Eucharistic indifference

The complete restoration of Eucharistic reverence is essential to the integrity of the Church, says Laurence England

Cardinal Marx of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising has sent shockwaves through the Church with his proposal to grant to Protestant spouses of Catholics, 'in some cases', admission to the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist without their coming first into full Communion with the Catholic Church. The Pope has given mixed messages over the proposal, one negative and formal through the CDF, another less negative and informal, through an airplane interview. Despite resistance from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith it appears Cardinal Marx, with some bishops, is prepared to push ahead.

I find the Cardinal's proposal shocking and bewildering, as it diverges completely from Sacred Tradition, but as a convert, from my varying experiences of pastor's care for the dignity of the Holy Eucharist, perhaps his is a natural development in an age and culture of widespread ignorance of and indifference to the Church's greatest treasure, our Eucharistic Lord.

I’ve been a Catholic for 17 years, converting to the Catholic Faith at Pentecost in 2001. To my mind, that time has passed very speedily, as if, as the psalmist says, ‘in a sigh’ (Ps.90:9). Since then, there have been times during Mass when I wonder how I ‘ended up here’; often while altar serving at the Holy Liturgy, and especially nearing the Consecration, amid a haze of incense. The thought has passed like a wisp, a cloud through my mind: ‘ How did I get here?’ How did I get from not being here, present at the Sacrifice of the Mass, to here, present at the most sublime mystery?

I am certain that for many converts to the Catholic Faith, there is no answer to the question that is adequate, perhaps no one thing that led them to the Catholic Church or a deepening of faith, though perhaps one phase, one profound moment could be cited. Few, however, could tell all, for how can we tell all? The all is in the All, in the Heart of God Himself.

As a convert, while eager to read and learn much about the Faith, I had very little, though perhaps a fragment of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. I was never during my instruction told to receive Our Blessed Lord kneeling, or on the tongue. Certainly, nobody instructed me whether there was a more venerable or appropriate way to receive the Holy of Holies. I am certain that my own Eucharistic impiety was a decisive role in the various ways I continued to offend God through a lifestyle in my twenties and thirties that was not recognisably Christian.

What progress I have made out of a lifestyle that, looking back, I can only describe as libertine, I put down to the teaching and example of a parish priest I met shortly after my reception into the Church. A great deal of nonsense is currently talked about ‘pastoral care’. My own experience, as a then young man looking for direction, was that admonition was what was lacking more than anything else in the Church. This work of spiritual mercy, along with that of instructing the ignorant sounds so obvious, it is not alien to other religions either, but in large parts of the Church it is probably seldom happening.

Today, I am easily agitated and scandalised when I see Catholic clergy or laity fail to genuflect towards the Tabernacle when passing across it, but at that time, in my twenties, I do not believe I did so, or, if I did, I did it very unthinkingly, never pausing a moment to consider the One in the Tabernacle. Yet, I am only scandalised now by indifference to the Blessed Sacrament because I was taught by one who spoke with authority.

I recall one Mass when the priest with the ciborium in his hands walked past me while I was serving on the sanctuary as he made his way back to the Tabernacle. I was a new server, and wasn’t kneeling in the presence of the Lord. It hadn’t struck me to kneel. He looked at me, a little fiercely, and plainly insisted that I kneel. I am so glad he did that. Over a longer period, he taught the congregation about the importance of Ad Orientem worship, instructed us as to why it had been the Church’s perennial feature of worship to face East, towards where the Risen Lord will come in glory on the Last Day. I would say, in fact, that most of his teaching has been Eucharistically-orientated and driven. His teaching has borne fruit. The culture of Eucharistic reception has changed dramatically simply by his example and that of parishioners. The vast majority of the congregation now kneel to receive the Lord, something that you simply won’t see in the vast majority of English parishes. It isn’t that the priest has demanded they do so, but rather that he taught us in word and deed.

