The eucharistic community is a cure for a sad world

The times we are living in are sad and dangerous. Locally, babies are being killed by parents on drugs. Suicide rates are rising all over our country. Ideologies are killing any respect for the truth.

Countries are falling into the hands of types of “strongmen” who used to be called dictators. And 30 percent of the world in 2020 faced moderate or severe food insecurity. They went hungry.

As one would suspect, people who are hurting are becoming sadder and much more negative.

Between 1990 and 2018 a “General Social Survey” measured the happiness levels of Americans. During those years, the share of Americans who put themselves in the lowest happiness level increased by more than 50 percent.

These statistics on food insecurity, negativity and the happiness levels of Americans I obtained from a column by New York Times writer and TV personality, David Brooks. He wrote an article last month in the Times, entitled “Around the world, a tide of sadness is rising.” No comfort for us, but Brooks quotes a Gallup poll of people around the world that found 21 percent of people in India gave themselves a zero on a scale of zero to ten, meaning that they were living their worst possible life.

There are almost two billion people in the world, particularly in India and China, who would not recommend their communities to a friend. And both of these countries have become richer during the same time span. Brazil and Mexico are also countries experiencing great unhappiness in their population.

Brooks lists as causes of this world-wide malaise, first of all, declining community, then hunger, next, living in almost daily physical pain. Jon Clifton, the CEO of Gallop Polls, wrote a book, “Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness and How Leaders Missed It.” He notes that “development does not necessarily lead to gains in well being, in part because development is often accompanied by widening inequality.” Gross National Product doesn’t tell us how people are actually experiencing their lives. Brooks continues, “Clifton noted that according to the Global Peace Index, civic discontent-riots, strikes, anti-government demonstrations – increased by 244 percent from 2011 to 2019.” Brook’s conclusion is, “The emotional health of the world is shattering.”

This sounds very grim. But I think Pope Francis would agree. His image of the “throw-away culture” fits a lot of what Brooks and Clifton are describing. But what is the path correction that we can take to make our people happier? Even a grump like the prophet Jeremiah knew what God promised Israel (and us), “I know well the plans I have in mind for you, ... plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope.” In some translations “welfare” is translated “prosperity,” but God isn’t talking about monetary wealth. In the preceding verses Jeremiah talked about the Jews marrying and having children to increase in numbers and feeding their families with the produce of their gardens. God was creating a people to pray to him, and after 70 years in Babylon, he would bring them back to the land that he had promised them, by then strong and healthy.

I believe that the way to turn our sad world into a happier and healthier one is to begin with the first cause of our decline — diminishing community. We have a community, in fact, a whole network of communities. We call them parishes. They gather people into Catholic churches which exist for one main purpose, to celebrate the Eucharist that Jesus left us so that we may become one, as he and his Father are one, united to him as he is to God our Father.

If we have not really beaten Covid, we have at least tamed it, for those who are willing to be vaccinated and boostered. We can safely return to Sunday and daily Masses in our parish churches. It is there that we can rebuild our sense of community. Jesus knew what he was doing when he commanded his apostles to celebrate the Eucharist in memory of him. It is there at Mass that we are strengthened and united to God and to one another through sharing God’s word in Scripture and homily, through offering ourselves together with Jesus in the representation of his sacrifice on the cross, and through our common reception of his real presence in eucharistic communion.

Watching TV Mass was the best we could do while the Covid pandemic raged, but that is certainly not the community builder that Sunday eucharistic worship together at Mass provides us. When, because of a shortage of priests, parishes in our Diocese were clustered, the first and most important question asked by parishioners was, “Can we still have Sunday Mass in our home parish?” All of a sudden, we realized how important and comforting it was to celebrate our most important sacrament together with our neighbors. The Mass is the same and equally valid in all of our parishes, but our home parish is our community and our spiritual family. Our parish family needs us back in the pew, not at home in our pajamas. A sense of community is important for our spiritual, mental and physical health and happiness.

Father Carville is a retired priest in the Diocese of Baton Rouge and writes on current topics for The Catholic Commentator. He can be reached at johnny [email protected].