Want a REAL Eucharistic Revival? Focus on Redeemed Vision

By the time you read this, Catholics from all over the United States and beyond have headed home from Indianapolis after attending the 10th National Eucharistic Congress. According to the website, “The Congress is a moment for the whole Church in the United States to be united in prayer. Tens of thousands of Catholics are gathering in Indianapolis for this historic event...Jesus is calling us back to our first love for a new Pentecost. Your life—and our Church—will never be the same!”

All of this is beautiful. A revival of faith is certainly needed, especially regarding belief in the Eucharist. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church,

The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life.’ ‘The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church.

Jesus Christ founded the Church with the sacrifice of His Body and Blood, and He continues to keep us sustained through feeding His Bride, the Church, with His Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity. Without Him, we can do nothing. Just as not eating makes one weak, without consuming the Body and Blood of the Lord, we are in danger of perishing spiritually. As Jesus makes it clear in John 6:53, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”

Thus, belief in the Eucharist is critically important. The “Source and Summit of the Church” is not merely a symbol, but is truly Jesus, physically present under the guise of unleavened bread (leavened in the East). We must have the eyes to see this reality, yet this gift of divine vision is not something we can manufacture, but can only be received in faith from a hungry heart.

Yet, Indianapolis, we have a problem. Increasing devotion in the Eucharist is going to be very big problem. And it has to do with the #1 Sin confessed by men, and an increasing number of women.

The #1 Sin

As I have spoken to countless priests and bishops over the years, the #1 sin confessed is the issue of pornography use. It’s not even a competition any more with other sins (except maybe pride). As I can attest to personally and professionally with my work in Freedom Coaching, I know just how insidious is this drug of the new millennium. Porn is keeping countless men and women from seeing their own goodness and that of others, of stepping into their vocation, and of pursuing their unique path to Sainthood.

If pornography is the #1 sin confessed in the Confessional, ask yourself: How many homilies on this destroyer of marriage and family have you heard? Personally, I am aware of hearing 8 homilies in my life (I’m 44 years old) – 3 in person, one at my parish, and 5 online. Most people I ask this question can count on one hand the amount of homilies they’ve heard on “corn” (code language for porn amongst young parishioners). Some have NEVER heard a homily on the septic tank of pornography.

Why is this? It may have something to do with the fact that some priests still don’t realize how big an issue this is and how it is DIRECTLY responsible for the destruction of marriage and family life, the foundation of the Church and civilization. Some deny that it’s really a problem at all because they have rationalized that pornography use and masturbation is not really a sin, some priests even telling penitents it can be healthy. Even worse, some clergy may even have a problem themselves (some of our clients over the years have been priests and seminarians), and who wants their dirty laundry aired in public?

Whatever the reason, this 572,000 pound porn elephant in the room is not being communicated clearly as the devastating juggernaut that it is to the Church and on a local level. There’s a disconnect between what the Church teaches about pornography use and the Countless Catholics who are not getting the message how bad porn is – emotionally, relationally, spiritually, etc. Sexual silence has devastating consequences.

What do most Catholics really believe about the Eucharist?

While there are many angles we can take to address about the problem of pornography (I recommend chapter 2 of my book Redeemed Vision for a solid analysis), I would like to zero-in on one that strikes at the heart of the Church.

Travel back with me to 2019 when Pew Research Center put together a poll about what Catholics in America really believe about the Eucharist. In the survey, they found that less than 1/3 of self-professed Catholics in the United States believe that Jesus Christ is actually physically present in the Eucharist. This fraction of Catholics was of the 8% who actually attended Mass on a weekly basis. Looking closely at the numbers, this means that less than 3% of all Catholics in America actually profess what the Catechism teaches about the Eucharist.

Fast-forward to 2020-2021. American bishops wholesale shut down Catholic parishes on Sunday, herding parishioners online for Mass. While the intention may have been good at the start, the message most Catholics received is that going to a physical parish is optional, and receiving the Sacraments is great when you can but they’re not really necessary. Intended or not, what most Catholics picked up is that we are just to follow God on our terms as we see fit.

The truth is God came into the flesh to redeem the flesh, and He came ultimately to save us from the hell of self-isolating sin to bring us into physical communion with him. We don’t determine reality, but it’s God who has established an order to everything for our good. Our parishes are to reflect this reality. This means that while we can use technology appropriately, it is never to be a replacement for real, flesh-and-blood relationships.

