by Deacon Bill Scholl
Sometimes in a marriage, a couple has to step back and rediscover the gifts they are to each other.
So, too, with the bride of Christ, the church, which in America has been collectively on a marriage retreat known as the Eucharistic Revival.
We, as the metaphorical wife, have been taking Jesus in the Eucharist for granted. We forgot what a gift it is to have Jesus (the God who left us when he ascended into heaven) also always remain with us; truly present: body, blood, soul and divinity under the appearance of bread and wine.
Like saying, “I love you” without feeling, even if we still believed, our love did not show. And yet, we were shocked to realize our lack of enthusiasm led many in our faith family to drift away from the intimate encounter with Jesus that God gives us in the Eucharist.
Time will tell if this revival will rekindle the romance that first drew our hearts to the Lord.
Now is the time for us to put in the work: the work to “Walk with One” as our bishops call it. Soon in our archdiocese on Sept. 28, a group of parish delegates will gather together at a Mercy and Justice Summit to discern how exactly we as a church can “Walk with One” by acts of mercy and justice.
As Archbishop Naumann has observed, “Jesus does not just want you to share in his life, he wants you to share in his mission.” Jesus is on a mission from God to save the world and we baptized are the crucial agents, for he won’t do it without us.
It is not enough to receive his love by the intimate encounter of Communion; this love must pass over into concrete acts of love. Yes, we do acts of love for friends and family, but, also, we are to do acts of love that look for the lost. This is what it means to “Walk with One,” to ask the Lord, “Whom shall I accompany in their hurting so they can know your love?” And then we act, trusting God will work through us.
Pray with us that the Mercy and Justice Summit will start a movement of mercy in our community by calling all of us to see ourselves as first responders for the Lord. There is a lot of suffering and injustice in our communities, and we can’t solve it all at once. But in the true presence of the Eucharist, we as the bride have told Jesus how much we love him. Now Jesus, in the presence of the poor and suffering, is looking for us to show it.
