The Most Holy Sacrament

During the days of the National Eucharistic Congress, every day I made a visit to the Church of St. John the Evangelist, just across the street from the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, for some time in prayer before the Eucharistic Lord exposed on the altar.  There was a regular schedule of prayers offered each day in addition to time for silent prayer before the Lord.  One day there was a group of young people singing in the church a very familiar act of adoration, Adoremus in aeterum Sanctissimum Sacramentum which means “Let us adore forever the Most Holy Sacrament”.  It, at once, took me back to an experience that I had as a young priest in Rome going to a convent of cloistered nuns for Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction.   The nuns sang the same prayer with angelic voices.  When the nuns spoke to me before and after Benediction, they always referred to Our Eucharistic Lord as il Santissimo meaning “the Most Holy One”.  
            
One of the greatest experiences of the National Eucharistic Congress was the overwhelming conviction of the absolute holiness of the Lord Jesus Whom we we adore and love in the Most Holy Eucharistic.  He is real, He is present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, He is awesome, and He is Holy. If He is all of these things, then we are bound to treat Him in a manner that proclaims Him as such.  We cannot say that He is one way and then treat Him in another.
            
Fast forward only five days after the conclusion of the Congress, the world is subjected at the Opening of the Olympics in Paris to a sacrilegious depiction of Who Jesus Christ is and how He gave to us the Most Holy Sacrament of His Body and Blood at the Last Supper. We should be clear about why we cannot and should not accept this.   It is an insult to Christians everywhere who love and serve Jesus Christ for Who He is and what He has done.  It is an inaccurate depiction of what is described in the Gospel accounts of what happened in the Upper Room on that first Holy Thursday evening.  It is an assault on Christians and particularly Catholics who gather Sunday after Sunday, some day after day, before the altar to participate in the Sacrifice of the Mass fulfilling the command He gave to us, “Do this in memory of Me”.  But, dear friends, above all, it is an offense to Jesus Christ Himself Who went to the Cross in love to offer Himself to the Father  and then to each of us by giving Himself Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, in the Most Holy Sacrament, Sanctissimum Sacramentum.  He did so not to further an ideological, political, or cultural agenda. Rather, He did so to show the beauty of self-giving love. He did so not to shock and affront. Rather, He did so to heal and give hope. He did so not to divide and deride.  Rather, he did so to unify and restore.  
            
So we must raise our voices to proclaim the truth.  We do not serve a self-aggrandizing ideology. Instead, we serve a God of Love Who gives Himself to us day after day. We do not serve a culture of confusion that promotes the destruction of the human person. Instead, we serve the Creator of all Who made us in His image and likeness beautiful and holy.  We do not serve distortion and division. Rather we serve the God Who is One, Good, True, Beautiful, and Holy. We serve the God Who is Love.  
            
In the face of this glaring sacrilege in Paris, we are called also to offer to the All Holy Eucharistic Jesus Christ prayers, fasting and sacrifices in reparation for this offense against Him. The following are some suggestions to make as offerings of reparation for sacrileges against the Blessed Sacrament:

• Make a visit to Jesus reserved in the tabernacle or exposed on the altar for 15 minutes to one hour daily. Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
• Pray a rosary daily in reparation.
• Go to Mass and receive Jesus in Holy Communion daily or one or two extra times weekly in reparation.
• Abstain from meat on Friday and one other day during the week.
• Refrain from eating in between meals one or more days during the week.
• Do an act of charity daily for someone.
• Offer daily struggles difficult responsibilities.
• Let us tell Our Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist that we adore Him, we Love Him and we offer ourselves in reparation for the sacrileges and offenses against Him.

We must not be indifferent to such horrible offenses to Him in the Most Blessed Sacrament.  Always with charity, we must speak out against them. Then we must pray, fast and offer sacrifices to His Eucharistic Heart that is so offended.

Remember, if He is Real, Present and Holy in the Blessed Sacrament, then we also must a real, present and holy effort to make reparation to Him to show our love for Him Who first loved us and gives as proof of His love for us, His very Body and Blood in the Most Sacrament of the Eucharist.
 
Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh