Catholic Episcopal Campaigns focusing primarily on Eucharistic Renewal have neither an orthodox theological basis nor a divine mandate, but do impede the true reform of Catholicism and revival of the Holy Catholic Faith. Furthermore, Catholics only do a disservice to the Blessed Sacrament when they compartmentalize it as the end all, “the source and summit”, of Christian life rather than as the intended leaven of that life (see Crucial Christianity, 2022).
Since their 2020’s promotional campaign Christ is with His Church until the End of Time to the ongoing National Eucharistic Revival Campaign up to this weekend’s National Eucharistic Extravaganza in Indianapolis, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have singularly emphasized Jesus Christ’s unique Eucharistic presence as His specific, and apparently (but wrongly) superlative presence in the Church and on earth. Thereby, the bishops find as well that all the ills that plague both the Church and the world will be singularly cured in increasing awareness and devotion to the Eucharist. As if the Lord Jesus Christ said,
“Seek ye first the Tabernacle and his Eucharistic Presence; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
So says the USCCB,
“The Holy Spirit [or USCCB?] is inviting the United States to find unity and renewal through a grassroots National Eucharistic Revival. This movement is critical to rekindling a living faith in the hearts of Catholics across America, unleashing a new missionary chapter at this pivotal moment in Church history.”
The bishops apparently expect their claim of a divine mandate for their campaign to be blindly accepted by good Catholics (and they are right), for it is audaciously made without a shred of evidence. But quite frankly, at this time in salvation history, that is all Catholics know how to do as Christians: go to church. And all they know how to rampant it up as Christians is to go to church more often.
In popular practice and perception, the specific difference of “being Catholic” has been reduced down to their dutiful attendance at Mass, reception of communion, and frequenting of other sacraments and devotions (in addition to certain moral adherences). But the Sacraments were made for Catholics, not Catholics for the Sacraments, even be it the Blessed Sacrament. Rather, Our Lord Jesus Christ gifted the Seven Sacraments to Catholics for their fortification in fulfilling the Christian Vocation to bring about His Kingdom on earth as in heaven, now; in their souls, families, and communities.
The Realer Presence Heresy
The orthodox understanding of the term Real Presence refers to the unique bodily presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ—body, blood, soul, and divinity—in the Blessed Sacrament. But beyond this is the prevalent false belief among Catholics that Christ also has a realer presence because of this physicality. For this Realer Presence belief is premised on the quite heretical notion that God is given greater or superlative presence by physicality. Christ gifted Catholics with the physical Holy Eucharist not so they could have something tangible to prostratingly worship but something tangible to intimately consume. In sum, a person is not a good Catholic because he goes to Mass, but rather a person goes to Mass to help him be a good Catholic.
The Source & Summit of the Problem
Reasoning in a circle, the USCCB, and especially its more conservative bishops, have made their priority increased devotion “to the source and summit of our faith in the celebration of the Eucharist. . . , [thereby} restoring understanding and devotion to this great mystery by helping us renew our worship of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.” That is (as far as can be made out syntactically), the bishops’ goal is to increase devotion to the Eucharist in order to revive devotion to the Eucharist so that there can be more renewed worship of Jesus in the Eucharist.
With such hyper-devotional circular reasoning the Holy Faith will never make its way out of the chapel. Worse still the bishops quote “The Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life.” (CCC) as if it is dogmatic fact rather than as a parenthetical clause taken from a complex sentence from Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium (2.5), a clause that when read in context, refers to Christ Crucified; from which the Holy Eucharist derives; a clarification the Catholic Catechism makes (but apparently not strongly enough): For in the blessed Eucharist [is] namely Christ himself; our Pasch.” (CC. 12)
Thus, the Eucharist finds its source in Christ Crucified (Pasch) and, as noted, its own summit or end is in the flowering of Christian life. With this rectified understanding, Catholics will no longer underappreciate and impede the efficacy of the Holy Eucharist by compartmentalizing it as an end in itself (qua transubstantiated host) rather than as what it specifically is: the uniquely tangible, intimate, subtle—indeed palatable—manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ, (body, blood, soul, and divinity) who so gives himself to Christians so they can (no, not just go to heaven) but better receive and promulgate his Father’s Kingdom on now earth as in heaven, just as his prayer singularly mandates.
For further essays on this and other Catholic reformational subjects please visit KingdomCatholic.org
