Restoring respect for the Eucharist

All over the Catholic world there is a prevailing trend that one vital point for the Church today is the indispensable need to recapture devotion and deep respect to the real and abiding presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

It was way back in 1999, when the late Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, and scholar of deep spirituality, remarked: "In my view, the devotion and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar was slightly weakened in the years that followed Vatican Council II... But we need to rediscover it."

Years before Cardinal Hume, Pope John Paul II published his Apostolic Exhortation Dominicae Cenae, and stressed: "The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this Sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go to meet Him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith and open to making amends for the serious offences and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never cease." (note 3).

Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Basil Hume were well known for their remarkable reverence for the Eucharist and both were a source of inspiration to priests and laity alike. Both were deeply convinced that an appreciation of the Blessed Sacrament comes with faith and with the time spent before the Blessed Sacrament.

Many still remember with a sense of great admiration that when Cardinal Hume was told of his inoperable cancer, he went into the chapel of the hospital and sat before the Blessed Sacrament for half an hour - an obvious and natural reaction to a sentence of death.

There is no doubt at all that Pope Benedict XVI will help the Church to restore the deserved respect and dignity to the Blessed Eucharist. Here one should point out that in his first address to the Cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel, on April 20, Pope Benedict appealed to them, and through them also to all the faithful, to remember that the theme set for the Synod of Bishops in October was the Eucharist: "The Eucharist: source and peak of life and mission of the Church".

In his homily the Holy Father delivered a very special appeal to all "not only to renew and strongly declare their faith in the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist, but also to make sure all celebrations are carried out with solemnity and correctness" (sollemnitatem et rectitudinem).

One now looks forward to the Synod of Bishops in October, when under the guidance of Pope Benedict the bishops will study, discuss in depth and pray so that the Church today will surely recover the full meaning of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

No doubt, the bishops must be worried that an air of casualness seems to have entered into the celebration of the Mass. We have to bring back in the Mass the sense of mystery. Indeed, moments of silence and stillness after Communion are very important, moments before the final prayer and blessing, and the moments after, when we stay behind in church - alone with Him.

Surely the Holy Father and the Bishops in the Synod will guide the faithful to treasure the Mass to explain in clear words how important it is that it should always be celebrated with dignity and reverence and in a prayerful manner. We need to rediscover the numinous. Mass should change us. It is not a means of amusement.