If you were a priest and you could choose your servers at Mass, who would you choose?
Imagine if you were a priest and you could choose your servers at Mass.
Who would you choose? I chose a boy who plays shortstop on his baseball team.
Let me explain. It was June 26th, 1995, and we were celebrating a Solemn Mass in honor of Saint Josemaría, the founder of Opus Dei, in the beautiful Sacred Heart Church in Shadyside. It looks like a medieval cathedral, and at Communion, as I was distributing Holy Communion, I was holding the ciborium in my left hand, distributing the Sacred Host in my right hand, the server next to me. He was about 7th grade, thin, agile, alert. He had the paten in his left hand, standing to my left and focused on everything I’m doing.
I’ll never forget it.
As I pulled out one of the sacred hosts to give to the communicant, another host dislodged and flew through the air, end over end. And I thought, “Oh my goodness, this is going to be a disaster. The Holy Eucharist is going to fall on the floor. Maybe someone will step on it.”
Well, as the host is going through this youngster next to me, he kind of lunged and he caught it in mid-flight with the paten. It landed right there and he brought it back.
I took it off the paten and I said to him, “Nice catch.”
He said, “I play shortstop, Father.”
Those are great immediate reactions. Yes, when we’re serving at Mass, we want to be attentive, we want to be helpful. It’s a true story.
What’s the point here? We want to treat Jesus in the Holy Eucharist with maximum reverence, because that means we grow in humility. God is God. We’re not. We’re creatures. You can’t overdo it, and it’s a good thing for our soul. We really need a revival of faith and devotion to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, in our country, in our church.
And I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the people who showed up for Jesus in Indianapolis last summer: 65,000. Thank you, and be sure to watch for another Eucharistic Encounter next week, and may God bless you!
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