Where else to go?

Where else is there I can go? This is a question I had asked myself and God several years ago.

You see, I was in a place where many find ourselves right now. I was looking at the Church and specifically my home parish and the parishes I regularly attended. I saw what I felt were dead buildings – ‘whitewashed tombs” Matthew 23:27. Church building that were just buildings, housing no passion for Jesus filled with men and women who were going through the motions of faith without any vigor or life. Churches being led by vocation-less priests who looked at their position as a job with tasks one day a week that got in the way. The same priests who took lightly the celebration of the Eucharist or put aside the Sacrament of Reconciliation because they were busy. Priests who looked down upon the devotion of Divine Mercy or didn’t think of Mary.

I was part of some fired up ministries in Emmaus and our Catholic Men’s Fellowship. I was on fire within. I was asking to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday and willing to do all the work if the pastor would allow and lead a small Mass that day devoted to Divine Mercy. But, surrounding me within the walls of the church I saw nothing but ‘corpses.’

For nearly a year I asked God and prayed about staying Catholic. I wanted to leave this passionless church not to leave Him (never) but to find worship of God that is worthy of Him. I asked to give me vision where I could find passion for Him because I simply didn’t see it in the Catholic Church.

After months of praying this prayer many times a day, He showed me a ‘white disc’ hovering over my church as I entered for Mass. I thought it was the sun rising over the steeple but realized it was the wrong angle. The ‘disc’ was bright white and just sat over the building as we approached. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

The tabernacle seemed to glow and radiate that morning as we entered the church. Then, during Mass that day we were given the Gospel reading from John 6. “I am the bread of life” John 6:48, “I am the living bread” John 6:51, “unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink of His blood, you have no life in you” John 6:53.

I looked up as the priest raised the Host over the altar and spoke these words, “Through him, and with him, and in him,
O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours,
for ever and ever.” And, I broke down as the words of Peter from John 6:68-69 came to my heart, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

I knew instantly in that moment that God had given me His answer. There was no where else to go but the Catholic Church, no where else in all Christendom was there the Eucharist – no where else had Jesus as we do in this Catholic Church.

That day I realized that while many walk through their faith a passionless zombie, I knew the reason for faith within the Church. Even if all fell away, priest and parishioner, I knew Who was truly present within these walls.

Jesus Christ is present and alive in the Catholic Church. He is within the confines of bread and wine, He is sitting within the Tabernacle. He is waiting for His people, you and I, to come to Him and recognize the truth of His presence.

Come home to the Church. Been away for a long time? Come to the Sacrament of Mercy and drink freely then approach Jesus in the Eucharist. Been struggling with the scandals and news from within? Come home and see it is Jesus Whom we seek and find within the Eucharist and Sacraments. It is Jesus Who leads His Church.

The One, Holy, Apostolic, Catholic Church.