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Prayer Wall – 07/23/2021
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Prayer Wall – 07/23/2021
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Prayer Wall – 07/23/2021
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Prayer Wall – 07/23/2021
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Prayer Wall – 07/23/2021
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Prayer Wall – 07/23/2021
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Eucharist as Medicine for the Sick
As I mentioned in my bulletin article for last week, it is my plan to dedicate the next several articles to the Eucharist, given our Sunday Gospel readings from the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6. In particular, we will look to some of the Eucharistic reflections of our recent popes as they offer us some helpful insights into this great gift that Christ has left His Church.
It seems fitting to begin our series with our current Holy Father, Pope Francis. As you likely know, an important theme for his pontificate has been mercy. In one of his early statements about the Church, he spoke of the Church as a field hospital where those who are sick can come to encounter the healing offered through Jesus Christ. An important medicine that the Church administers to aid in that healing is the Eucharist. In his document Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), he wrote the following: “The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.” (EG, 47)
Every one of us is weak in some way, thus we are all in need of the healing medicine that comes to us in the Eucharist. This is an important reality to keep in mind when we come to Mass. The Lord invites us to acknowledge our woundedness, where we are in need of healing, and invite His grace into those wounds to restore us by His strength. Unfortunately, many have taken the words of Pope Francis to conclude that there is no reason that a person should not be able to receive the Eucharist. For example, if somebody has committed a mortal sin, there is no reason they should not be able to receive the Eucharist, for they are in need of God’s healing grace more than anybody, right? But is that really what the Holy Father is saying?
Jesus says the following in the Gospel on this point: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Lk 5:32) Jesus is constantly preaching the important of repentance, which is turning away from sin and toward the life of grace. If there is no willingness to change one’s ways, will this medicine truly be of benefit? Mark Brumley, the CEO of Ignatius Press, in a column he wrote offers the following helpful clarification:
When Catholic Tradition understands the Eucharist as medicine for the soul, it does not mean the Eucharist heals even when the sinner clings to his sin. The Eucharist isn’t magic. It heals repentant sinners — people who have been raised to life in Christ through grace, even while they still struggle to grow in that life. We may fall into serious sin and cut ourselves off from spiritual life for a time, but through the gift of repentance — especially through the gift of the sacrament of reconciliation — the Spirit restores us to life in Christ.
There is nothing to suggest that Pope Francis is proposing anything contrary to this above point, but we all know how sound bites can take on a life of their own. When we look at his words through the eyes of the tradition of the Church, we can appreicate how his words are not at odds at all with the need to be in a state of grace to receive the Eucharist, which is to have repented of any serious sin through sacramental confession and to desire to remain in relationship with Jesus. Being in the state of grace is far from being perfect, for none of us will ever be able to achieve that status in this life, thus our need for His grace that comes to us in this powerful medicine that nourishes us in our weakness.
Father Alford
I am A Cafeteria Catholic
For the last couple of weeks, I worked at the St. John’s Hospital here in Springfield as a full-time chaplain. My time at St. John’s hospital was an excellent opportunity for me to experience pastoral hospital ministry in a more intense way than usual. I had encounters that both challenged and strengthened my faith and relationship with God in a different way. I also had encounters that left me reflecting on the condition of our Catholic faith in the present times. One of such encounters was my visit to a mid-aged lady in her hospital room one afternoon, who described herself as a cafeteria Catholic.
When I visit patients, they usually understand that I am a Catholic priest because I dress like one and introduce myself as one. Because of this, they usually expect that I jump into giving them the Holy Communion or the other sacraments. But very often, I do not talk about the sacraments until after getting to know the patient and his or her treatment and health condition. And when I talk about the sacraments, I normally start by inquiring about the patient’s faith condition.
As a Catholic priest-chaplain, I visit mostly Catholic patients. But I understand that there are too many kinds of Catholics in our times. While some Catholics are practicing and are sacramentally disposed to receive the sacraments, others may be practicing but not sacramentally prepared to receive the sacraments. However, there are others who are non-practicing but asks for the sacraments. For these reasons, asking about a patient’s faith condition is, for me, a necessary step before administering the sacraments to them.
So, on that beautiful afternoon, I walked into this patient’s room. When I inquired about her faith, she told me she is a cafeteria Catholic. I never had of “cafeteria Catholicism” before that afternoon. So, I asked her what she meant. She graciously explained that the way I pick my foods at a cafeteria is the same way she (as a cafeteria Catholic) does with Catholic teachings. I smiled and asked about her relationship with the sacraments. I know that one ought to be in good condition with the Church (believing and practicing all that the Church teaches about our Lord Jesus Christ) to be disposed to receive the sacraments.
My encounter with this patient at the hospital left me reflecting on our faith as Catholics. Somehow, many of us have become cafeteria Catholics. Sometimes, intentionally and other times, unintentionally. We all know what the Church should and should not teach, believe, and practice. Our subjective interpretations of the catechetical and biblical teachings of the Church have become more important than the objective interpretations of these divine truths and moral teachings. Unfortunately, the rejection or abandonment of any of the teachings of the Church, catechetical or scriptural, indicates membership in the cafeteria Catholicism. This cafeteria Catholicism is different from the Roman Catholicism into which we are baptized.