It will suffice to say, then, that such a priest, though precious I am sure in the eyes of those to whom he ministers and, even more importantly, to the Lord Jesus Himself, is an exception today, and by no means the norm. Those who champion the Most Holy Eucharist in various ages, including our own, always have to confront those who deny the Reality of the Mass and of the True Body and Blood of the Lord.

Cardinal Marx: shockwaves

Despite the liturgical changes of the 1960s, great and ardent defenders of the Most Holy Eucharist have always been exceptional. They are rarely the norm. Those who cling to Jesus in the midst of storms and persecutions are never the norm, they are always extraordinary men and women. During the Reformation in England and Wales, those who stood up for the Truth of the Most Holy Faith against an evil king were a minority, nor a majority, among laity, clergy and most markedly, among the episcopate.

When Summorum Pontificum was released, again, a minority of priests learned to celebrate the Usus Antiquior , including our parish priest. He celebrated it for as long as he was physically able, a time that, for now, has sadly ceased. You could tell, and still can tell, the impact this venerable form had on his devotion to the Sublime Sacrifice, how it has fostered his faith, hope and charity, his love of the Sacred Priesthood of Jesus Christ, his love of the Mass which is his privilege to offer, his love for the Victim to Whom he joins his own sufferings, which have been and continue to be considerable.

Unfortunately, the example and teaching of those clergy who today offer the Mass of Ages, fostering reverence and love for our Eucharistic Lord, is implacably opposed by a vanguard that continue to diminish Eucharistic piety and make Christ’s Sacrifice a mundane, peripheral, even trivial matter. How can these men teach, lead and, where necessary, admonish others to show veneration towards the Lord on the Altar and in the Tabernacle, if they lack the supernatural faith to recognise Him in the Sacred Host? How can they pass on a faith they do not possess?

A widespread culture of Eucharistic indifference exists in the Church today. Many, if not all readers of Mass of Ages are all too familiar with it. This culture strikes at the heart of the sensus fidei, the proclamation of our Faith, at the heart of Catholic worship, to our sense of the One to Whom adoration and worship is meant to be directed.

The complete restoration of Eucharistic reverence is essential to the integrity of the Church, to foster holiness in the lives of Her children and the sanctification of the clergy. Eucharistic indifference, combined with an immense loss of the sacred more generally continues to work a great deal of confusion and menace in parishes and dioceses around the World that should be fruitful in vocations, but it always depends on the priest to foster it. It can only be this culture of astonishing indifference towards the Most Holy Eucharist that has led Cardinal Marx in his Archdiocese to permit Protestant spouses to receive Holy Communion, contrary to the Church’s perennial custom of granting the reception of Communion to those in full Communion with Christ and His Church, who profess the Faith that the Church proclaims. If such men as Cardinal Marx believed, firmly and truly, that the Sacred Host was the Body and Blood of Our Blessed Saviour, how could he even consider dispensing Him to unfaithful men and women outside of Communion with the Church?

We must pray that, despite the best efforts of men in the Sacred Hierarchy, the Lord Jesus will send men after his own Most Sacred Heart to labour for Him in guiding souls, feeding them with His Body and Blood, and leading them, in charity and in truth, towards friendship with God and enmity with the pagan culture that surrounds them, a culture of indifference towards the sanctity of life, marriage, family and love, a culture that threatens to engulf not simply the World, but the Church founded by God the Son of the Eternal Father.

Those devoted, and often courageous, clergy who celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass, in spite of an often bitterly hostile ecclesiastical environment, deserve our support, our prayers, every kind of assistance and encouragement never to give in and to continue the work of liturgical restoration. Lascivious lifestyles praised by the World are hard to escape and it is no ordinary thing to break with them to embrace the path traced by Christ our Redeemer. It takes extraordinary priests, many of whom celebrate the Extraordinary Form, to lead men and women away from those lifestyles and to turn towards the Lord who renews our youth like the eagle’s (Ps. 103:5). Let us beg the Lord for more of them!