Rediscovering the Eucharist
A Good Beginning
I was a cradle Catholic whose cradle was well insulated with love and devotion to the faith. My family went to Mass every Sunday and on every holy day of obligation. Like many Catholics, then and today, the Lamberts had a preferred pew. Ours was in the center section, second pew from the altar. I can still recall my dad’s tendency to lean forward and back every three seconds. I am convinced he was unaware of this habit, or of me mimicking it.
I loved and looked up to both of my parents, especially to their unwavering sense of service, evident in their willingness to help others. They were both very involved in the parish and would often invite the sisters who ran the church’s school, along with the priests, to our home whenever we had a significant gathering. It was in that grade school and church, St Joseph’s, in Round Lake, Illinois, that my siblings and I received our grammar school education and celebrated the sacraments. A generation later, my own two children followed suit, attending the same grade school, and receiving their sacraments within the same parish church.
My Catholic education continued at Carmel High School in Mundelein, Illinois. It was here that two life-changing events occurred during my junior year. The first was meeting my wife, Debbie. The second involved me taking an initial, yet deep, interest in my faith. I would like to say that this interest sprang forth from an inward Christ-like awakening, but in reality, about 90 percent of my motivation was fueled by intellectual curiosity inspired by the teaching of a Carmelite priest named Father Tom Drolet. I found his religion classes fascinating and couldn’t get enough. His method of teaching Scripture and theology was both rational and relatable. Who wrote what gospel, and when? Who was the audience for each gospel? How does Judaism connect with Christianity?
From those classes on, I became hooked on the academics of Christianity. To this day, I can fondly recall Fr. Tom’s enthusiasm in explaining what “brood of vipers” meant in the context of Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees. Imagine my excitement when I learned that Fr. Tom would also be teaching religion my senior year.
Learning from My Mistakes
I lived at home during my initial college years so that I could save money and keep the job I had. But more importantly, I remained local so that I could stay close to Debbie. It was during either my freshman or sophomore year that I began to develop many questions about Catholic teachings, which led to all sorts of problems, including internal conflict regarding my Catholic faith. These issues became so numerous and contentious that I began to wonder why I still professed to be a Catholic, and it was at this crossroads that I made a crucial error.
During this time, I began taking bass guitar lessons from Bill, a guy who was a few years older than me. At some point, Bill invited me to play softball on his Nondenominational Evangelical church team. I accepted. As I got to know more of the guys on the team, I saw in them a particular goodness. And, unlike most Catholics I had known, they had a real willingness to talk about faith and the Bible, both of which I found appealing.
So rather than going to a Catholic spiritual director with my mounting questions of faith, I went to these men and their families, to their Bible studies, and to individual meetings with their pastor. Of course, they had answers to my questions. I found this small Evangelical community to be staunchly anti-Catholic and eager to have a chance to save me from the clutches of what they perceived to be an evil institution. Even more impressive to me at the time was how they used Scripture to back up all of their answers.
