The lesson of Holy Week is just that: holiness. Holiness is the solution to ills that afflict both the Church and society in general.

It is the solution to what afflicts us personally. When we have holiness, we have closeness to Christ, and with Christ is everything we need to live happily and defeat evil.

A few recommendations: let's bring a greater solemnity, the solemnity so evident this week, back to the Mass on a regular basis. It is time to recover the supernatural nature and dignity of our Church and we can start with the Eucharist.

Just last week, the Pope indicated to priests the importance of treating the Eucharist with greater respect. "The sacred rite, the holiness of the rite, the imperative to submerge oneself in the rite, is something we must do with all possible holiness, including external," noted Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Clergy in presenting the Pope's letter.  "Always with great respect for the local hierarchy, the bishops, who are the authority in their dioceses, the Holy Father requests priests to be obedient to the norms that are given to them by the bishops, especially, on the Eucharist."

A great "holiness" in the way we present the Eucharist is a place to start, and in our view important in this regard is that priests spend more time elevating the Host during consecration.

A ringing of the bells like they used to do during consecration also helps, since it adds to the length and gravity of the moment. Please bring back the bells. In too many parishes, the consecration -- during which the most potent prayers can be said -- is done in a flash.

Hold the Eucharist high. Hold it long. Hold up the cup so all can see it.

In an extraordinary revelation, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, the famed German mystic who appears headed for canonization, saw many things during the Crucifixion of Our Lord, and one of them had to do with the Eucharist. It's fit uncannily with another comment by Cardinal Hoyos, who last week commented that "from the press one learns that there is no lack of abuses in the sacred rite of the Eucharist."

"I saw Jesus in the midst of these raging multitudes, many of whom appeared to me blind," revealed Emmerich in a little-known series of books called The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations. "I saw Him staggering from side to side, sometimes standing upright, and then falling to the ground. The serpent formed the central figure in this army, which it constantly led forward to new attacks.

"It lashed its tail around on all sides, and all whom it felled to the earth or enveloped in its coils it strangled, tore to pieces, or devoured.

"Upon this I received an instruction that these multitudes that were tearing Jesus to pieces represented countless number of those who in diverse ways ill-treat Him Who, in His Divinity and Humanity, Body and Soul, Flesh and Blood under the forms of bread and wine in the Most Blessed Sacrament, dwells ever present in that Mystery as their Redeemer."

Among the enemies of Christ, claimed Emmerich, were those who committed offenses against the sacrament.

"I saw with horror all the outrages springing from neglect, irreverence, and omission, as also those of abuse and the most awful sacrilege," asserted the mystic, whose visions served as the key inspiration to the recent Passion movie.

3/24/05