Catholic
Spirituality
Praise God through reverence shown to others
If only you would listen to Him today, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,when your ancestors challenged me, tested me, although they had seen what I could do.
Ps. 95: 8-9
Wars of words are few and far between in my corner of the Internet universe. I write a blog about science, not politics, and my most controversial post was about using inert gases like argon and xenon as anesthetics. Really.
As a group, science bloggers just aren’t all that edgy. At least that was the case until last month, when a professor of biology thought he was bringing science to bear on the theological realm and things rapidly got ugly.
Insisting, “it’s just a cracker,” he invited his readers to send him a consecrated host, which he proceeded to desecrate, along with Islamic and Jewish sacred texts, as a scientific test of the Real Presence. As science goes, it’s a terribly constructed experiment; to those, like us, who believe in Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist, it’s horrifying.
The immediate outcry was predictable — cheers from those who do not believe, outraged demands for his resignation from those who do. What I didn’t anticipate were my own reactions, realizing I had done the same, just in a different guise.
How often do I put my Lord God to the test? How often do I not only fail to honor Him, but hold Him in contempt? Certainly not in the Eucharist, but in other, more subtle ways.
In a homily I’ve had a hard time forgetting, a priest friend told the story of driving to daily Mass, stuck on a one-lane bridge behind an excruciatingly slow driver. Finally, reaching a passing lane, he pulled around the car and flashed a less than polite gesture.
After Communion, he was struck by the realization that if he’d made that same gesture at the altar during the consecration, he would have been dragged bodily from the church. If he truly believed that what was done even to the least, even annoyingly slow drivers, was done to Christ, how could he have been so disrespectful?
In the worn Jerusalem Bible I use for prayer, Psalm 95 carries the note: for daily use. It is the traditional invitatory psalm, used at the beginning of each day’s celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, so in fact I have prayed this psalm thousands of times in the last two decades.
For all these years I’ve focused on its invitation to praise God joyfully, to begin each day walking into His presence. Now I’m aware of the daily (perhaps much needed) reminder not to harden my heart, not to put God to the test, to reverence Him not only in the Eucharist, but in every person I encounter.
The biology professor concluded that the Eucharist could not be the real presence of Christ because nothing happened to him when he desecrated it. Perhaps not. But something happened to me.
God our Father, Your Son promised to be with all who gather in His name. Make us aware of His presence among us and fill us with His grace, mercy, and peace, so that we may live in truth and love. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,One God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Michelle Francl-Donnay is a member of Our Mother of Good Counsel Parish in Bryn Mawr. She can be reached at mfrancldonnay@gmail.com
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