Sunday and the Eucharist

 

The Sunday Eucharist is — and should be — the centre of the Christian week. When a priest is available, replacing it with a simple service of prayer makes no sense to me. Why would we not break bread, hear God’s word, and give thanks for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the Lord’s Day?

If people grasped what is truly offered — beyond appearances, rituals, and words — our churches would be overflowing with those seeking healing and good news. Yet this is not our reality. Congregations are ageing and shrinking. Perhaps only 10–20% of the population attends weekly Eucharist, and the numbers are far lower among those aged 15–35. In some places, the presence of families and children at Sunday Mass has become so rare that it draws comment. At the same time, many urban congregations now include a growing number of people who are not White Irish — a welcome development, but it raises the question: where are the natives?

There is a huge irony when I hear more and more ordinary Irish people including some Christians spouting the White Replacement Theory conspiracy.  Well, if more and more of our slowly dwindling congregations are from abroad as well as more and more or our priests are of African or Asiatic origin doesn't this go to who that the Church is indeed Catholic/Universal?

We should not blame ourselves too harshly. These patterns emerged long ago in such places as Quebec, Flanders, Italy, and France well before the recent abuse scandals. Ireland has simply joined the wider secularising trends of the West.

What we can do is simple and faithful:

• Show up

• Take part

• Prepare well

• Give thanks

• Go out and live what we have heard and understood