During the octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi, let’s talk about the Real Presence and the elephant in the room. Why is it that so many Catholics do not accept or believe a basic, core, fundamental tenet of the faith—the Real Presence?
Many commentators have opined on this topic, but sadly most of the mainstream “official” opinion on this address everything, except the real problem—the elephant in the room—Modernism and the New Mass.
A prime example of that is an interview documented in a recent edition of the Denver Catholic magazine. Here, Tim Glemkowski, the executive director of the National Eucharistic Revival, is interviewed about this important topic. I reprint the interview in its entirety below.
Keep in mind, this is THE executive director of the Eucharistic Revival, which is taking place July 17-21, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. According to the website:
“The National Eucharistic Revival is a three-year initiative sponsored by the Bishops of the United States to inspire and prepare the People of God to be formed, healed, converted, united, and sent out to a hurting and hungry world through a renewed encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist – the source and summit of our Catholic faith… The National Eucharistic Revival and National Eucharistic Congress are a direct response to the Holy Father’s call for a “pastoral and missionary conversion which cannot leave things as they presently are” so that the Church in the United States might be “permanently in a state of mission” (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 25).”
Yes, when your mission statement is based on the “teachings” of “Pope” Francis you know where this is heading. But let’s give it a chance. My comments are in BOLD RED.
INTERVIEW WITH TIM GLEMKOWSKI
Recent polls show that many Catholics do not believe in The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. What do you think has led to this “suspension of belief”?
Tim Glemkowski: I think there are a variety of factors. One obvious one is that, generally speaking, the Church’s teaching in this area has not been presented in a systematic and convincing manner! My first ministry position was teaching theology in a Catholic high school. In my Sacraments class, I would unpack the clear and significant Scriptural basis that underscores the doctrine of Jesus’ Real Presence, body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist. For many of my students, sophomores who had grown up in Catholic homes and attended Catholic grade schools, it was their first time ever seeing this connection.
Right out of the gate we hear the same excuse we have heard since Vatican II. The lack of belief in the Real Presence is due to lack of education or catechesis. I’m sorry, but that’s an overused and obviously failed excuse. I taught RCIA at a typical suburban novus ordo parish for several years before becoming a Traditional Catholic. I can you tell you that those who show up to Mass every week with their children, and those becoming Catholic, know exactly what the Church teaches about the Real Presence. They know the Church teaches that Holy Communion is truly the Body and Blood of Christ and that we are supposed to believe it. They have access to many resources that address the Scriptural arguments: Catholic Answers, Bishop Barron videos, Scott Hahn books, Fr. Mike Schmitz videos, Augustine Institute books and videos, and other free resources online or in print. The problem is NOT education or lack of opportunities to learn about the faith—that’s all available and easily accessible in today’s world. Despite this basic knowledge, the dogma is not penetrating people’s hearts leading to real faith in the Real Presence.
Another factor is the overall loss of faith and a sacramental imagination of reality in our increasingly secular world. Jesus’ substantial presence in the Eucharist is hidden under the appearance of bread and wine; his Real Presence is apprehended only through the eyes of faith. That is just a hard thing for many today who feel that “if I cannot see it, I cannot believe it, so it must just be a symbol.”
Secularism is of course a major problem. So, what do we do in most novus ordo parishes to combat secularism? I hope we can agree that the answer is nothing, if not, overtly contribute to a secular worldview.
For me, this is why one of the keys of this Revival has to be to propose what Archbishop Aquila has called here the “re-acquiring of a biblical worldview” that sees all of reality through the story of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. We have to help folks see that faith is not opposed to reason; that belief does not mean “made-up” or “fairy tales.” It means God himself has told us, in the “words and deeds” (Dei Verbum 2) of Jesus Christ who he is, how he wants us to live, and how he wants to be with us “until the end of the age.”
And yet we continue to promote and teach the secular, humanist fraud of evolution in our Catholic schools and universities. “Adam and Eve weren’t real people, that’s crazy, but of course Jesus is really present even though it looks and tastes like a piece of bread,” we are told. Has anyone considered that Darwinian evolution (including theistic evolution) just might make believing in the Real Presence more difficult? Let’s see if that comes up at the conference.
The decision of faith then, is to trust that he is not deceiving us, that what he says is true, in the same way we trust the testimony of anyone on matters we cannot come to an awareness of simply through our senses. Without verifying it myself, I believe Australia is where it is because I trust that Rand McNally is not lying to me; in the same way, I trust and believe that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist because I trust that he is telling the truth. This is what Peter means at the end of the John 6’s Bread of Life Discourse, after so many walk away, when Jesus asks if the apostles will leave him too, because of this teaching. Peter responds, “Lord, to whom else will we go, you alone have the words of eternal life”; Basically, “I trust what you are saying because I trust you as the witness.” We have to recover this sense of faith today.
What is the idea behind the Eucharistic Revival, and why have it now?
