Dear pilgrims of hope,
do you have a special place where you can feel the presence of God?
Nowadays a lot of people don’t go to church but declare themselves as spiritual. “I can walk in nature and speak to God, I don’t need to sit in church”, is something that I have heard often. And it is true that I can speak to God anywhere, so why should I sit in church?
Let me give you 3 reasons:
1. Because God said so. It’s in the 10 commandments. Keep the Sunday holy. Apart from resting and not working, we can only keep the Sunday holy if we actually go to the holy places, also known as churches and attend Mass.
2. Even the devil is spiritual, so being spiritual without practicing religion is dangerous. Who knows which “spirit” we are following? We need the guidance from our priests to discern the spirits. In any case: We have the beauty of the Holy Mass which has been passed down from the last supper when the Eucharist was instituted, so why would we not want to go? I reckon that most people are bored because they expect to “get something out of Mass” or they don’t understand the Mass because if we really, really understood the miracle that is happening on the altar during Mass, nothing could keep us away. Newsflash: Mass is not about us, it is about worshipping God. Nobody said we need to “get something out of it”.
3. During Eucharistic Adoration, the Lord is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament on the altar and we can look at him and speak to him and most importantly we can listen to Him. What are we listening in nature too? Maybe it is just the wind. Our senses are so easily betrayed. And so are our hearts. Yes, we will be distracted at times and sometimes we don’t want to go. But every single time that I went to Mass anyway when I did not want to go, my attitude was changed when I left. Because receiving Jesus in the Eucharist will do that.
But let me give you the most important reason to be religious and go to church: Because it is the only place where we can receive the Eucharist. If we do not hunger for the Eucharist, then it is time to deepen our understanding of the real presence and the Eucharist. How sad it is when people do not understand what happens at the moment when the priest elevates the host at Mass. If we truly understood, we would never want to leave.
Dear pilgrim of hope, did you hunger for the Eucharist during the Covid lockdown? Or were you satisfied and maybe still are, with only watching Mass online? Jesus is waiting for us at the Mass to give himself to us in what appears to our eyes as bread and wine but is actually himself. And we are blessed that we can receive Him, if we are only believing to believe.
PS: the photo below was taken at the Convent of the Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters in KZN and the power of the Lord is really present there as the sign declares, as the Poor Clare Sisters are in perpetual adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament. It is not about nature, but about nurture! Nurture by Jesus himself who wants to feed us with himself.
