The sanctuary flame has died. The sanctuary lamp is broken and scattered. The altar and the pews and the confessionals have been cut up for firewood. The Tabernacle, emptied, is carried away along with the Sacred Vessels: chalices, ciboria, monstrance, censer and boat and pyx. The candles and the candelabra have been stolen. The crucifix and statues are broken and busted into a million pieces. The altar cloths and corporals and purificators have disappeared. The stained glass windows have been punched out. The church is filthy and empty. The abomination of desolation! Faith is finished!
The priests have all died or have been killed, or have been imprisoned. No one is left in any seminary. No response is possible to the great gift of the Holy Eucharist because it too no longer exists. The Church and the church building could not be more desolate. Its as though God had come to earth and was crucified, died, and rose for no purpose. The glory of the past 2,000 years is forgotten, almost like it never existed. Satan has triumphed. Nothing could be more depressing. It is hell on earth without the Holy Eucharist. God is dead!
This is the status for a person who has left the Catholic Church and its truth, rejecting its greatest treasure: the Body, the Blood, the Soul and Divine Nature of the God-Man Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of His Love. This world could sooner live without the sun than it could live without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (St. Pio). St. Francis insisted that he saw nothing corporally (physically) of the Most High Son of God but His Most Holy Body and Blood, which priests receive and administer to others. Now all this is gone for those who have kissed the Eucharistic Lord “good-bye” (I hope not like Judas!).
What is the reason so many of our children and grandchildren have given up Holy Communion and their Catholic Christianity? Did they have a fight with the priest. Or, have they been scandalized by hypocritical parishioners? Or, are they intent upon entering an adulterous union? Or, are they blindfolded by pornography, contraception, homosexual activity so that their moral vision is skewed? Or, is it that they do not know their faith well enough to live or explain? Or, is it that they feel no need for God and His Church? Or, does God make unreasonable demands that are impossible for them to live up to?
What can we do to bring our loved ones back to Holy Communion? We can live a Eucharistic life ourselves, receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord every chance we get. We can make a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament each week. We can visit our Eucharistic King if the church building is not already locked. We can use the prayer of St. Francis: “We adore you, Most Holy Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all Your churches throughout the world; and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.” We can never give up on the ones we love. We lift them up to the Lord, the only one who can bring them happiness. Happiness is Jesus Christ and His face is the Holy Eucharist. That white Host is God!