Tim Glemkowski: The Eucharistic Revival is a grassroots three-year movement, undertaken by every member of the entire U.S. Church and inaugurated by the bishops, responding themselves to what I believe is a clear invitation of the Holy Spirit to be “healed, converted, unified, formed, and sent” by a renewed encounter with Jesus present in the Eucharist.
I just can’t stand the use of the term “grassroots” associated with movements within the Roman Catholic Church. This is not a bottom-up Church. It’s a hierarchy. The fact there even needs to be a “grassroots” movement should tell us something very serious is wrong within the hierarchy itself, including those charged with defending and promoting the doctrine of the Real Presence. Sadly, I fear that poison is lack of faith within much of the hierarchy.
Over the next three years, dioceses, parishes, apostolates, movements, orders and more will link arms in order to invite the Church to a deeper relationship with Jesus, who is present in the Eucharist. That includes catechetical, devotional, evangelistic and service elements. Each diocese and parish will be invited to pray and discern God’s plan for how he wants to bring Revival to their local church and everyone is invited to participate however God is calling them to do so.
This is typical, post-Vatican II “feel good” platitudes that lack substance (no pun intended.) We are always being “invited to pray and discern” as a parish. Pray for what? What am I discerning? What does that do for anyone when it comes to belief in the Real Presence? Of course, we should always be praying for conversions and with it comes belief in the Real Presence. Maybe that’s what he means. By the way, what in the world is “revival?”
To me, Revival is something that God does. In certain times in the history of the Church, he has sent seasons of renewed fervor and missionary dynamism that reinvigorates the faithful and brings many to initial faith. I hear, in the bishops’ invitation to a Eucharistic Revival, an openness to respond to the initiative of God in our Church today, and his own plan and desire for Revival through a greater awareness and love for the Eucharist.
Okay, that doesn’t really answer the question. This isn’t telling me anything. Revival is being open to God’s plan for revival through greater awareness? Why do professional Catholics insist on talking like this?
If I were asked this question, I would have answered: “Revival is bringing back to life something that is dead or almost dead. As members of the Church Militant charged with spreading the faith and defending the Kingship of Christ, we are charged first and foremost with showing our faith is real in the way we speak, act and worship God. With the aid of the Holy Ghost who will work through us, revival requires returning to the traditions and practices that existed when almost every Catholic believed in the Real Presence, while undoing those modernist practices that do not reflect what we believe.”
We know that Pope Francis has called the Church, in our new apostolic age, to a fundamental missionary stance, flowing from an initial encounter with the person of Jesus Christ. What better place for that encounter to come than with Jesus present in the Eucharist?
Yes, let’s listen to “Pope” Francis about the Eucharist, shall we? Remember Amoris Laetitia? I wonder if permitting unrepentant adulterers and pro-abortion politicians to publicly receive Holy Communion and its effect on the belief in the Real Presence will come up at the conference? Perhaps protecting the Eucharist from public sacrilege will reinforce the belief in the Real Presence?
What can Catholics do to re-acquire and reinforce their own belief in the Real Presence?
Tim Glemkowski: My personal growth in love and belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist has largely come from two things: (1) attendance at daily Mass and regular adoration and (2) regular study of the teachings of the Church on the Mass and the Real Presence. I think we can take this invitation to a Eucharistic Revival over the next three years as a challenge to pursue a more regular and refreshed encounter with Jesus in a quiet holy hour or an early Mass at our parish.
So, go to Church and read more? That’s it? You need a three-year project to talk about that? And adoration is great idea, except those who don’t believe in the Real Presence typically don’t or won’t go to adoration. That’s why you don’t see long lines waiting outside of adoration chapels, which is what we should expect.
I remember reading Scott Hahn’s Lamb’s Supper after my conversion at age 18 and it changing my perspective so much of what is really happening at the Mass. Another book that had a significant impact on my belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is Brant Pitre’s Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist. I recommend that people visit eucharisticrevival.org in order to learn more about the “source and summit” of our faith as Catholics.
I agree those are very good books. But to be honest, if you don’t believe in the Real Presence, reading about typology in the Old Testament isn’t going to change that. Something else is needed to instill the belief in the Real Presence in the first place.
This revival will culminate in a Eucharistic Congress in 2024. What will that event entail?
Tim Glemkowski: I am very honored and excited to lead this initiative in my new role as executive director of the National Eucharistic Congress. We used to regularly, as a Church, have these Congresses in the United States, and our last one was 48 years ago in Philadelphia. The keynote speakers that week were Pope St. John Paul II and Mother Teresa. I think it is past time to revive today this important part of how the Church in the United States glorifies God and is transformed as a people.
The National Eucharistic Congress will be a milestone moment in the three-year Revival. Two years of pilgrimage as a body will lead to this significant experience and then the third year of the Revival, the Year of Mission, will flow from it. This will be a uniquely transformative and unifying event where the Church from across the United States will gather together in order to worship and glorify God. We know here in Denver, through the experience of WYD ’93, the kind of lasting impact these big gatherings and moments can have.
