A Five-Minute Chat by Bishop Robert Barron  –  8/6/2019

As we go through life, our perspective on things changes.  Our experiences and what we learn from them move us along on our journey.  What was important to us when we were younger gives way to a new way of seeing things. This is true of how we see our Catholic beliefs. The doctrines don’t change but we do; and so, in preparation for Holy Thursday, I recommend that, with the help of Bishop Robert Barron, we consider our beliefs about the Eucharist.

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Ask yourself: How would you respond to the question: Do I believe that Jesus is really, truly and substantially present under the forms of bread and wine? What is making you think the way you do on this belief of our Catholic faith? If you have any doubt about it, what is making you doubt it?

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Ponder: To drive home the point that Bishop Barron is making, think about this:

What is your personal opinion of what being a catholic is all about?

Were you to compare a person’s idea of being a Catholic to participation in a sport, for instance, baseball: Would you say that being a Catholic is like striving to be a baseball player or striving to be a baseball fan? Do you see the differences? What are they? Try to name them. (You see, I am trying to get you to engage your own thinking in this exploration, i.e., don’t be a fan; be a player: engage your mind and heart in what you are now doing – think and feel deeply. Let come to the surface your own questions and maybe even your own doubts. Don’t sit there and let me do all the thinking. What I think is not as important as what you think. Engaging your thinking is what will engage your heart and move you to make truth real and alive for you.)

(1) To participate in baseball as a baseball player, you need to study and continue to study the sport and everything that pertains to playing it. And you have to train your mind and your body in order to gain skill in playing the game.

(2) To participate in baseball as a fan, a spectator, you need to learn some aspects of the game and then watch the game alone or with others, maybe join a fan club, but your “engagement in the game” is certainly not anywhere near that of a player.

Now, apply that to your life and your faith. Is God’s intention that you and I be players or fans in the matter of our own lives? The old Baltimore Catechism answer to the question “Why did God create us?” – “To know God, to love God and to serve God” (serve – similarly to how a ball player serves the game, the team and the fans, we are to serve God) is still fitting today:  whether we are aware of it or not, our existence here on earth from beginning to end is more than anything else about us and our relationship with God! So, how should I be engaging in this: as a player or as a fan? How am I engaging in this?

Consider this: There is a phrase that I repeat often, “You only know what you know and you don’t know what you don’t know.” It applies here.

If what Barron just said unnerves you a bit, it may be because you were never taught to explore the doctrines of the Catholic faith in a way that would make them meaningful to you. Or you were taught and it went over your head and you didn’t “get it.”

I  thank those who have been come to my Explorations in Faith and Spirituality sessions, especially those who have said to me, “So why weren’t we taught this?” It is partially, possibly mostly, our fault, those of us who have been schooled in this and wrongly adopted the “thinking of the day,” that same thinking that threw out the memorization of the arithmetic times tables. And, on the other end of the spectrum, we did not apply the trend in modern education that teaches our youth not just how to memorize but which also teaches the student how, among other things, to think things through, to explore and to be looking at things from multiple perspectives.

Look for more posts on the Eucharist.  Please let me know if this is helpful.

Sister Loretta