Where We Put Jesus

Trusting the sensus fidelium of the people of God

04/16/2024

Jn 6:22-29 [After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.] The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left. Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”

There was unanimous excitement and agreement when I announced that we would move the tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament back to the middle of the sanctuary here at Immaculate Conception. Not one person thought that was a bad idea. But several people did ask me why on earth the tabernacle was moved to the side altar in the first place. Who ever thought that was a good idea? That decision was made in the years following the Second Vatican Council which was in session from 1962-1965.

The Council Fathers (pope and bishops) wanted to emphasize the importance of the Mass so they implemented a number of changes in a document called Sacrosanctum Concilium. Some of you look old enough to remember them. For example, the priest faced the people instead of facing east (ad orientem). And the Mass was celebrated in the vernacular (local) language instead of in Latin. Such changes were intended to promote the active participation of the people.

Another decision (not made at Vatican II but later), again in order to promote active participation, was to move the tabernacle to the side or to another chapel for private prayer. The thinking was that somehow Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament might be a distraction to the primary focus of the Mass, which is the celebration of the Eucharist, what the priest and people do as the Body of Christ. So, theologians distinguished between the “static presence” of Christ in the tabernacle versus the “active presence” of Christ during the Mass.

In hindsight, however, I believe that thinking was erroneous. The people of God have a profound spiritual sensibility when it comes to the Eucharist. The Catholic faithful can easily, and even eagerly, distinguish between private devotion (like praying the rosary before Mass) and the main attraction of the Eucharistic liturgy itself. This instinct for the faith by the faithful (called the sensus fidelium) was famously developed by St. John Henry Newman in his book “On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine.”

Newman gave this example: “Thus we talk of ‘consulting our barometer’ about the weather:- the barometer only attests the fact of the state of the atmosphere.” That is, the laity don’t make the faith, but they know it when they hear it. In other words, if the pope and bishops after Vatican II had consulted the Catholic faithful about moving the tabernacle to the side altar or to a private chapel, they would have heard a world-wide “No! Don’t do it!” But alas, they did it.

And so today, if the Pew Research Center reports that only 30% of Catholics believe in the true and real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, well, we only have ourselves to blame. How so? By moving our Lord to the side, we diminished his prominence in the church. That was not the intention, of course, but it was an unintended consequence nonetheless. So, when people cheer the return of the Blessed Sacrament to the center of the sanctuary – like the people cheered Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem – we see the sensus fidelium is still alive and well. That spiritual sensibility has not be entirely killed.

This morning we hear from John 6, the great Eucharistic chapter of the fourth gospel. John illustrates with the multiplication of the loaves and the Bread of Life Discourse what Matthew, Mark, and Luke recount in the Last Supper narratives. And here Jesus expresses the true spirit of Vatican II and the sensus fidelium of sincere Catholics when he says: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”

And the Son of Man gives us this eternal Food in the Eucharist at Mass. But when our Lord is front and center in the sanctuary, we find it far more consistent with our faith in the Eucharist to worship him in the form of Bread. Of course we worship Jesus supremely in the Eucharist at Mass. But we want to continue to adore our Eucharistic Lord a lot longer than for just sixty minutes.

That is why Catholics come early for Mass and many people stay late after Mass is over. This is why our Hispanic prayer group wants Adoration all night long for the vigil of Pentecost. This is why Catholics sit and stare at what to the eyes of the world looks like a small white Wafer for 24-hour Adoration at St. Boniface. This faith in the Eucharist – both the active and static Presence of Christ – is the true sensus fidelium. And it will never be extinguished, no matter where we put Jesus.

Praised be Jesus Christ!