A Day of Disrespect for the Blessed Sacrament

Today was non-stop incidents of disrespect/irreverence of the Eucharist.  I asked Him if I was over reacting or being unreasonable with what, in my opinion, is abuse.  He gave me a definitive answer in an unexpected way.

I was upset that the Chapel was such a mess when I got there.  Books thrown all over the place – just stacked on the shelf and on top of each other; mud and grass tracked in and then stepped on, grinding it into the carpet; food and drinks in the garbage that were more than likely consumed there, etc.

Later, as soon as Mass ended, the men did their normal Saturday free-for-all of talking, laughing, blocking the Tabernacle, being so loud I couldn’t even peacefully give thanks for this great Mystery…for Him!  This is a problem after most every Mass and is not unique to our parish, but it is always so much worse on Saturday a.m. – and even worse than normal this morning.

I went back to the Chapel, but could not get over how “acceptable” this behavior had become.  I thought of all the times I saw the people who are being held up to us as the leaders of the parish/church engaging in this behavior before/after Mass. Some regularly arrive late to Mass, and when distributing  Communion, serving as Altar servers, or coming to their SCHEDULED” Adoration, they are often in shorts and t-shirts; women with micromini skirts or low cut tops.  Some “pillars”  even look around (I guess to see who is there) and even wave or talk to people while Mass is in progress and, worse yet, IN THE COMMUNION LINE, shaking hands and laughing.

Then to top it all off;  an adorer got up and left 25 mins early without a word and the next person didn’t show up until 20 minutes late  Had I not been there, He would have been alone, in exposition, uncovered, looking out at an empty room (as I found Him the other day in the middle of the day)….not even someone just reading, or daydreaming, or texting,….just emptiness. The person scheduled after the hour I was covering as a substitute was also 20 minutes late. One of these people was one of His own and one is the person that is supposedly the top pillar.  Unfortunately it is not a one time incident for either.

After the situation between the first 2 adorers,  I started crying and asked the questions. Is it me?  Am I exaggerating the situation?  Is this something that bothers me but not You?  Am I projecting my guilt for past irreverence for the Eucharist on to others, or is this truly an affront to You?  You know I always pray that if it does not bother You, do not let it bother me!

My mind immediately went to picturing Jesus crowned with thorns, mocked in false adoration, and today’s perpetrators hitting Him with the reed.  Since, I have had this image many times after witnessing the disrespect, I wasn’t sure if He was answering me or not.

I pulled out my book “My Treasury of Chaplets”, but instead of going to the usual ones, I chose one I had never even read before, much less prayed.  “Beads of the Sacred Heart”.

This prayer, I believe was the answer to my question. My “emotionalism” was vindicated by 2 key parts of the prayer:

“We adore Thee, O Jesus, who has been afflicted in the Garden of Gethsemane and who in our time are outraged in the Blessed Sacrament by the impious conduct of men…”. 

Not only did I take the “impious conduct” as validation that He considers all of the above mentioned conducts outrages, but the mention of the Garden of Gethesmane where His apostles fell asleep first and then abandoned Him, clearly to me was an indication that we are to be alert to His Presence and He does NOT want to be left alone!

And within the closing prayer:

“And since we desire to honor Thee in the adorable Mystery of the Altar to the utmost of our power and to render Thee most pleasing homage, and for that intention, WEEP for and detest from the bottom of our hearts all the outrages, contempt, mockery, sacrileges, and other acts of impiety which UNGRATEFUL men in every part of the world have committed against Thee….”

I believe this speaks for itself.

Never would I have expected to find prayers regarding abuse of the Blessed Sacrament in a chaplet for the Sacred Heart – abuse to His Sacred Heart – yes, but not the Blessed Sacrament.  It may be a common occurrence, but I sure never read it before.  Therefore, I believe it was the the Holy Spirit Who led me to this Chaplet to confirm that it is not me over exaggerating, but that these actions are indeed disrespectful and an affront to our Lord.

There is not much I can do to change it.  As for the talking, I have tried saying something to no avail  (even one time the person just got louder and started making fun of me to his friends).  I can’t make people understand the heartbreak of Jesus looking out into an empty (or dirty) room when He is not in His “Home” (even if the door is locked, that is NOT the point). So all I can do is what seems to be the only thing I can do about anything anymore – pray, fast, and offer reparation; plus, hope that the Holy Spirit will be able to “reach” those who CAN do something about it.

This is NOT about the individuals or their conduct that I witnessed today.  There are too many like them.  They are not doing anything they do not see others do and have not been corrected .  Again, this is a problem in every Church and Chapel.  I only wish everyone considered Who He is and how we should conduct ourselves in His True Presence – whether we are praising Him, listening to His Word, about to receive Him, or just around Him in the Tabernacle or Monstrance.  He gave EVERYTHING for us and continues to humble Himself as our True Food and True Drink…. the very least we can do is keep His environment clean, acknowledge His Presence at all times, if we are not going to give thanks ourselves, at least don’t make it difficult or impossible for others to do so, and most importantly – never take a chance on deserting Him by leaving Him alone uncovered, exposed in the Monstrance.