A Beacon Of Light… The Downward Spiral
By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON, Jr.
History is bound to repeat itself! And indeed, it has! Every day we are reminded that the world in which we live is plummeting into a downward spiral toward total chaos. From the news each day, we see and hear how society has been hurled into displays of protests, riots, and vandalism. Sadly, however, these incidents are not the only cause of our current situation. These problems find their roots in the origin of man, in particular, man’s lack of trust in God.
Lack of trust in God is nothing new. We first encounter it in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve pass on this defect of our human nature. God gave Adam and Eve everything! All of God’s creation was a gift, from God; for our first parents to enjoy, but more importantly to participate in. Through the temptation of the Serpent, Adam and Eve were convinced they did not need God. The serpent tricked them into believing they could exist and trust in themselves; that they could be gods themselves. Well, we all know how that turned out! It left humanity with a tiny opening, a pinhole in our souls, through which the evil one would continually rob from us our trust in God.
After Adam and Eve’s fall the temptation of the evil one continued to expand throughout the world and is still alive today. Remember the biblical story of Cain and Abel? Cain allows the temptation of sin, or jealousy, to enrage him so much that he kills his brother Abel. Cain loses his trust in the Lord because the Lord finds Abel’s offering more acceptable. All Cain had to do was trust that the Lord would find his offering acceptable. The temptation continues in the Exodus accounts, where the Israelite people turn from the Lord and worship a Golden Calf.
They let their fears and frustrations of the situation they found themselves in rob them of the trust they had in the Lord’s ability to care for them. Over and over again, humanity has been crippled by a fundamental lack of trust in the Lord.
The Books of the Prophets are no different. Even the prophets lacked trust because they allowed their fears to blind them from seeing the Lord’s will to care for them. We are given a vivid reminder of this in the Book of Jonah. Jonah is chosen by the Lord to go and preach against the people of Nineveh because of their wickedness. Jonah, however, decided to follow his own course and goes on a sea journey instead. Because of Jonah’s lack of trust, he is swallowed up by the whale and remained there for three days and three nights.
Soon he realizes his mistake and does what the Lord asks and leads the Ninevites on the path the Lord asked them to travel.
What about today? What about the world in which we live? Are there signs of a lack of trust in God?
Certainly, there are. The most prominent examples are protests, riots, and vandalism we find happening around us. If we really trusted in the Lord, the public displays of division we find ourselves in would be transformed into peace. The protests, riots, and all the horrible destruction of our times, don’t solve the problem. In actuality, it makes it worse. Why not use the tool the Lord has given us. To dispel our times from these horrific actions of division, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray. Why not pray! Prayer is conversation with God. Imagine if we came before the Lord with our concerns and asked Him to help us with these issues. That would show our trust in God!
The pinhole within our souls, through which this lack of trust flows, is part of our human condition, but it can be plugged up. What if we used our faith to combat this lack of trust in God? So many times, the Lord shows us how to do this. In the Gospels, Jesus transforms a lack of trust into true faith. The doubting St. Thomas is one example. He did not believe that the Lord had been resurrected and appeared to the disciples. The Lord challenged him to trust and believe.
St. Thomas reaches out and touches the wounds of Christ; instantly, his trust in the Lord is restored. What about the visions of St. Faustina? The revelations of Jesus to St. Faustina regarding Divine Mercy clearly show there is a lack of trust in the Lord. Jesus instructs St. Faustina to inscribe the words: Jesus, I Trust in You, on the image of His Divine Mercy. Through the image of Divine Mercy, Jesus clearly reveals to us His desire for us to trust in Him.
Corpus Christi
How do we move forward during these difficult times? How do we strengthen our trust in the Lord Jesus? One way is by renewing our belief in the Most Holy Eucharist. On June 11, 2023, we celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. In fact, I had the great privilege of participating in the celebration of Corpus Christi while visiting the beautiful city of Charleston, S.C. At the end of the Mass, we had a Eucharistic Procession around the downtown streets of Charleston. I was amazed at how the tourists and others along the streets looked in awe at what was being done. We will never know the impact this Eucharistic Procession had on the hearts of those onlookers. Who knows, maybe the seed of faith was planted by the Lord in these hearts, as He passed by.
It was St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, who approached, Pope Urban IV, and pleaded before him about the necessity of having a day to show true reverence to the Most Holy Eucharist. On the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, we reflect on the importance of the Eucharist in our lives.
So many have lost a sense of reverence for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Many have forgotten who Jesus is! Sadly, in August of 2019 there was a survey done by the Pew Research Firm, where sixty-nine percent of self-identified Catholics said they do not believe in the Real Presence of the Eucharist. To the sixty-nine percent who don’t believe, the Eucharist becomes for them just a “symbol” or a piece of bread. For them, it isn’t really Jesus! This is a problem! There have been generations of Catholics not catechized properly in the Church’s teaching on the Real Presence of Jesus.
Believe In The Eucharist
Many bishops are aware and see the destruction this has wrought, and they have established Holy Years dedicated to the Eucharist. This year, on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Archdiocese of Boston began a Holy Year dedicated to the Eucharist. His Eminence, Sean Patrick Cardinal O’Malley, OFM Cap., as archbishop of Boston, saw the need to re-catechize the faithful in the Church’s longstanding teaching regarding the Holy Eucharist.
Remember the pinhole of our souls mentioned above? If we renew and re-establish a clear and sound belief in the Eucharist, then the pinhole will slowly begin to close. Eventually, we will see Catholics trusting more and will once again be able to see the light of our faith penetrating through the darkness of our times. Through the Eucharist, we can re-establish trust in the Lord. The trust forfeited in the Garden of Eden.
