Living in the technology age can be enticing at times. As a mother of four young children whose noise levels rise immediately whenever another human body gets within a two-mile vicinity of our home, the idea of conducting my day-to-day activities behind a virtual barrier of text messages, emails, or Facebook offers some perks, namely lower decibel levels. Even in my modest attempts to spread the Gospel to the four corners of the earth, using the Internet certainly comes in handy.
Nonetheless, my virtual, arms-length relationships sometimes create spiritual barriers between those on the other side and me. Without the benefit of engaging another person face-to-face, it is easy to misunderstand and make presumptions.
It is easy to avoid “too much” commitment. It is easy to delay my response to what should be considered an immediate situation. And at times, it is even easy to feel lonely or misunderstood. The fact is that whatever benefits virtual exchanges provide, there is simply something more intimate, more significant, and frankly, more real about an actual flesh-to-flesh encounter. And anything less seems, well, less.
Of course, the most unfortunate part of this truth is that I’m among the dwindling lightweights in our virtual world. Our young adults and children are growing up in an age where many of their core interactions center on virtual relationships instead of truly present ones.
So what are Catholic parents such as myself who do not want their children settling for a virtually based, lesser life to do? Perhaps an important starting point is to proclaim and proudly lead our children to the truest intimacy offered to us by the One who counts the most: the real presence of Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist.
The Catholic Church teaches that, although Jesus is no longer visible, He is still made truly present in body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist. Although the teaching is one that no words can adequately explain and requires a certain amount of faith from believers, it is at least better understood against the backdrop of Jesus’ life.
If anyone could have used some clever gadget or method to call in his flock, it is the Son of God. The common denominator between Jesus and His followers portrayed in the Gospels, however, always involves a simple but powerful encounter with His body, not gadgets.
He enters into this fallen world in a fully human form and is born of the Virgin Mary. As he begins His ministry, He then uses His human senses to work miracles. The touch of His garment or encounter with His body heals the multitude in the land of Gennesaret, the woman with the flow of blood, and numerous others. The command of His voice frees a man from unclean spirits and brings a child and Lazarus back from the dead. And of course, he goes so far as to die in the flesh on the cross so that He could rise again and redeem our sins.
What is clear from Jesus’ time on earth is that He so loves His people that He never withheld Himself in His entirety. Consequently, as explained in Section 1380 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, when it comes to His true presence in the Eucharist after His death,
“it is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence….”
And that is precisely what Jesus promises in John 6:53-56 when He prefigures the joining of His church body with his flesh after His death, stating, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”
In other words, Jesus does not offer us a virtual or artificial relationship until we join Him in heaven. Each time Catholics celebrate the Eucharist at Mass it is an opportunity to partake in His actual presence until we visibly see Him again. And in this day and age where such encounters are scarce, it is perhaps more imperative than ever to cling to and draw our young people towards this sacrament if we want them to also experience something more.
Copyright © 2013, Krissie Allen
Krissie Allen
Krissie Kubiszyn Allen is an attorney, teacher, and Catholic mother of four living in Birmingham, Alabama, where she enjoys writing poetry, short stories and essays. Visit her also at her website, Choosing God.
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