The worship of the Eucharist outside of the Mass is of inestimable value for the life of the Church…The Eucharist is a priceless treasure: by not only celebrating it but also by praying before it outside of Mass we are enabled to make contact with the very wellspring of grace.
-Ecclesia de Eucharista – John Paul II
About a year ago, I was sitting in the Michaelerkirche in Vienna, Austria. The architecture and artwork were beautiful and made my heart swell toward the heavenly. As I sat, the church door squeaked open, and souls came pattering in. As an American from a big city, I have always been jealous of the beauty of European churches in contrast to the modern American churches. However, that day I was struck not by the beauty admired but by the Beauty missed.
Beautiful churches such as the Michaelerkirche are a testament to the dedication of people to God, to their desire to offer Him their very best. It is a good thing to admire the work which has been done to honor God, but admiration is not these churches’ purpose. So many people walk through church doors and admire the beauty before them, but how many stop to genuflect, to thank, or to adore the Beauty which made all the lesser beauty possible?
We are like an audience at a breathtaking concert who, when the concert is over, rush to the instruments to admire them all the while ignoring the talented musicians standing beside them. So much good and beauty has been offered to us freely, and yet we still let it pass us by unmoved.
In 2019 Pew Research published surveys revealing that only a staggeringly low 31% of American Catholics believed in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. There was already a crisis of faith then, and the state of the faithful has continued to decline. Now nation-wide churches of all denominations are emptier than they were in 2019 according to a recent Gallup survey.
In some spheres, this decrease in Mass attendance has not been felt as strongly, if at all. Yet, that does not mean it is not present all the same. Even from our own personal experience, we can understand the struggles which are decreasing the presence of the faithful in attending Mass. When Church doors were closed to the public, which one of us can truly claim that there were not moments when going to sit outside our home parish in our car seemed like too much effort? How many of us struggled with the thought that watching a livestreamed Mass had no true participatory value as a sacrament, so why even bother? How many of us were tempted to miss Mass on Sunday, not for lack of opportunity or lack of safety, but for lack of desire?
The resulting issue at hand in both the “tourist” Churches and the emptying Churches is the same: Christ the Lord in the Most Holy Sacrament is receiving less praise and adoration on His altars. This seems a depressing and helpless realization. We cannot force people to come into Churches and to come only with reverence to pray and adore, nor would it be merciful to do so. We cannot force baptized Catholics to return to attending at the very least Sunday Masses. The choice is theirs, and it is a choice which God Himself has given them.
What can we do then? For we surely cannot simply sit in sorrow and frustration. As in all things, we should look to imitate Christ. In this case, we should imitate Him in a twofold way:
First, we must pray for our indifferent or fallen away brothers and sisters.
We must hurt because of the hurt caused by their indifference. However, we must also realize with mercy and humility that they surely do not know what they are doing, or they would not act in such a way. We should pray and fast for the conversion of hearts. All the while, we ourselves should do our best to ensure we ourselves are not adding to the affronts which so sadden Christ. We should examine our consciences daily, and pray, fast, and receive the sacraments frequently that we might grow closer to Christ as He desires.
Secondly, in our finite, human way, we must imitate Christ in making up for what our indifferent or fallen away brothers and sisters lack.
Christ is not adored, or He is adored little, on these altars. We cannot force others to come adore Him. We cannot make up for those who do not offer their adoration as they should to God. Yet, there is a way we can make up for the adoration which they do not offer. Fr. Moynihan in his book The Presence of God makes a profound distinction about adoration offered to God. He says that no one can make up for the adoration which a particular person fails to offer to God on the altar of his heart. A person who chooses to turn away from God, or who is indifferent toward religion, makes his own choice to refrain from offering the adoration which he owes his Creator and Lord. Yet, Moynihan goes on to say that we can make up for the adoration which these same people fail to offer to Christ on the physical altars in Churches. By adoring where they do not adore, by praising where they do not praise, by loving where they do not love, we can make up for what is lacking in our brothers and sisters and offer what is due to our God.
Our world changed rapidly, and it looks different now than it did only a few years ago. It continues to change to this day. This is the call to holiness in our times: to console the heart of Christ by praying and reverently adoring for those who do not and at altars at which others pray and adore little. There is great power in offering up for the intention of conversion, adoration and prayer in the place of those who have fallen away or are indifferent. In a world that is placing strife and fear in the foreground, only prayer and intimacy with Christ can bring about the peace for which this world aches. Christ longs to bring souls to Himself and to bestow graces upon a world that is hurting. We must not be afraid to pray and fast and to beg God to bestow grace on the world. Christ is not deaf to our cries.
In this time, we should begin making a conscious effort to visit Churches often to pray and, specifically, to visit ones whose communities we know are dwindling. While it is the same Christ at every altar, it matters that each and every altar be a place of adoration and prayer. Furthermore, this way of consoling the heart of Jesus by going to different Churches to pray keeps us mindful that faith is not about the “what I get.” We already receive more than we deserve from God, but faith and love is about giving to God what He deserves by offering Him the love and adoration for which He longs and offering it to Him everywhere.
It is also not to be forgotten that praying in places which are irregularly prayed in offers hope. Those who do pray there regularly will be bolstered up. Those who do not pray there but come into the Church have the chance to be moved by the sight of prayer and adoration being offered to our Good God.
This is the hope that we carry in this world that is struggling so: that we can fight for our brothers and sisters’ souls and can offer to God the adoration and praise which is lacking at His altars. It is not a grand gesture or calling. Rather, it is a quiet, humble call. Each of us should sit with this call and determine how we each personally can respond to this call and console the heart of Jesus which burns with thirst for the love of the people of this world.
