I believe there is currently a genuine tension that the Church has always had to navigate: Do we wait for people to become reverent before inviting them closer to Jesus, or do we bring them to Jesus trusting that He Himself will make them reverent? One of the greatest pastoral challenges facing Eucharistic Adoration today is what might be called "The Reverence Paradox."
Concern about a lack of reverence before the Blessed Sacrament has been expressed by Church leaders and pastors alike. Some pastors hesitate to expand Eucharistic Adoration because they have witnessed irreverence within their chapels. Their concern is understandable. If people do not yet appreciate the holiness of Christ truly present in the Eucharist, should they first be taught reverence before being invited into prolonged Eucharistic Adoration?
Before addressing this question specifically in relation to Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, we should consider a possible objection: Jesus is just as truly present when reserved in the tabernacle as He is when exposed in the monstrance.
This is unquestionably true, but it does not follow that Jesus hidden in the tabernacle and Exposition have the same pastoral effect. Exposition makes His Eucharistic Presence visibly apparent and extends a public invitation to come, remain, and adore. It draws many people who might never enter a church merely because the Blessed Sacrament is reserved there.
If the possibility of irreverence is considered a sufficient reason not to offer Exposition, consistency would require restricting access to the church itself, since irreverence can also occur before Jesus hidden in the tabernacle. The Church instead teaches that churches containing the Blessed Sacrament should ordinarily be open to the faithful for prayer and that pastors should actively foster Eucharistic Exposition and Adoration. The same Jesus is present in both cases, but Exposition helps bring people consciously and intentionally into His Presence.
With that distinction established, the central question remains: Do we make Eucharistic Adoration with Exposition available while trusting Jesus to form those who come to Him, or do we trust primarily in our own ability to make people reverent before allowing them to draw near to Him?
The Gospels repeatedly present a different pattern.
Throughout His public ministry, Jesus did not wait until sinners had become holy before allowing them into His presence. He ate with tax collectors and sinners despite the constant criticism of the Pharisees:
"This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." (Luke 15:2)
Jesus understood that it was precisely His presence that brought about conversion.
A striking example is Zacchaeus. He wanted to see Jesus, but the crowd stood between them, forcing him to climb a tree just to catch a glimpse of Him. In a certain sense, the obstacles Zacchaeus encountered can be compared to those faced by people seeking to visit Our Lord in Eucharistic Adoration. Barriers can be placed—sometimes unintentionally—between a soul and the Presence of Jesus.
Yet Jesus did not tell Zacchaeus to first repent, restore what he had stolen, and then He would visit his home. Instead, Jesus invited Himself into Zacchaeus’ house. Only after spending time with Jesus did Zacchaeus freely repent:
"Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over." (Luke 19:8)
Christ's presence produced the transformation.
The same principle appears when parents brought little children to Jesus. The disciples attempted to keep them away, perhaps believing they were unworthy or that they were interrupting the Master's work.
St. Mark records Jesus' unusually strong reaction:
"When Jesus saw this, He was indignant..." (Mark 10:14)
Indignant!
He then declared:
"Let the little children come to me; do not prevent them." Jesus did not offer this merely as a gentle or sentimental invitation. The Gospel tells us that He was indignant. He was strongly correcting His disciples for attempting to keep people from coming to Him.
The Greek text conveys more than simple annoyance. Jesus was deeply displeased that anyone would place unnecessary barriers between people and Himself.
While this Gospel message is likely the disciples concern for the children being a nuisance to Jesus and not specifically about reverence, it presents an important lesson for Eucharistic Adoration. We should certainly teach reverence. We should encourage proper silence, posture, dress, and devotion. But we must also be careful not to create unnecessary obstacles that keep souls away from Christ, for it is often Christ Himself who gradually forms those virtues within them.
In Mark 9:36, Jesus takes a child into His arms and teaches His disciples the importance of welcoming the little one in His name. Around A.D. 878, in a commentary accompanying his Latin translation of the proceedings of the Eighth Ecumenical Council, Anastasius the Librarian reported that “the Greeks relate” that this child was St. Ignatius of Antioch. Although this is only a pious tradition and must be treated with caution, it raises a compelling question: What might have happened to Ignatius had he not been welcomed into the presence of Jesus?
We might ask the same question about those who are, in effect, denied the opportunity to spend time before Jesus exposed in the Blessed Sacrament because we have decided that they are not yet reverent enough.
