By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
“Christ is risen, Alleluia! The Lord is truly risen, Alleluia!” A blessed Easter full of joy in the graces of our risen Lord to you and your families.
During the “three days” of the sacred Triduum, this year I received an email note from a parishioner:
“I went to church with my mother on Holy Thursday and it felt so odd to not kneel to receive the Eucharist. I just wanted to share that with you. I had not knelt for so long to receive Holy Communion until I attended St. Francis de Sales.”
This wonderful affirmation of the reward of instilling a strong eucharistic identity in our faithful souls expressed in Catholic reverence for the sacrament was a blessing and the fruit of years of prayer and effort.
When I arrived at St. Francis de Sales almost five years ago, the situation was pretty typical: two lines for Communion, extraordinary ministers used for ordinary situations, very few or no signs of reverence. The ambience was so chaotic that on one occasion a boy took the Host back to the pew to break and share the “holy bread” with his friend. A lovely instinct it was, but certainly indicative of a breakdown in catechesis, as well as parental and priestly neglect and lack of awe before the holiness of God. I pray that there were not other cases of irreverence or sacrilege of which I was not aware.
It was certainly a welcome and wonderful affirmation to receive this positive feedback from one of our most recent additions to the parish family and a confirmation that our efforts are paying off as we encourage our faithful to grow into a deeper eucharistic devotion and the life of worship.
Although we have a long way to go, the eucharistic devotion at our little parish is so outstanding after four years of training that strangers and guests sometimes stand out for their unwillingness or ignorance in regard to eucharistic worship. Some of them stand to receive Communion without any sign of adoration at all, except in cases where they make a barely perceptible nod of the head in meager compliance with my request that they bow as directed by our bishops.
Years ago the Communion rail was abolished to encourage standing for Communion because “we are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.” This certainly is true: Easter is the high point of the liturgical year in which our prayers and praise should be full of “Alleluias.” We should never be spiritually without our identity as those who already, through the graces of the Eucharist, have begun to live a risen life in the Lord as a foretaste and promise of eternal glory.
There is indeed a custom of standing during the Easter Season for liturgical prayer where one would otherwise kneel outside of the Easter Season. But this was always done in balance, with a view toward the full experience of Catholic spirituality and reverence, where Scripture calls for bending the knee at the mere mention of the Holy Name of Jesus Christ. And, of course, there is the daily carrying of one’s cross in obedience to the command of the Lord that we may truly be His disciples.
Crosses bend us toward the earth in humility as was true for the Lord Himself. Sometimes we fall under their weight as did He. Sometimes they are easier to carry if we kneel for a moment as we carry them faithfully along life’s path.
The risen Easter Christ with His glorified Body is truly present in the Eucharist. Why not stand as a “risen” soul to meet the risen Lord at the moment of receiving Him in Communion? There is the fact of His Real Presence to account for, which alone makes it possible to meet the risen One. And there is the scriptural injunction to worship His mere name with a bend of the knee. Faith in His Real Presence and encounter with Him truly risen in the Eucharist either stand or fall together. Thus the necessity for an unmistakable sign of worship when we encounter Him.
Standing is the posture of one who encounters an equal; this is never true of our meeting with the eucharistic Christ in the Communion of the Holy Mass.
In the face of mounting evidence that faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was dying out, the bishops in the 1980s or 1990s published a statement directing that, in cases where the faithful receive the Eucharist standing, they are to bow first, from the waist, before doing so. I have loyally attempted to teach this, but have finally concluded after a quarter century of effort that it is not a workable solution.
People are uncomfortable bowing in our culture; we are already directed to bow in the Creed for the mention of the Incarnation, and that is not being done either. But, most important of all, while we still kneel as directed during Mass in worship for the Lord at the moment He becomes present during the consecration, it is confusing to instead stand when we go forward to receive Him who has become present for that purpose.
A year or so after arriving at the parish, I invited the faithful at Mass to stand side by side at the altar rail for Communion. It was somewhat awkward at first as they reacquainted themselves with this ancient and venerable Catholic practice. Soon enough, though, they fell right back into the groove. What was amazing, however, was that I did not have to invite many of them to kneel, as they chose to do so of their own volition. The desire for a generous gesture of loving worship for the Lord had never really disappeared from their hearts and minds.
I do, however, have to continue to give detailed directions on how to bow, as this innovation is, unfortunately, not “dummy proof” and is as difficult as ever to implement. A mere nod of the head is not now, and never will be, an adequate replacement for the scriptural injunction to bow the head. And we will certainly be doing more than that in reaction when we meet the Lord face to face on the great and final day.
We can only pray that soon every Catholic will understand, like my parishioner, how odd it is not to kneel in awe and wonder before the Eucharistic God for whose very Name alone we are called to bend the knee.
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever; and thank you for reading.
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(Follow Fr. Cusick on Facebook at Reverendo Padre-Kevin Michael Cusick and on Twitter @MCITLFrAphorism. Father blogs occasionally at mcitl.blogspot.com and APriestLife.blogspot.com. You can email him at mcitl.blogspot.com@gmail.com.)
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