Tuesday,
November 22nd, 4:00 pm, Conference #3
Eucharistic Adoration in Our Parish,
What can We Strive to Accomplish Spending Time
with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament?
O
Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise and All Thanksgiving, Be
Every Moment Thine!
Above
all, I want to compliment the parish on its annual commitment to 40 Hours
Devotions. Your faithfulness to this annual appointment is something great,
which I am confident bears good fruit for the sake of the parish. 40 Hours is
indeed a special time, a graced time for a parish, but it can be instructive as
to how we should be living our everyday lives as Catholics as well. Without all
the solemnity of the grand exposition on the high altar and without the input
from an outside speaker, parish life should be marked by regular time devoted
to Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament, by regular times of prayer and
reflection no matter whether at home or in my parish church, or… both, and.
As we know, the
three marks of a true Catholic believer are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
These are the classic Lenten practices, but not only. If we would save our
souls, if we would gain heaven, then the path all year and our whole life
through is that of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Almsgiving,
caring for the poor and the needy, giving of our material substance for the
sake of those who do not have enough of this world’s goods covers a multitude
of sins. If we would make amends for what we have done wrong or have failed to
do in life, then besides our genuine sorrow for sin and our recourse to the
sacrament of penance to confess our sins to the priest, we need to make
satisfaction. Almsgiving, giving to the poor and needy, our charity for love of
God and our neighbor is primary in that work of satisfaction. It is the kind of
reparation which is meant to heal. To use the example of major surgery or
recovery from a gravely debilitating illness, we may be healed, but we still
need physical therapy to get us back into shape. By making satisfaction we
repay a debt, but we also get ourselves back into shape, we fix things or make
them better. Almsgiving is the classic in that not only are we helping the
needy and poor, but we gain their prayers for us before God, Who truly or
better hears the cries of the poor, whether in lamentation or in rejoicing and
thanksgiving. That’s almsgiving, then there is fasting, no less a mark of the
true Christian, the practicing Catholic.
Fasting
from food and doing other kinds of penance fits in well with our profile of the
genuinely Christian life and for the same reason that almsgiving helps us
conform our lives to that of Christ. It is not that we can seize or take heaven
for ourselves by our penance, whether it is abstaining from meat on Fridays (which
is still the preferred Catholic penance not only for Lent but throughout the
whole year). Nor is it that by cutting our food intake particularly during Lent
that we are racking up points for heaven. Rather as God’s good children by
adoption through Baptism, He waits for us obviously by our contrition to let
Him into our lives, our sorrow for sins forgiven is more evident in our
willingness to make satisfaction and lets Him into the depths of our heart. Fasting
is not so much meant to cause us pain as it is to give us more time away from
eating and meal preparation, time for our thoughts to focus more on God. By our
confession of our sins and failings to the priest and by working to make amends
we are just acting as we ought as Catholics, no matter what our state in life. We
are doing our duty as surely as we would seek to do in simply human terms,
should we hurt or offend anyone whom we truly love or respect. Our sins may be
forgiven in the sacrament of penance, but the wound or stain left behind by our
sins needs healing or further scrubbing on our part. If I had to point to the
greatest defect of Protestantism in many of its forms, it would be just that:
denying our part as God’s children, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ
through Baptism, in opening our hearts and lives fully to God. In the
Beatitudes we say, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God”. From
whence is that purity of heart supposed to come once we have messed up by sin? Sorry,
Martin Luther and John Calvin, but God does not just impose a pure heart upon
us, disregarding our need to cooperate in our own convalescence after being
wounded by sin. Our loving Lord knows us better than we know ourselves and
respects the freedom which is ours both to do good and to do evil. He would
have us participate/cooperate in the process of healing which we call making
satisfaction. When I fail and offend God or when I wrong my neighbor, love
requires that I give evidence of the sorrow or regret which stands behind my
simple “I am sorry, please forgive me.” That is called making satisfaction for
sin once forgiven and the classic means are almsgiving, fasting or penance, and
prayer.
The
topic of prayer in that triad of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, draws us
closer to our discussion of Adoration. In my four years in Ukraine, I received
a lot of icons, sacred images usually painted on wooden tablets, as gifts. Some
of these icons were new and some were old (antique, if you will). When it came
time for me to leave Kyiv for Bern, Switzerland, I had to have someone from a
government agency in Kyiv come and inspect them and authorize the export of the
older icons. In most cases they allowed the export of those older ones because
they were so damaged, even though still precious to me as gifts from friends. There
was one icon still in good shape for being over 70 years old; it was a domestic
icon nothing expensive, painted for family use. There was not a speck of goldleaf
or gold or precious stones on it. Any place on the wood where you could usually
have seen gold there were painted little flowers instead. That was the
Ukrainian way for hand painted images for the average Christian home. Mine was
the very first icon I had received as a gift on coming to Ukraine; it was an
image of Christ the King seated on His Throne. As is typical, His right hand
was raised in blessing and in His left hand He held an open book and written on
the double page were the words in Ukrainian, “Never stop praying”, or if you
will, “Pray unceasingly”. I could imagine this lovely picture hanging in the
home of a believing family. Never stop praying! As Catholics we should be
praying constantly, which is as much to say that we should always have our
minds and hearts lifted to God.
As we
Catholics get older, no matter if we are priests, religious, but especially for
lay people, married or not, if we are also getting better at living our faith, then
we are naturally drawn toward prayer and toward that ideal of praying
constantly. It is that constancy in prayer which purifies our hearts such that we
might be able to see God clearly when we meet Him on the day of our particular
judgment. Satisfaction for sins committed and forgiven is what will cleanse our
eyes and heart, to clear the way for us to skip Purgatory and be ushered
directly into His Presence. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving, these are the marks
of the life of any true Christian. Let’s get back to talking about Eucharistic
Adoration!
A
lot of years ago, I could not tell you how many for sure, 25 maybe 30, the very
softspoken pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Hutchinson, Kansas, back then my
mother’s parish, in agreement with his parishioners instituted Perpetual
Adoration 24/7, interrupted each year only during the Easter Triduum from Holy
Thursday until Easter Sunday. The parish had a small Adoration Chapel off of
the vestibule in church and they generally had two people signed up to cover
every hour day and night all year long. Faithfully, up until her last illness my
mom took Sunday afternoon from 3:00 until 4:00pm, which was one of the hardest
hours to fill (I think because that is family time, but maybe because of sports
on TV, like golf? No idea!). There were also people from the other two parishes
in town who volunteered for certain hours at Holy Cross, but it was basically
the parish which faithfully bore this challenge. The other two parishes also
had Adoration programs of their own. Not bad for a town of less than 34,000
inhabitants and not even overly Catholic by percentage of the population! The
pastor of Holy Cross was a very wise, humble, and holy priest. He did not do
everything perfectly, but he certainly inspired confidence and respect from his
parishioners. I don’t know it for a fact, but people in the parish claimed that
he had stated that their faithfulness to Perpetual Adoration would always
protect them from tornadoes and other bad storms, which as you know are kind of
a thing in central Kansas. In fact, I am not aware that the church ever
suffered storm damage of any kind.
In Switzerland
in my last assignment abroad as a papal nuncio I was personally connected with
a couple city-wide programs of Perpetual Adoration. The one in Freiburg has gone
on for many years and another in Sion which had started more recently was also
doing very well despite all the problems with the Church in Switzerland, yes,
despite the fact that only a tiny percentage of Swiss are practicing Catholics.
Both programs were held in centrally located churches and they were organized and
run by lay volunteers. In the case of Sion, the people were raising no small
amount of money on their own to restore an old, abandoned church in the town
center as their adoration chapel.
Speaking about
things closer to home, over the years Adoration has only grown in popularity
here in Eastern South Dakota. The most popular format which I have encountered in
parishes of the diocese of Sioux Falls seems to prefer the whole day, morning
to evening, or perhaps ongoing exposition and Adoration for 24 hours once a
week. Other parishes schedule a parish holy hour once a week, often as in the
good old days combined with the recitation of the Rosary and opportunities for
confession.
In the United
States, there are religious groups that have made it their aim to promote Perpetual
Adoration. They will come if invited and give parish missions to help motivate
and organize your Adoration program.