The same goes for the Eucharist. We were never meant to stay behind plexiglass or the glass on our phones. No, we are made for physical contact. For embraces with loved ones. For deep passionate kisses that lead to total union. Reception of the Eucharist is a physical union with God on this planet that is a sign, reality and foreshadowing of the fulfillment of the deepest desire of every human being on the planet. We are body-soul composites, and when one aspect is not tended to in a healthy way, disintegration occurs.

We are to receive all the Sacraments (unless in emergency or via dispensation) in a physical Church, because this the norm of how we as the Body of Christ are to encounter God. Yet while our parishes have re-opened, what has not happened is a return to the pre-2020 levels of attendance at Roman Catholic parishes. This is a major problem. If we want this to change, changes must be made.

Discern Carefully

Enter: The National Eucharistic Congress. The hope of the Congress was that by gathering 50,000+ Catholics for 5 days there would be a revival in a belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, inspiring attendees to return home to share what they have experienced, bringing revival into Catholic homes, parishes, neighborhoods, the nation, and the world.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we believe in the God of miracles, that the same One who fed the 5000+ from 5 loaves and 2 fishes still feeds us today. Sadly, though, many self-proclaimed Catholics struggle to see how God is working in their lives and all around them because they have been blinded and are living a lifestyle influenced by the #1 sin.

Certainly, there is something to what Jesus shared with Doubting Thomas: “Blessed are those who have not seen yet believe.” In this context, it is faith that Jesus wants. In the context of this article, what an attachment pornography and the pornified culture at large effects is a blindness, keeping us from seeing others in truth and loving them.

How are we to see Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic species, which requires faith, when we cannot see those around us in truth, because our education about man & woman has been filtered through the lens of the pornified culture? How are we to see the Body of Christ in the Eucharist if we cannot see the bodies of others as living breathing images of God?

St. Paul warns of consequences of failing to see the truth of the Eucharist:

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. (1 Corinthians 11: 27-28)

The term “discern” means to see what is and what is not. During the time this letter was written, men and women were receiving the Eucharist unworthily, and it had devastating effects, even physical death.

This is a warning for us. Because we are body-soul composites, what we do with our body really matters. How we perceive and receive the Eucharist affects us in the here and now, as well as has eternal consequences. If we treat this as mere bread and wine, we will be held accountable. On the other hand, if we see, reverence, adore & love this Sacrament as the Body of Our Lord, we will encounter a taste of what is to come in eternity.

Likewise, how we see, know, and love human beings, or fail to do so, has profound ramifications for our lives and the lives of others on this planet and unto eternity. Sure, we can claim to love God in public; but are we loving others with our eyes as we are alone in our room late at night, surfing online? What we do in the privacy of our bedrooms doesn’t stay there, but instead impacts everyone we encounter. Jesus has a stern warning for all of us in this regard:  ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”

For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. (1st John 4:20)

Where my focus goes, my energy flows

What we are watching and listening to really matters, because it is forming us everyday. It impacts the way we interact with others and dictates how God will judge us at the end of our days. “Where my focus goes, my energy flows.” If our focus and formation about life is on pornography, we are not going to see others as gift, but rather as objects to be used, abused, and discarded. This in turn will impact negatively the way we view, treat, interact, and receive the Incarnate God found in the Eucharist.

If we’re really serious about Eucharistic revival and being a part of evangelization where genuine faith in the Eucharist and Catholicism itself explodes, it is imperative that Dioceses, parishes, pastors, and lay people address the pandemic of pornography:

• From the pulpit, telling the truth regularly (at minimum 1x/month) about the dangers of pornography, calling people to conversion and to receive the mercy of God.
• Providing real resources that actually heal the wound, and not just put a band-aid over the issue;
• Provide an environment for parishioners to learn how to see the body correctly.

Jesus asks you and me: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit?” (Luke 6:39). We are to be the light of the world, a city on a hill, but if we do not remove the plank from our eyes and learn how to REALLY see, how are we supposed to help others to see their own goodness and the goodness of others. Most importantly, how are we supposed to help a world that is starving to come receive worthily the God who is physically present and waiting for them in every tabernacle in every Catholic Church, and longs for them to spend eternity with Him?

Our world is languishing in blindness, and sadly far too many Catholics are no different, living a lifestyle inspired by the darkness of pornography. “If your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:23) Let us be honest, seek healing where we need it, and become a people who truly see, both the Eucharist for Who He is, and the bodies of every man and woman we encounter.

Steve Pokorny is the Founder of Freedom Coaching, a one-to-one mentoring system designed to break the power of pornified images in both men and women. His book, Redeemed Vision: Setting the Blind Free from the Pornified Culture, is available from Amazon.