The Church is Non-essential

“The Church is not essential.” That’s message we’ve heard throughout this year of virus lockdowns and phased re-openings. Remember last year? The grocery stores were open. The liquor stores were open. But the churches were closed. Why? Because we were told that the church is not essential. Food and drink are essential, but not the church. Apparently, church is optional. You can take it or leave it. And a year later, many people have left it. They have left the church and not returned. Can’t you pray anywhere? Do we really need the church? Did God really say to keep his day holy there?

Well, I actually agree with one thing: the church is non-essential. But that’s because she is SUPER-essential! This is how Jesus speaks. We worry about food and drink and he says, “My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink!” Or how about this from our Lord, “Whoever eats this Bread will live forever!”

Yes, we eat. Then we eat again—on the same day and more than once. Why? Because we get hungry. Then we get weak. Is it pointless? Should we just give up then, and not eat? No! Then eventually we’ll die. But that cannot be avoided; remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return. Why do we eat, we who are the children of God? Because every meal nourishes us to serve God today. But every meal only postpones our funeral. Is there some food, that if you ate it, it would make you live forever?

Yes! And that food is Christ. “Whoever eats this Bread will live forever!” Is that true? Is the Eucharist, Holy Communion, truly the Bread of Eternal Life? Don’t we bury Catholics just like everyone else?

Well, not all Catholics. Think of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We don’t go and visit her grave, like we do St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome. That’s because she was assumed, body and soul into heaven. How could that happen? Because she feasted on Christ! She lives forever! She lives now! Have you seen her picture? You can. If you travel to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, you can see her picture. God left it there around the year 1530, so it shows her at about 1550 years old. She sure looks beautiful for her age.

Not convinced? Go to Lourdes, France some 300 years later. How did she age in that time? Let’s ask someone who actually saw her, not just a picture. Bernadette Soubirous said, “She is so lovely that when you see her once, you would willingly die to see her again.”

Still not convinced? Let’s travel to Fatima, Portugal around 1917. At this time our Blessed Mother is about 1937 years old. In Fatima, not one but three children there tell us how beautiful Mary is. She is living forever! Why? Is it vitamins and daily fiber? Was it a miracle vaccine to cure the Spanish flu? Absolutely not! It is because she feasted on her living Son, True God and true man. She is filled with his life. She is full of his grace. His life is eternal life. It is super-essential. Human life is essential; God’s life which is from above, is super-essential.

Only God can feed us and strengthen us to reach heaven. Only God can take us from this land below to his home above. It’s why we pray, “Give us this day our super-essential bread.” Although we say ‘daily bread’ in English, it is epiousios in Greek and a more literal translation is ‘super-essential.’ Christ himself is our super-essential Bread and the only place you can receive him is in his Sacrament of the Eucharist in his Catholic Church. The world is filled with wonderful prayers and wonderful food, but it is only in the true Church of Christ that you find his Body and Blood. That is why the Church is super-essential. If the Food of Heaven is super-essential in itself, so is the place where you receive it. If you doubt that, look at the first of all Jesus’s disciples—his beautiful Mother.

Well, she’s our Mother, too, given to us by Christ himself as she stood at the foot of his cross. Good Mother that she is, Mary feeds us with the Body and Blood of her Son. Do you want to live forever? Receive the mercy of Christ in Confession. Feast on the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. Who tells us to do this? The Blessed Virgin Mary, now about 2040 years old and still looking beautiful because she is still nourished by the Super-essential life of her Son. She is calling us back from fear and stagnation to get up and eat, for our own good. Speaking for the whole Church, a super-essential Church, Mary says, “Take and eat—it is his Body given up for you.” During these final weeks of Lent, may we all prepare well for our Easter Holy Communion.

With my prayers,

Fr. Jerome