Do we really trust in ourselves to teach them reverence better than they can learn from Jesus by spending time in His Presence?
At the same time, Scripture provides an important balance. The Parable of the Wedding Feast offers another helpful perspective where both bad and good are invited—even those gathered from the highways at the very last moment. Yet after entering the banquet, one guest is found without the required wedding garment. He is bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness.
The lesson is significant.
God's invitation is extraordinarily generous. Entrance is offered freely. But remaining in communion with Him requires transformation. One cannot remain unchanged forever.
The great biblical commentary of Cornelius à Lapide writes this “garment” is “charity, honesty and holiness of life.” He writes this judgment comes during the general judgment at the end of the world.
While discussing St. Gregory the Great’s commentary on this parable, the Navarre Bible Commentary refers to the garment as the dispositions of the individual—essentially, how the person responds to grace. The king’s servants were not rebuked for admitting the improperly clothed guest. They had followed the king’s command and gathered “all they found, bad and good” (Matthew 22:10). Everyone was welcomed into the feast and then given the opportunity—and the responsibility—to respond properly to the invitation received.
I believe the same principle can be applied to Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. We should welcome people into the presence of Jesus, teach them the reverence due to Him, and give them the opportunity to respond to His grace. This does not excuse irreverence. It does, however, recognize that an encounter with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament may itself be the means by which a person learns reverence and is transformed.
The great spiritual writers describe this lifelong transformation through the classic stages of the spiritual life. An excellent treatment of these stages can be found in The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology by the Rev. Adolphe Tanquerey, S.S., D.D.
The three stages are as follows:
- The Purgative Way – the soul turns away from serious sin and begins the difficult work of conversion, discipline, and repentance.
- The Illuminative Way – the soul grows in virtue, prayer, understanding, and increasingly reflects the mind of Christ.
- The Unitive Way – the soul enjoys a deep habitual union with God, characterized by profound love, humility, and conformity to His will.
These stages are not merely theoretical. They describe the ordinary way that Christ forms His disciples.
Eucharistic Adoration should therefore be understood as one of the important ways God draws souls into deeper reverence through time spent in the Presence of Jesus.
Just as Zacchaeus was changed by spending time with Jesus, and just as countless saints were transformed through prolonged prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, today's Catholics also grow in reverence by remaining in Christ's Presence.
Once again, this does not excuse irreverence. On the contrary, reverence should be lovingly taught from the very beginning. Chapel guidelines, catechesis, good example, and gentle correction all have an important role. But these should never become barriers that discourage sincere souls from coming to Jesus.
Perhaps the solution to the "Reverence Paradox" problem is this: Invite everyone to come to Jesus. Teach reverence faithfully. Trust Jesus to complete the work that only His Presence can accomplish.
As St. Paul reminds us:
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Ultimately, reverence is not merely learned. It is cultivated through a living encounter with the One who is worthy of all reverence.
The disciples believed they were protecting Jesus by keeping certain people away from Him. Jesus saw their actions very differently. He was indignant—righteously angered—that they were placing obstacles between people and Himself.
In Mark 10:14, the verse reads:
"When Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.'"
The Greek word is ἠγανάκτησεν (ēganaktēsen), meaning that Jesus was deeply displeased, moved with righteous indignation, or angered by what the disciples were doing. This is one of the relatively few places in the Gospels where Jesus' emotional reaction is explicitly described in such strong terms.
The challenge for us is to teach reverence without becoming gatekeepers who unintentionally keep sincere souls from encountering Christ. Jesus can form reverence in hearts that spend time in His Presence, just as He transformed Zacchaeus and so many other sinners who first came to Him as they were.
The Church has always distinguished between approaching the Eucharist in Holy Communion and praying before the Blessed Sacrament in Eucharistic Adoration. Holy Communion is the fullest sacramental union with Christ and therefore requires proper disposition. Catholics conscious of mortal sin must first receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation before approaching Holy Communion (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:27–29). Likewise, Holy Communion is ordinarily reserved to Catholics who are fully initiated into the Church and properly disposed.
Eucharistic Adoration, however, is an invitation to draw near to Christ in prayer. While the reverence due to the Blessed Sacrament is no less, the purpose of Adoration is precisely to lead souls into a deeper relationship with Jesus. Countless conversions have begun simply by someone spending time quietly before the Blessed Sacrament. In this sense, Adoration can serve as a path that prepares hearts for the day when they may worthily receive Him in Holy Communion.
