Kelly Clark examines the phenomenon that people are apparently willing to wait for all kinds of things for inordinate amounts of time, but they are unwilling to wait for Jesus in the Eucharist at Mass. And thus the custom of Extraordinary Ministers was born.
I was once asked to become a “Eucharistic” Minister, but begged off. (I’m already a lector in my parish.) I just don’t feel right about doing it. For one thing, it’s one of the most important duties in the world, bringing the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus to others. and I wouldn’t be able to help being disturbed as I distributed Communion to the obviously, bored, impatient, or disbelieving people approaching me. I know—I’m being judgental and I should get over it. Unfortunately, I can’t (or won’t) and so I don’t. Besides, think of the awesome responsibility of carrying the Eucharist to others. I would tremble at it. I already tremble a bit at receiving the Eucharist myself.
So I leave the extraordinary minister to others and think, like Kelly, that perhaps we’d be better off without that particular lay ministry and we just learned to be more patient as we wait for Jesus.
