I honestly find this lacking. I grew up going to church, and honestly, I knew about the mercy and love of God, and I kept sinning. I had no fear of the Lord. I credit an experience of the the Fear of the Lord with converting me to take my faith seriously. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
I recommend every Christian to start listening to, memorizing, meditating on, and singing the great song from the 600's, one of my favs, the Dies Irae. Oh the words are so good. They put every hymn and contemporary worship song to shame. It is dreadfully holy. As a pop culture side note, its melody is used in so many movies today from Star Wars, The Lion King, The Shining, It's a Wonderful Life, heck, the marching band at the high school I taught at last year used the melody in their half-time show.
Pop Culture Dies Irae:
The Shining Opening Score:
We need the reverence and terror of the greatness of God in our religion again. The fear of the Lord is beautiful and helps us live holy. It's that masculine, "buck up boy or else!"
Anyhow, how does this fear of the Lord relate to the Eucharist? I've been meaning to write this or Youtube it for a while. And this last Sunday, the Sunday after the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report was released, I was in despair and repentance during mass. I wanted God to break in and shake out the perpetrators, to purify his church. It bothered me thinking about how many priests or bishops could be celebrating mass that morning after abusing or raping someone and then taking the Eucharist without repentance. It bothered me for the Lord's body to be desecrated and sacrilegiously consumed by those in some of the worst mortal sin, and priests none the less.
Then I remembered the fear of the Lord and the warning of judgment spoken about concerning the Eucharist. One of the proofs that the Eucharist is the Real Presence is St. Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 11 concerning the Lord's Supper. He states that those who receive the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner face judgement, some having died or gotten sick. We definitely don't preach that in homilies. What will the visitors think? Not many priests would believe that warning anyways, its too supernatural and stuff.
1 Cor. 11:27-30 "27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep." Fallen asleep means died. No one in mortal sin is suppose to take the Eucharist. That rule is there for your own good, not to just be nitpicky.
As I sat in mass praying for the scandalized church, thinking about the bishops who shuffled predator priests around, and thinking about predator priests behind altars celebrating mass, hiding their criminal natures while they wear clerical robes, I wanted justice. I prayed for God to purify his church. Of course, it is the Lord who judges and purifies. I would be too fickle, weak, and temperamental in any judgement or assessment, but God, he knows the heart. He can convict. He can judge. He can purify.
I prayed that all the bishops and priests who were receiving the Eucharist in mortal sin, hiding abuses in their diocese, would face conviction of the Holy Spirit, a wake up call, a turning from sin and call to transforming holiness.
Many don't like to think about the judgement of God, but to me it is just as important as the love of God. If God loves unconditionally, he must unconditionally hate the things that destroy the object of his love. True love necessitates a hatred of the things that hurt the beloved. How holy must the Eucharist be, Jesus himself, if people can die from partaking in an unworthy manner? Only a few times in Scripture have people died from mistreating the holy. When someone approached the Holy of Holies inappropriately (Numbers 16), when Uzzah touched the ark of the covenant trying to stabilize it and dropped dead (2 Sam 6:1-7), when the Philistines captured the ark and a plague of tumors broke out in their city (1 Sam 5), when Ananias and Saphira lied to the Holy Spirit and Peter about the money from their home sale and dropped dead (Acts 5:1-11). This is the kind of power the Eucharist also has. We must repent before partaking of it. God is merciful and patient. Yet I pray for repentance of sin in myself and the Church before taking the Eucharist, or at least, if evil people take the Eucharist, may they face the kindness of God to shake them up and lead them to repentance and salvation at the end of their life. The Eucharist, Jesus, God himself, second person of the Trinity, purify and cleanse your Church. Amen. So, learn the Dies Irae. Why isn't it in our Hymnals? It was dictated by the Holy Spirit to Pope St. Gregory the Great.
Revere the Eucharist. Remember its foundation is the Passover meal, memorial of the day the Israel escaped the Angel of Death and found salvation.
Dies Irae/Day of Wrath
DIES irae, dies illa,
solvet saeculum in favilla,
teste David cum Sibylla.
Day of wrath and doom impending,
David’s word with Sibyl’s blending,
Heaven and earth in ashes ending.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
quando iudex est venturus,
cuncta stricte discussurus!
O what fear man’s bosom rendeth,
When from heaven the Judge descendeth,
On whose sentence all dependeth.
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
per sepulcra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum.
Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth,
Through earth’s sepulchers it ringeth,
All before the throne it bringeth.
Mors stupebit et natura,
cum resurget creatura,
iudicanti responsura.
Death is struck, and nature quaking,
All creation is awaking,
To its Judge an answer making.
Liber scriptus proferetur,
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundus iudicetur.
Lo, the book exactly worded,
Wherein all hath been recorded,
Thence shall judgment be awarded.
Iudex ergo cum sedebit,
quidquid latet apparebit:
nil inultum remanebit.
When the Judge His seat attaineth,
And each hidden deed arraigneth,
Nothing unavenged remaineth.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
quem patronum rogaturus?
cum vix iustus sit securus.
What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding
When the just are mercy needing?
Rex tremendae maiestatis,
qui salvandos salvas gratis,
salva me, fons pietatis.
King of majesty tremendous,
Who dost free salvation send us,
Fount of pity, then befriend us.
Recordare Iesu pie,
quod sum causa tuae viae:
ne me perdas illa die.
Think, kind Jesus, my salvation
Caused Thy wondrous Incarnation,
Leave me not to reprobation.
Quarens me, sedisti lassus:
redemisti crucem passus:
tantus labor non sit cassus.
Faint and weary Thou hast sought me,
On the Cross of suffering bought me,
Shall such grace be vainly brought me?
Iuste iudex ultionis,
donum fac remissionis,
ante diem rationis.
Righteous Judge, for sin’s pollution
Grant Thy gift of absolution,
Ere that day of retribution.
Ingemisco, tamquam reus:
culpa rubet vultus meus:
supplicanti parce Deus.
Guilty now I pour my moaning,
All my shame with anguish owning,
Spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning.
Qui Mariam absolvisti,
et latronem exaudisti,
mihi quoque spem dedisti.
Through the sinful woman shriven,
Through the dying thief forgiven,
Thou to me a hope hast given.
Preces meae non sunt dignae:
sed tu bonus fac benigne,
ne perenni cremer igne.
Worthless are my prayers and sighing,
Yet, good Lord, in grace complying,
Rescue me from fires undying.
Inter oves locum praesta,
et ab haedis me sequestra,
statuens in parte dextera.
With Thy sheep a place provide me,
From the goats afar divide me,
To Thy right hand do Thou guide me.
Confutatis maledictis,
flammis acribus addictis.
voca me cum benedictis.
When the wicked are confounded,
Doomed to flames of woe unbounded,
Call me with Thy Saints surrounded.
Oro supplex et acclinis,
cor contritum quasi cinis:
gere curam mei finis.
Low I kneel with heart’s submission,
See, like ashes, my contrition,
Help me in my last condition.
Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla.
iudicandus homo reus:
huic ergo parce Deus.
Ah! That day of tears and mourning,
From the dust of earth returning,
Man for judgment must prepare him,
Spare, O God, in mercy spare him.
Pie Iesu Domine,
dona eis requiem. Amen.
Lord, all-pitying, Jesus blest,
Grant them Thine eternal rest. Amen.
