Pastor's Column

Pastor's Column/Guest Columnist

19^th Sunday Ordinary Time

August 12, 2007

 

According to recent statistics, over one billion people use the internet. The internet grew out of a government experiment. In the 1960's, the US department of defense wanted to create a computer network that would continue to function in the event of a disaster, such as a nuclear war. Their work gave birth to the internet. And the result has been explosive.

 

The internet changed the way we live, not just locally, but globally. Information, business, travel, and personal communication are no longer the same. People can shop online for anything from books to baked goods. Hassling other bargain hunters in crowded stores, standing in line to purchase sports tickets or theater tickets, and browsing through a library are all rapidly receding into the past. Even banking is conducted online.

 

Today, many people sit in front of their computer. They live in a virtual world. They fade out of the real world. Because of modern technology, they can watch movies without ever going to a cinema. They can listen to music all alone on their ipod.

 

Technology that connects us also disconnects. We too easily forgo the many opportunities simply to be with other people. We lose the human touch. Surrounded by things, we become lonely. Perhaps this is part of the reason instant messaging, chat rooms, cell phones, are so popular. We are a people constantly reaching out to stay connected. We need a sense of personal presence. And the deepest longing that we have for personal presence is fulfilled in the Eucharist.

 

It is especially in the Eucharist that we come face to face with the immeasurable treasure of divine love. Our communion with the Lord in the Eucharist through the reception of Holy Communion and through adoration is the true source of unselfish love that transforms our personal lives and society as well.

 

In the Eucharist, Jesus fulfills the longing of every disciple first expressed by the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. "They pressed him to stay with them, saying, 'It is nearly evening, and the day is almost over'" (Lk 24:29). In the Eucharist, the Lord stays with us. Day and night the Lord is in our midst. He dwells with us, full of grace and truth.....

 

Because of the loss of the sense of the sacred in our world, we need to work at cultivating a lively awareness of Christ's Real Presence. Every parish, every Catholic, should set time aside to worship and adore our Eucharistic Lord....Likewise, our conduct should always reflect our faith. The reverence we show to the Blessed Sacrament by the positioning of the tabernacle in our churches, by our silence and prayer, and by the gesture of genuflection before the tabernacle-a custom lamentably lost in some places-lifts us beyond the profane into an awareness of the mystery of God among us.

 

Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament is an authentic expression of faith in the Eucharist. It helps us recover the sense of the sacred in the liturgy and also in life. By Adoring the Most Blessed Sacrament, we come to know not simply intellectually but experientially the meaning of Jesus' final words in Matthew's gospel: "Behold, I am with you always, even until the end of time" (Mt 28:20). Thus, we become aware of how sacred all life truly is.