Why Adoration?

[spyderkp23]

I’ve had some Christian friends confront me about adoration recently. They asked, why do you need some fancy case to hold Jesus so you can be with Him and adore Him - He’s everywhere, He’s always there, so why is this so special? Why do you need to go to adoration to be with him? It’s just a wafer anyway - what difference does it make. I had absolutely no clue how to answer them…help? explanation? easy to digest and convey suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

For starters, its not “just a wafer.” Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the real and true presence of Jesus Christ.

Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1374 The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as “the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend.” In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.” “This presence is called ‘real’ - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.”

Secondly, to say that God is present everywhere so we shouldn’t give extra attention to His presence in the Eucharist is a false comparison. Surely during the Incarnation God was still omnipresent in the world, yet it was considered right to give special attention to the Word made flesh. Thus Catholic do believe in God’s omnipresence in the world, but we also pay special attention to the real and true presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.