question asked by our Archbishop: Longing for something? Maybe it’s God!

Fr. Robert Barron struggles with the very problem you have raised in the following video—one of his best commentaries ever. He also has proposed some solutions.

Vocations Anyone?

It is often observed that vocations to women’s religious communities have been in steep decline for years. But not every community of Women Religious has been affected to the same degree. Some religious orders are in fact flourishing. One example is the Nashville Dominicans.

Here in the Archdiocese of Washington, the Domican Sisters of St. Cecilia (Nashville Domincans) serve at  the Cardinal Hickey Academy and live at St. Anthony’s Convent in North Beach, MD: (410) 286-3393. Vocations anyone? Why not just pick up the phone and get started?

Why is Missing Mass a Serious Sin?

One of the forgotten teachings of the Catholic Church is that we are required to attend Mass every Sunday, and that to fail to do so is to commit a grave sin. This is taught very clearly in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (# 2181). But why does the Church teach us this? Is this just ploy to get us to come to Church and to drop something in the collection plate? Well, that may be of help to the Church, but it is not the reason the obligation to attend Mass is taught. The reasons for this mandate are contained clearly in Sacred Scripture.

 

We begin in an obvious place, the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:8 says it clearly enough, Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep it Holy. Every now and then, some one will say to me, “God doesn’t care if I go to Church.” I usually respond, “Well that’s strange; I wonder why God put it in the Ten Commandments?” It seems that God does care. Please understand, God does not merely ask for or wish for our presence, He commands it. Now the Church’s teaching that it is mortal sin to miss Mass comes a little more into focus.

 

But some claim that although Scripture mandates a day of rest, there is no requirement to attend Church. This is really not the case. The Book of Leviticus spells out the requirement to keep holy the Sabbath in the following language: Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest and sacred assembly; you shall do no work; it is a Sabbath to the LORD. (Lev 23:3). Thus, notice how this text spells out that the Sabbath is not only for rest but for “sacred assembly.” This phrase, “sacred assembly,” is what is meant by the word “Church.” The word “Church” means “assembly.”

 

Further, it is clear enough that Jesus understood the 3rd Commandment to include sacred assembly. In His own observance of Sabbath, He attended the “synagogue” (another word for “assembly” or “gathering”). Scripture says Jesus attended the synagogue on the Sabbath habitually (cf Lk 4:16).


Yet another scriptural teaching on our requirement to attend Mass is contained in the admonition from Hebrews that we are must not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another (Heb 10:25).

 

For some to say that they don’t need to assemble, to meet together with fellow Christians in Church on Sunday (our Sabbath), is surely unbiblical. The Old Testament commanded it; Jesus attended, so who are we to fail in this regard? We must not neglect to meet together. We must not neglect to receive Holy Communion and be instructed in the Word of God.

 

Another biblical reason that Sunday Church worship is required of the Christian is in Jesus’ mandate that we receive Holy Communion. Jesus warns us not to miss receiving Holy Communion with these words: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you. (John 6:53) Without the Holy Eucharist, which is the Body and Blood of Jesus, we are starving ourselves spiritually. If you and I were to stop eating our worldly food we would soon grow weak and eventually die; it would be a form of suicide. This is no less true of our spiritual food. If we stop receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus in Holy Communion, we grow weak and eventually die, spiritually; we “have no life in us”! Skipping Sunday Mass sets up a deadly pattern of spiritual starvation; it is a deadly thing—a mortal sin!

 

For all these biblically-based reasons the Church properly teaches, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin. (CCC # 2181)

40 Reasons for Coming Home: Reason # 11

Reason # 11: Companionship for the journey. There is a line from the Book of Hebrews that says, And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Heb 10:24-25). We are not meant to make this journey alone. We need both company and protection. 

In the days of Jesus, it was almost unthinkable for a person to make a lengthy journey alone. Once a person left the relative safety of the town, the journey got dangerous. There were robbers lying in wait along the roads just looking for vulnerable targets. For this reason, people almost always made journeys in groups. This is a good image for the spiritual journey we must all make. Alone we are easy targets. We are vulnerable and without help when spiritual demons attack. The Bible says, Woe to the solitary man! For if he should fall, he has no one to lift him up. (Ecclesiastes 4:11) Belonging to Church in a meaningful way has a powerful and protective influence.

In my twenty years as a priest I have taught the people of God the Word of God. But I have learned far more from them than they ever learned from me. I have learned from the people I serve what it means to have faith and to persevere. I have experienced correction when necessary, and encouragement in my struggle. It is impossible to fully overstate how much my membership in the Church has blessed me; I could not begin to count the ways. I know my parishioners have prayed for me and that their prayers and example has put a hedge of protection around me. I pray for them too, and who knows what power my prayers have had for them? In the Church, we learn not only from good example, but also from the difficulties that inevitably arise in any community. We learn to be more patient and forgiving. We learn from the mistakes others make as well as from their gifts.

