open book on "Intervening"

Amy Welborn opines on the latest Interventions Among the highlights of her reflection:

Why, is it asked, do all of these issues come up at this Synod on the Eucharist? Shouldn't they just be passing regs on kneeling and stuff and go home?

No. The Eucharist is, as we all know by heart, the source and summit of our faith life. It is the gift left by Christ to his Church so that we might be, individually and communally joined to him, entering into His life of grace and bringing that Life into the world. It is a cosmic moment with profound consequences.

Or should be, at least, and that is the heart of the matter.

A while back I opined, probably ignorantly, that the fact that the main modern thrust of the liturgical movement came in France and Germany after World War II intrigued me. What I read about it indicated an implied concern that the Church of these nations, as a whole, perhaps not been what they could have been, even in the face of the extremes of Nazism. That the distance of the people from the presence of Christ in the Eucharist had led, in some way, to weakness in the face of evil.

I see a lot of that in these interventions. The Church exists in a world besieged with all different kinds of evil. Is the Church a light in that world? Do the Catholic people stand out as witnesses to the love of Christ, the counter-cultural radical love of the Gospel that will not stand for slaughter of the defenseless, material indulgence, exploitation of the poor, and is always ready to allow itself to be purified and judge lest we become enamored more of our selfish, worldly pursuits than of holiness?

Can't say it better myself. The closer we become to the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the greater we reflect his glory to an enshadowed world. The more we receive in Faith the gift of his presence in the Eucharist into our hearts, the great our holiness becomes. And that means we become more capable of evangelizing the lost of this fallen world.

Go read the whole thing!