10/8/21 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Mini Guidos at the Pizza Kick-off Rally!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family:

Last Thursday afternoon and early evening and all day Friday I was called away from school to participate in a Catholic schools principals’ retreat. Of course many professionals take time away from their work to attend conferences and seminars. Even secular professionals sometimes get to go on a retreat to relax and recharge.

As you may imagine the schedule of school principals are quite packed. I do believe our time is valuable. And yet, for ½ hour of our schedule no one said a word. The conference room was still. Many principals knelt on the carpeted floor. Others sat.

If I told the secular non-religious world that the object of our silence and veneration was a white round wafer enconsed in a gold plated cross shaped structure with an ominus sounding name called a monstrance, they would say we were silly. We who are Catholic would say that it was the second most important part of our retreat.

Catholics believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, God Himself, is actually, truly and really present in that consecrated wafer that we call a host. We, or at least, I, freely admit that we have no scientific basis for making that claim. A chemical analysis of the host would reveal it to be made of flour and salt. Nonetheless, when we contemplate that host in the window of that gold plated monstrance we are contemplating the very real presence of the real Risen Christ right there in the room with us.

I can hear Bob Maher the HBO host of “Real Time with Bob Maher” making complete fun of us for this belief. I even know that many Christians who pray to the same God as us, would scoff at our supernatural belief that Christ is present in the Eucharist. And, of course, we are in an age where everyone’s version of reality and truth is different, from Tom Brady versus Bill Belichick to masks, to politics etcetera etcetera.

Indeed, in many parts of the world, Jesus Christ is not even acknowledged as God, let alone a God who presents Himself to us through the miracle of consecration. But we who are Catholic believe it. And that is why, when that white wafer is exposed in the glass window of the monstrance, we stop, we venerate, we pray. We even call our time “Eucharistic Adoration.”

The beauty of this act, and the significance of the most important thing we Catholic principals did on our retreat, attend Mass, where we said “Amen” as Father Sizemore presented to us the host and said, “The Body of Christ,” and we actually got to consume that host, to take Christ’s body into our own body, can not be underestimated. When we contemplate that God, who created the whole vast universe and our magnificent Earth and all of the creatures that inhabit it and all of the people who have dwelt upon it, loves each of us on such a one on one personal level that He allows us to contemplate His real presence and consume Him in an act of physical unity should and does give us pause. God is real. God is present not just in the Bible or in heaven but truly present to us in the Eucharist. The same God who set a trillion stars on their paths and billions of people on their journey allows us to be one with him in this most special way.

If it were announced in Newark where the retreat was held that Bruce Springsteen or Tom Brady or Tom Cruise was making an appearance at our retreat, the press would be there in force, and people would be beating down the door to get a glimpse of these superstars. Yet last Friday morning, 75 principals got to spend a quiet ½ hour with our actual Creator and there wasn’t even a Facebook post about it.

Had I chosen 43 years ago to go into public education I would be making better money (actually I would probably have been able to retire by now), still impacting children, hopefully in a positive way in education. But the ½ hour I got to spend last Friday, and the 45 minutes I get to spend at Mass on Friday with our students and Jesus Christ, never fail to overwhelm me with awe. God is real. God is present. God wants to be one with me. Pretty powerful stuff.

Jim Silcott