Don’t journey alone; it’s dangerous. Find a parish, get involved, and live in real communion with others who can lift you up if you fall, encourage you when you are faint of heart, instruct you when you wonder, and complete in you what is lacking. Alone I am lacking, but together and with the Lord we have all the gifts we need to get to the Promised Land of Heaven: companionship for the journey! 

 

40 Reasons For Coming Home: Reason # 10

Reason # 10: The Liturgical Year. One of the beautiful aspects of Catholicism is the way our very calendars become a call to holiness. The Catholic year is divided up into seasons, which correspond to the life of Jesus and our journey toward Him.

In Advent we long for Christ and look for Him to come again. We anticipate it much as did the ancient Israelites, who waited for the coming Messiah. The readings and prayers of this season feature Gospels in which Christ describes His coming in glory and our need to be ready. The secular world is done with Christmas on December 26 and everything goes on sale. But we are just beginning! We meditate on Christ’s birth, His circumcision on the eighth day, His Holy Family, His Epiphany, the flight into Egypt, and the murder of the innocent children by Herod. And while we meditate on the Word becoming flesh, we also consider how we must allow the Word to become flesh in us as well. We do this by reading the First Letter of John in daily Masses.

For a brief period we then enter into something called “Ordinary Time,” during which priests wear green vestments. During this first section of Ordinary time, we ponder how Jesus began his public ministry, called his first disciples, and began to teach the multitudes.

Soon enough the season of Lent is upon us.  We step out of Ordinary Time and ponder more directly the events that led to Jesus’ death. We do this because it was during the spring, from what we know, that Jesus suffered, died, and rose. During Lent we read Gospels of conflict and glory in which Christ runs up against his enemies as he makes his way to Jerusalem for the last time. We also use this time to meditate on our own sins and why we need the Lord Jesus to go to the cross for us. This all leads to the greatest  week of the Church’s year: Holy Week. It opens with the Palm Sunday Procession. On Thursday of that week, we enter the Upper Room with the Apostles as Jesus celebrates his Last Supper and institutes the Eucharist. At the end of Mass, we walk with Jesus and the disciples across the Kidron Valley into the Garden of Gethsemane by processing with the Blessed Sacrament to an Altar of Repose. At midnight, the time when Jesus was arrested, we remove the Blessed Sacrament to the safe and lock the Church. On Good Friday, we often gather at noon and at 3:00 pm for the Stations of the Cross, walking with Christ on his way to Calvary. At night we gather to pray together, much as the disciples must have done that fateful night. On Saturday evening, we light the Easter Fire, and after numerous readings from the Old Testament, we sing the Gloria and the Church comes ablaze with light. Hallelujah, He is Risen!

For the fifty days of Easter, we celebrate by reading stories of the risen Christ and celebrating the new life he has given us. We then see the Lord ascend to heaven on Ascension Thursday. Ten days later, just as the Lord promised, the Holy Spirit comes upon us at Pentecost. The Church is alive with the life of the Spirit.

Finally we step back into Ordinary Time and experience an extended period during which the Lord teaches us about discipleship through his Scriptures.

What a gift it is to walk with Christ through the whole cycle of His life. The whole year is laid our for us in a marvelous way. Here’s a great reason to come back to the Church and walk this journey with Jesus!

40 Reasons for Coming Home: Reason # 9

Reason # 9: Scriptural Teaching. Catholics sometimes get accused of not knowing Scripture. But Catholics do in fact know Scripture very well! We are not the type to quote chapter and verse, but if you attend Mass every  Sunday you KNOW Scripture! Every Sunday at Mass we read from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Epistles, and the Gospels. Four readings every Sunday! Over a three-year cycle we cover all four Gospels in totality, most of the New Testament Epistles, most of the psalms, and significant portions of the Old Testament.

Those who who attend Mass each Sunday know in great detail passages and parable like these: the woman at the well, the parable of the lost sheep, the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus walking on the water, feeding the five thousand, healing the blind man, and the parable of the Prodigal Son. We read these year after year and they are in our very substance.  The Church teaches us the Bible through the Liturgy, Sunday after Sunday. If you come to daily Mass there’s even more. There are some Catholics who pray the Liturgy of the Hours and this adds even more Scripture.

If you’ve been away for a while, come home to the Catholic Church. Come to the home of the Bible—the Catholic Church. Come to Mass, where the Scriptures have been faithfully proclaimed each Sunday for over 2000 years. Before you know it, the Scriptures will become part of your very being.

The Scriptures assigned to each Mass can be found  HERE.