Let me be clear about two things as I wade into probably a very touchy subject for some people. (1) I know what I believe and, as a retired priest, I am now freer than ever to write about my beliefs in my own blog! (2) I believe in the "real presence!" I accept the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it teaches us what to believe about the "real presence" of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.
However, I am not one to spend a whole lot of time making "Holy Hours" in front of a monstrance! My "holy hours" consist mainly of working with deliberate intensity on inspirational homilies in hopes that people will be inspired to imitate the Jesus that they have just received at Mass, especially in their daily lives and when they get home from church! Yes, I believe in the "real presence" of Jesus at Mass. I believe that he is truly present there, mainly for the purpose of becoming our "bread for the journey and strength for the trip" - our spiritual nourishment for the upcoming week - as we grow deeper in discipleship through our conscious implementation of the teachings of Jesus!
Cardinal Thomas Collins, retired Archbishop of Toronto, Canada, validated my belief and practice one day when I was responsible for getting him invited to lead a Prayer Day for the opening of the seminary school year when I was a staff member at St. Meinrad Seminary. I had just led him and his nearly 800 priests for two weeks of retreat (nearly 400 priests each week), for two years in a row. The last year I was asked to add an additional fifth week for his seminarians at St. Augustine Seminary in Toronto.
During his Prayer Day presentation, one of the local seminary students, during the question and answer time, asked Cardinal Collins what he thought of making "Holy Hours." His response was memorable and insightful. "Yes, I think "Holy Hours" are a good thing! However, if you get a call as a priest to go to the hospital to see a person who wants you to come, "go!" Leave your Holy Hour and go!"
I think I heard several of them gasp out loud in shock! Personally, I wanted to applaud! I believe in the "real presence," yes, but I believe even more in the fact that Jesus is more of a model for our living than he is one who wants to be worshipped! Did he not say, "Come, follow me!" "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First, go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." I remember these words, but I can't remember Jesus saying, "Come, worship and adore me!" As the hymn "Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service" reminds us in verse #4, "Called from worship into service, forth in your great name we go, to the child, the youth, the aged, love in living deeds to show, hope and health, good will and comfort, counsel, aid and peace we give, that your children, Lord, in peace we give, that your children, Lord, in freedom, may your mercy know and live."
It was that day that I realized that seminary training had seriously changed. Over the next several weeks it became clearer and clearer to me just how much it had changed. I was running a post-ordination program parallel to an initial-formation program at the same seminary. The seminary training that I grew up with focused mainly on "preparing us to do ministry." It seemed to me that the seminary training program that I saw when I came back had morphed into a training program focused much more heavily on "personal piety." In my programs, seasoned priests would say things like, "Father, by the time I do all the ministry that I am required to do every day, I don't have time for prayer." During their deacon year especially, when seminarians were getting a taste of ministry, I would hear things like, "Father, by the time I finish my rosary, my Liturgy of the Hours, my Chaplet of Divine Mercy, my Holy Hour and my Stations of the Cross, I don't have time for ministry!" What I was hearing was a lot about "my" personal piety! As a pastor several times, this worried me greatly. I could imagine that "future priests" might soon understand Christianity as having more to do with "believing in Jesus" and "worshiping Jesus" and less to do with "imitating the example of Jesus" in a world that desperately needs some inspiration for modeling the ministry and actions of Jesus! Our job is to promote "serious discipleship," not merely "personal piety." Personal piety serves discipleship! It can never become a substitute for discipleship!
Is being a Christian really more about worshipping Jesus or more about modeling his example? I worry about this new zeal for "Eucharistic Devotion" and whether it is now almost replacing a zeal for service to the poor and marginalized! It has never been about one or the other, but about the first serving the second! For one thing, if adoration of the eucharistic presence does not lead to helping people turn their gaze toward helping others become mature - spiritually, ethically, emotionally and relationally - then what is the point? Jesus does not need to venerated as much as he needs to be imitated! For another thing, adoration of the eucharistic presence and having Jesus safely secured in a monstrance and simply carrying it through the streets, where we can take him out and put him away at will, is not as messy as carrying him within us when we are out in the streets serving our communities by trying to imitate his ministry! As I used to tell seminarians fixated on their own personal piety, "Your job as a priest is not just about you seeing to it that you have golden light coming out of the rectory for all to admire, but for you to drive through the parish and be able to see golden light coming out of the homes of your parishioners!" It was a way of reminding them that if their presence doesn't make an impact, their absence won't make a difference.
For me, "personal piety" practices are fine, but so that I can "help the People of God exercise faithfully and fully the common priesthood which it has received," (Pastores Dabo Vobis #17) preaching has always been much more pressing and important to me! That is why I will be buried holding a Lectionary, rather than a Rosary. As Vatican II taught us in Presbyterorum Ordinis (I,4),"Priests have as their primary duty the proclamation of the gospel of God to all." As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says clearly in #1534, 'Holy Orders is directed toward the salvation of others. If it contributes as well to personal salvation, it is through service to others that it does so.' When the Lectionary was placed in my hands at my ordination to the deaconate by my bishop, here is what he said; "Receive the Gospel of Christ whose herald you now are. Believe what you read, teach what you believe and practice what you teach."
Even when it comes to Christianity, this is the question I have always liked to ask myself! Is Christianity just about believing in Jesus and venerating Jesus or is it even more so about imitating Jesus? Who cares whether I believe in Jesus or whether I venerate Jesus if I fail to live like Jesus, treat people like Jesus would treat them and yet do not have the ability to inspire others to do the same?
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