The nearness of God
There used to be a very romantic and sentimental song that mesmerized a generation of men and women many years ago. Its title was “The nearness of you.”
A line from it reflected the intense passion embedded in the song. “It’s not your sweet / conversation / that brings / this sensation / oh no / it’s just the nearness of you.” And the song continues to wax senti.
At that time, of course, things were simple and people in general still have the leisure to think and reflect. Life then was not in a hurry. Just listening to the song was enough to alter or deepen one’s perceptions and feelings without suffering bad effects.
The song had been revived some years ago. Yes, it caused some nostalgia, but I’m afraid things are different now. People in general, even those belonging to that generation, have become less affected by its melody and lyrics.
I’m mentioning this observation because the same phenomenon seems to be affecting a far more serious subject. There was a time when one can easily be wrapped in solemnity and devotion once he is before the Blessed Sacrament. I hope I am mistaken, but it looks to me that this is not so anymore nowadays.
In the first place, there are far fewer people now than before visiting the Blessed Sacrament and doing some acts of worship. And the few who still do appear to me as driven by some self-interest, furious with importunings, and not so much as to spend and “waste” time with our Lord, lost in intimate, heart-to-heart dialogue of faith and love.
In fact, the Holy Father has mentioned this observation recently. He said that the doctrine of the Eucharist and its relevance to believers are not sufficiently understood nowadays.
He also said that there is lack of witness consistent to the formally professed faith in the Eucharist. This, of course, is something well known. Thus, like the Pope, I would like to give my two cents worth in recommending a more systematic catechesis on the Eucharist that is attuned to today’s challenging conditions.
This, for sure, is a very delicate matter. In the first place, we should try our best that those who already have some vestiges of Eucharistic faith and piety be helped in purifying and enriching their devotion.
They really have to enter into a more profound and consistent devotion that abides in his thoughts and in his heart the whole day, and that always looks for ways to express itself in practical things.
They ought to understand that the language of faith and love poured in Eucharistic adoration is in earthly terms a language of sacrifice, an eager holocaust of oneself for God and for the others.
It cannot remain in the level of the sentimental and the nostalgic. It looks for action of self-giving. The Pope recently said, ¨A celebrated Eucharist imposes on us and at the same time renders us capable of becoming, in our turn, bread broken for brothers, coming to meet their needs and giving ourselves.¨
He continued, ¨Because of this, a Eucharistic celebration that does not lead to meet men where they live, work and suffer, to take to them the love of God, does not manifest the love it encloses.”
And then there is that more demanding challenge of making the Eucharist truly an organic part of people’s lives, bringing it from the fringes of people’s concerns to the mainstream of their individual lives as well as of society. The Eucharistic piety is not a ghetto affair.
We have to understand that this effort of spreading the Eucharistic piety is not a matter of simply popularizing the Eucharist, relying on gimmicks and other publicity stunts. We have to go through the slow if difficult process of catechizing everyone and of instilling the proper attitudes and practices.
It´s about time we explode the myth that God is meant to be dealt with in a very private and personal manner. While that is also true, it does not mean that he should not be dealt with in a more public and social manner, which is actually proper to our human condition also.
We just have to free ourselves from the Cartesian frame of mind, where things are understood in a mathematical way, in either-or propositions. The Eucharistic piety and life in general demand a more integrative, synthetic understanding of things. The private is not supposed to compete with the public, the personal with the social, etc.
(Fr. Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City. Email: roycimagala@gmail.com)