Oh boy, don’t bring up 1993 World Youth Day in Denver, please. You know, where a woman depicted Christ during the Stations of the Cross? (Watch that Mother Angelica video by the way because she makes a connection between blasphemies that took place at World Youth Day and loss of reverence for the Holy Eucharist.)
Upwards of 80,000 Catholics will gather in Indianapolis from July 17-21, 2024, to pray together, hear dynamic preaching and rich formation, experience healing and be sent on mission “for the life of the world.” As I take on this new role, I have a sense that God is going to do something very big and important over those five days in Indianapolis. I hope to see many attendees from my home archdiocese of Denver there!
What do the bishops hope results from this long process of the American Church embarking on this Eucharistic journey over the next several years?
Tim Glemkowski: We talk here in the Archdiocese of Denver about an “apostolic mindset” — the recognition that it is through the lives of individual missionary disciples who see everything differently that the world is changed. My hope in the fact that this movement will have a lasting impact comes from my belief that God will change many lives and heal many hearts through it, and it will be these modern-day apostles, Eucharistic Missionaries, that will be the first fruits of the Eucharistic Revival.
Who are these people he is talking about? Who is going out there teaching the Truth of the Church? Where were they when the bishops were shutting down churches and keeping the faithful from the Eucharist during COVID?
Ultimately, what is the goal of anything we do as a Church? Increased love of God and love of neighbor. Our world is desperately in need of saints, Catholics whose lives have been given over entirely for God in a way that goes out to the margins and provides a compelling witness of the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and moves in the world still today.
That’s right, it needs to be COMPELLING. So, what is going to be compelling? That’s a key question.
I think, overall, the bishops hope to address some of the fundamental catechetical crisis of belief in the Real Presence and help the whole Church to come to a deeper unity and healing through the grace present in the sacraments. [The current crop of Bishops is really going to do that? I’m not sure half of them even believe in the Real Presence or supernatural grace.] It is hard to imagine how we can proclaim Christ to the world if the fundamental doctrine of our faith is only really understood and believed in by about a third of our membership. [He’s talking about the laity but I think it applies to the bishops too.] Part of our task at the National Eucharistic Congress organization will be to capture and perpetuate all of the fruits of the three-year Eucharistic Revival and continue to carry out that work of the Revival in an ongoing way. I think there was a brilliance on the part of the bishops in setting up this organization that can continue to do just that. [Brilliance? Again, does anyone expect these bishops in the United States to do anything brilliant under the so-called leadership of “Pope” Francis? Anyone? Please stand up.]
Archbishop Aquila has talked a lot here in the archdiocese about the notion that “God has a plan.” I think, if we open ourselves to his working, God is going to move powerfully in ways that we do not even anticipate over the next three years, and I am excited to watch it happen.
[END INTERVIEW]
What’s Really Needed?
I do not question the sincerity of Mr. Glemkowski. I have no doubt he hopes more people are converted to the Catholic faith (as it has always been taught) and is personally reverent towards the Eucharist and would condemn any actions or behaviors by those in the Church who undermine the belief in the Real Presence. Unfortunately, he never said any of that, at least in this interview.
Let me make a counterproposal that hopefully all those bishops will discuss over the course of three years, although it seems to me this could be done in about one month. Let’s discuss what happens at the New Mass across the country on a weekly basis. Do bubble Masses, balloon Masses, guitar Masses, priests on roller skates, etc. help lead others to believe that the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass is exactly that?
Oh, and what about the notion of sacrifice? When Catholics read all these popular Catholic books (other than Scott Hahn because he gets it) are they learning about the role of sacrifice at the Mass and how this relates to the Real Presence? Or are they being taught Mass is just a big communal get-together with Father Bob “presiding” over the festivities? How does this translate into belief in the Real Presence?
What about our actions at the Mass? Do we ACT like we believe Christ is really and truly present when we attend Mass? Are priests instructing parishioners to always genuflect before the altar when Christ is present? Do priests encourage receiving communion on the tongue to avoid particles of the Eucharist dropping on the floor, only to be stomped on, and then vacuumed up when the janitor comes through after Mass? Are we kneeling out of reverence and awe for God Himself, truly present in the Eucharist when we receive Holy Communion?
Who distributes Holy Communion? Only those with consecrated hands, consecrated for the purpose of handling our Lord? Or do we let any Joe Blow in a football jersey or soccer mom in a tank top get up there and pass out Eucharist like its Halloween candy? Does that have anything to do with whether we actually believe Christ is truly present in the Eucharist?
What about public scandal? Why do bishops allow politicians like Joe Biden who actively support, promote and force sodomite marriages and abortions on us to receive Holy Communion? What does that tell non-Catholics about what Catholics believe really happens at the Mass? I’ll answer that one: it tells the rest of the world that Catholics, including their bishops, don’t actually believe any of that Real Presence stuff.
I don’t know if I am going to attend this Eucharist conference in 2024, but they have over two years to think about all this beforehand. Hopefully, the few items I just mentioned will be addressed and seriously discussed. I won’t hold my breath.