Jesus will follow you home
Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20; 1 Cor 10:16-17; Jn 6:51-58
The detention center in Broadview is relatively quiet these days. But last fall it was roiling with the confrontation between protesters and federal agents, while endless convoys of unmarked SUVs with their human cargo rolled in and out of the gates.
In the midst of this dark chaos, numerous attempts were made to deliver pastoral care, including the sacraments of reconciliation and Eucharist, to the detainees. Repeatedly, they were either ignored or rejected.
Faced with this stonewalling, the people of St. Eulalia Parish along with the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Life resolved that if the Eucharist were not allowed inside the walls of the center, then the precious Body and Blood would be brought to outside the walls.
On a warm October day, they organized a Catholic tradition that will be repeated thousands of times this weekend all over the world: a Eucharistic procession.
From St. Eulalia to the Broadview Detention Center, priests, religious and laity walked with the Blessed Sacrament as far as they were permitted to advance. Denied entry, they prayed and sang loudly enough that their voices might penetrate the monolithic structure and be heard inside.
Was the procession peaceful? Yes. Neither rocks nor insults were hurled. All were calmly escorted through the streets by local and state authorities. When they arrived at the center, there were no federal agents to be seen. They had retreated behind the locked gates and doors. Only prayers and hymns broke the silence.
But was the procession truly peaceful? Of course not. Once news of it was shared on social media, a howl went up among some of the Catholic faithful. “How dare they ‘politicize’ the Eucharist!” “They are manipulating the Blessed Sacrament as a pawn to score points against immigration officers!” “Shameful!” “Disgusting!”
Some of our seminarians participated in the procession and I publicly thanked them for their witness. That brought laments over how much the seminary had slipped from its former glory.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother” (Mt 10:34-35). These words of Jesus are often taken as hyperbolic metaphor, but the event in Broadview and the subsequent reactions to it made abundantly clear that Jesus’ words are not simply spiritual abstractions.
The fact that bringing the Body of Christ to the imprisoned could be perceived as politically inflammatory should strike us as more than a little ironic, especially given that visiting prisoners is one of the Catholic Church’s corporal works of mercy, founded on Jesus proclaiming that such visits equate to visiting him (Mt 25:36).
Our first reading this Sunday reminds us that the Lord used the gift of manna in the desert to test the trust of the Israelites. He brought them out of Egypt along a very challenging journey. Did they trust that he would continue to care for them, or would they continuously grumble against him when they faced new challenges?
Perhaps this weekend’s Eucharistic processions will also provide a test of sorts: Do we trust that the words of Jesus are intended for us? Even when they are difficult and seem to clash with our personal preferences or political allegiances? Even when they are delivered by people whom we fear or loathe or resent?
In a memorable line from the movie “Sinners,” the preacher warns his son: “You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.” We might paraphrase: “Keep processing after Jesus and one day he’s gonna process after you.”
And he’ll follow you where you don’t want him to come, with a message that you don’t want to hear, and a challenge that you’ll want to reword so that it suits your prejudices and endorses your resentments.
Sadly, the Broadview Detention Center exists in myriad forms and places, some of them within our own hearts.
I hope you are graced with a beautiful Eucharistic procession on this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. But don’t be deceived. That monstrance is prowling the streets, looking for every opportunity to follow you home.