I have tried to maintain contact with people by phone over the past 2/3 weeks. Last evening I was talking with Fr Kevin Clinton. Kevin and I both retired from active ministry on June 30, 2019. I was talking to him about some of the “guidelines” the Archdiocese had sent priests and deacons about sacraments during this time of quarantine.
As Catholics, we believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament (the hosts consecrated at Mass). There are some who are devoted to the honorable practice of meditation in front of the Blessed Sacrament. The recommendation was that if this devotion was to continue in parish churches, social distancing has to be strictly observed and the church disinfected at regular intervals to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Other suggestions was to have the Blessed Sacrament exposed from a window so that people can sit in their parked cars and meditate. One priest in New Brighton has been bringing the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance (in reality a big, golden reliquary) to city parks so that people can meditate from their cars in the parking lots of the city’s parks. I do not poo-poo Eucharistic Adoration, however, if one only finds the real presence of Christ in a consecrated host placed in a overly decorated golden vessel, then it is problematic. This is not Eucharistic adoration, but more Eucharistic magic. It basically denies the real, incarnate presence of God in all of creation.
We cannot isolate God to a consecrated host in a monstrance. God is everywhere, in the air, the earth, our water, all living creatures, and especially in one another. The Eucharist is not magical, it is very concrete. When we receive holy communion, the presence of Christ becomes very much one with our corporal bodies, becoming part of our very breath, our blood, our flesh, our hearts.
As Kevin and I were talking about this, he told me that one of the priests who is a part of the AUSCP (Association of United States Catholic Priests) spoke to him about some young priest in his diocese who had a camera trained on a Consecrated host so people could do “virtual” Eucharistic Adoration. I said it reminded me of the “Yule Log” loop that is on a cable station during the Christmas season, in which you see the same fire place with burning logs on a recorded loop on your television. Every now and again a virtual hand stirs up the burning logs. I said that this “virtual Eucharistic Adoration” reduces Eucharistic Adoration to a “sacramental Yule Log.” I suggested, tongue in cheek, that perhaps the priest could film the Blessed Sacrament, putting it on a recorded loop with Benediction every two hours.
To think we can control and confine God to just one form is poor and bad theology. It reduces the Blessed Sacrament/Eucharist to magic. I remember visiting a young man who was dying. While he had been baptized Catholic, he hadn’t really lived his faith during his lifetime. He had rosary beads hung around his neck like a magical talisman. He put all his trust, in his words, “in the beads.” I visited him a week later. His condition was growing worse. He complained that “the beads weren’t working”. I asked him if he ever took them off from around his neck and tried praying the rosary? He hadn’t. He died a couple of days later. His belief that a rosary was a magical talisman that would somehow prevent his death, didn’t prevent his dying. The rosary is a form of prayer, like many other forms of prayer. You must put it into action.
While praying before the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is a good practice, I think it far more important in respecting and honoring the presence of Christ in ALL of God’s Creation. When we open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to the real presence of God all around us and within us, we don’t have to confine ourselves to the darkened nave of a church to pray in the presence of God. We can do this anywhere, any place, and any time. Simply, staying home, finding a quiet place, sitting down in silent prayer will sustain us as well if not better than sitting in a parked car in a city park and looking at a golden monstrance with a consecrated host. As Archbishop Hebda expressed so very well, it is Catholic teaching (Catechism) “That God is not bound by the sacraments.” I think this is an important teaching at this time of isolation.