What
is the best format? I couldn’t really say. Team efforts and around the clock schedules
throughout the whole year are truly admirable and I am sure they bear fruit
both for the individuals and for the parishes involved. Ultimately, however, what
is important is that Adoration can be a key component and therefore decisive in
renewing the faith for individual Catholics, for parishes and for whole dioceses,
faith in Christ really and truly present in our midst. We mentioned in talk #1 that
the USCCB has recommended 40 Hours Devotions as a key component for the first
year of the three year effort at Eucharistic Revival in the United States, for
the sake of renewing the faith of Catholics in the real Presence of Christ in
the Eucharist. As we know, the heart of 40 Hours is round-the-clock Adoration
of our Eucharistic Lord solemnly exposed upon our altar (hence the title 40
Hours).
Although
they are getting older, the priests of the John Paul II generation, are a particular
witness to the renewal of faith which comes through Adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament. You will still meet middle aged priests who attribute their vocation
to the priesthood to a World Youth Day and/or more especially to Adoration of
the Blessed Sacrament. I am sure that is also true of vocations to sisterhood
and the religious life.
Let’s focus
briefly on my title for today’s talk: Eucharistic Adoration in Our Parish,
What can We Strive to Accomplish Spending Time with Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament? I will keep my answer simple.
We can strive, we can hope to change hearts
starting with our own, to soften or melt hardened or frozen hearts. Eucharistic
Renewal certainly demands of us a return to our catechism lessons and to the
truths of our faith, but it is also meant to shake us up a bit. Just as surely
as getting up on a Sunday morning and moving across the threshold into church
for Mass can be a personal statement which defines us, so too, making time
regularly for adoring the Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament can mold our
hearts and transform us into people focused on Christ within His Church.
The
other day we celebrated the feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. As a tiny little
girl, she would walk to church with her parents, the king and queen of Hungary.
Mom and Dad set this example for their daughter, and little Elizabeth took it
to a whole new level. We can do the same with our example. Without being
preachy or scolding, we can share something most precious with family, friends
and even coworkers, capturing hopefully their imagination and their hearts for
Christ Who dwells among us in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
I
have the impression that everyone has a pet theory for the why of this dramatic
loss of faith in the true Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. If people
really care about the faith, they can tend to be quick to point a finger of
blame in this regard. The important
thing is not to let anyone discourage you from seeking the Face of God. If on
the one hand you encounter someone who scoffs at the notion and doubts openly that
we are suffering a genuine crisis of faith, then walk away from that person! He
or she either is in denial or does not care and will bring you nothing and may
even tear you down. For everyone else, even if their preferences in church
music or their complaints about Sunday Mass not being to their taste can be
annoying, let them go and have recourse directly to Our Lord dwelling in the
Tabernacle on the Altar. Pray constantly! Seek His Face! Our parish church
should be the forecourt of Heaven. It should be a silent and beautiful space
for God, Who comes and knocks at the door of our hearts. Each of you has a
responsibility to bring that truth home, not so much by your words as by you
example, by the longing of your heart to which you give evidence through every
fiber of your being.
As
I said in giving you your 40 Hours assignment in my Sunday homily, important is
seeking His Face. Stopping by church whenever you are in the neighborhood to
visit your loving Lord, even if just for a couple minutes, is a great thing. If
you don’t get out much or cannot get out because of health issues or whatever,
then retreat into the silence of your heart just the same and seek Him.
Most
of us have read or heard consoling stories about the comfort people find in
coming into church and seeing the sanctuary lamp glowing and indicating that
Christ is there in the Blessed Sacrament. As a small child in Catholic grade
school, at some point Sister tried to encourage us to stop by church to make a
visit to Jesus in the Tabernacle. We must have been quite small, and she was
concerned lest we walk into a non-Catholic church by mistake. She said, now if
you come in the door and the first thing you see is a cloakroom, turn around
and leave, as it can’t be Catholic. It is the lamp which indicates the Presence
of Christ waiting for us there in the Tabernacle. He is our welcome and not
some thoughtfully placed coat hanger.
Thank
you for your attention, for your example to me of faith and prayer! May the
Lord abundantly bless the family of St. Thomas here in Madison! May He prepare
you to make the right choices as things may become more difficult with the
changes required by “Set Ablaze”! Seek His Face! Never stop praying!
O
Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise and All Thanksgiving, Be
Every Moment Thine!
PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI
