With the Fortnight for Freedom Campaign For Religious Liberty coming up in just a few weeks, Catholics are wondering what they should do to uphold, protect, and live religious liberty. Elsewhere in this issue, you’ll see all the events and actions the diocese is suggesting.

But there is one thing all Catholics always can do with energy, enthusiasm and devotion. Catholics can go to Mass, especially Sunday Mass.

Why is that so important? Think about it. The Eucharist is what makes us quintessentially Catholic. This weekend we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi when we focus on the fact that the bread and wine at Mass become the Body and Blood of our Lord — really, truly and actually.

This means that our God comes to us to be with us in such a way that we can easily say, “God dwells in me.” St. Augustine used to say that unlike regular food which becomes a part of us when we eat it, the Eucharist divinizes us — makes us a part of Christ.

Yet it is amazing how easily Catholics blow off Sunday Mass if a game intervenes or a person just doesn’t feel like going, or, as is the case now, summer comes.

If we can so freely give up this unique chance of intimacy with God that the Eucharist offers — remember, no other religion makes the claims for closeness to God that we do — do we really believe we will stand up for our faith when it is challenged or when we are persecuted?

The right to religious liberty is so precious precisely because it gives us the opportunity to worship God as we see fit. Imagine the persecution in the countries of the world today where to say the name “Jesus” is a death sentence. Many Christians are now persecuted for the faith around the world. We are, in fact, the most persecuted religion.

That’s totally new for those of us who grew up in the last half of the 20th century in the good, old U.S.A. Only now, do we see movements afoot and tentative attempts to push Catholicism out of public life.
We’re not going to be burnt on the rack yet, or be beheaded, or stoned to death. But we are seeing pushback from a secular world that is at least suspicious, at most pernicious towards our faith.

That’s why we need to stand up now. We are not going to be able to do that unless we are strong enough, unless we are fortified enough to face what Jesus called “the troubles of the day.” The only way to be strong enough is to receive the Eucharist and get divine strength.

There are lots of reasons to go to Mass, but to have “strength for the troubles of the day” seems to be a real good reason now to make sure we exercise our right, privilege and responsibility to go to Mass. It is part of our Catholic vocation.

The Eucharist is the secret weapon in our struggle for religious freedom.