A Reflection on Eucharistic Revival
Many people come to our door at St. Francis Inn in Kensington, PA asking for all sorts of things: a cup of water, a snack, schedules for services we offer, a phone charge, socks, or someone to talk to. I think it only took me a day to memorize the little jingle that plays when the doorbell is rung and believe me, it doesn’t always sound as cheerful the fiftieth time as it did the first. Some days, caught up in a selfish attitude, I pretend I can’t hear the bell ring. "Maybe someone else will get it," I try to convince myself. But every time I go to answer the door, I’m confronted by a bright sign with a big yellow smiley face. “Smile,” it reminds me, “Jesus is at the door.”
I’ve thought of this sign at various points throughout my time here this summer, but especially this past week as thousands of Catholics in the United States participated in the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. While I couldn't attend, some of my Franciscan brothers joined the celebrations. I read many beautiful reflections about what the Eucharist meant to people and how the events of the congress inspired deeper faith and devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist. And while I found much of this inspirational, I kept thinking about that sign. “Jesus is at the door.”
The Eucharistic Congress aimed to revitalize faith in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. And despite all the reported unbelief in the real presence, I still think we as Catholics are quicker to reverence Jesus in the consecrated host than we are to recognize him in the pleas of the oppressed, in the weaknesses and struggles of the poor. Sometimes it's easier for me to see an all-powerful God in food that nourishes than in vulnerable people who suffer and ask for my help. And yet Jesus is as present in the breaking of the bread as he is in the poor we are called to break bread with. “Jesus is at the door.”
This is not just a challenge for our times but has been a challenge for the church from the very beginning. One of the earliest scriptural references to the Lord's Supper is Paul's first letter to the Corinthians where he expresses his disappointment that the Corinthians have been excluding the poor in their Eucharistic celebrations. He says that since some get drunk and fill themselves with bread, and others go away hungry, it is not actually the Lord's Supper that they celebrate. “Do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?” Asks Paul. “What can I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this matter I do not praise you.”
It seems there was a similar problem among the dispersed communities James was writing to in his letter, where the rich were being privileged over the poor in their communal gatherings. “Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor person.”
“Jesus is at the door.”
Any revival in the Eucharist must include the poor, for as the Catechism tells us, "The Eucharist commits us to the poor." The body of Christ is more than just the consecrated host broken for us at mass. The body of Christ is the broken body on our streets and in forgotten places, and it is a challenging body to embrace. Recognizing the real presence of Jesus in the consecrated host poses a real theological challenge to be sure. Recognizing the real presence of Jesus in the poor poses a human challenge where we are forced to encounter personal suffering and weakness in real time and discover what we would actually do if Jesus was at our door.
In the apostolic exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis, Benedict XVI reminds us that “it is precisely this personal encounter with the Lord that then strengthens the social mission contained in the Eucharist, which seeks to break down not only the walls that separate the Lord and ourselves, but also and especially the walls that separate us from one another." As the Eucharistic Congress took place, other gatherings were happening in the United States where some people demonized and spread fear about immigrants and waved signs sporting slogans like, “Mass Deportation Now.” As I watched these Americans rally behind such isolating slogans, I answered our door here in Kensington, PA and encountered many of these same immigrants asking me for pampers and baby formula, many who were too poor to afford even wipes to clean their beautiful children.
Jesus is already at our door, coming to us in many forms and oftentimes as a stranger. Sometimes I worry that we as a church are so comfortable staying within our walls that we might miss Jesus knocking outside. I hope that as a result of these Eucharistic celebrations in Indianapolis, we are inspired not to close in on ourselves, but to go out to the peripheries and commit ourselves to building up the body of Christ in our neighborhoods, on the streets, our borders, in homeless encampments, among the sick, drug addicted, and all people struggling and in need - you won't have to venture far. Maybe then we will truly believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist when we've reunited with our estranged brothers and sisters and opened the doors of our hearts to let them in.
It is not the person who says ‘Lord, Lord!’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. Mat 7:21
Present? Yes. As present? No. We're not going to adore the person at the door as we offer help. But we are going to adore the Real Presence. I wonder whether your good point is undermined by conflating the Blessed Sacrament with a sacramental situation.