Light!

Working with the youth group was the turning point in my life. We had fun activities regularly like the Teen Club I had been involved in at my parish in high school. But, it was the discussions about faith and morals that changed me. As a small group leader, I had to teach my group of teenagers what the Church taught. In order to do that, I had to learn the teachings! And, basically from scratch. I had been raised Catholic, went to Mass on Sundays, and had 14 years of Catholic school to that point. I had good parents, teachers, and priests (I just missed having nuns in school), but not too much sunk in.

Growing up, I cared more about sports and girls than the teaching on Purgatory, for example. And, I saw going to Mass like attending a play where everyone knew their lines. It was just a ritual that we had to do. It wasn’t real, in my mind.

About the same time that I was having epiphanies almost daily about our Faith, I sat down with Fr. Wells to talk about stuff. I loved picking his brain about almost anything and he seemed to enjoy it, too (it’s fun when you have the answers!). This one chat in particular, I blurted out, “well, you know, Father, the Eucharist is just a symbol”. I’m not really sure where that came from other than my thinking that the Mass is just a ritual. I had never been taught that the Eucharist is just a symbol and it is nowhere in the Bible. His response was one succinct line which landed right between my eyes: “Greg, ‘this my body’ means this is my body”. That one line changed my life (and hopefully my eternity).

This was the biggest epiphany I had ever had. When he said those words, a light went on and I got it about the Eucharist. As I pursued this mysterious but intriguing teaching via daily Mass and Adoration, I would get it a lot more about God and our Catholic faith. Before then, God was a million miles away and I was down here (to deal with my Dad’s death and everything). When I went to Adoration, He was just a few feet away. And, in Holy Communion, He was so close He was in me! And, it was (and is) Him - Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. I was now in the presence of and getting to know the Light of the World.