Dogs

“It’s funny that even dogs can recognise what some Catholics can’t: that there is a real living Person in the Tabernacle and that He has been there for 20 centuries waiting for each one of us.”

Saint Pope John Paul II (US)

There is a beautiful story that I recently read about a visit that Pope Saint John Paul II made in October 1995 to the US to Saint Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore.  The Pope visited the Blessed Sacrament in the Oratory and prior to entering the room, the security staff and their dogs swept the building and all the spaces to ensure that eh would be safe.  The dogs were trained in rescue and knew how to locate people trapped beneath rubble and alert rescuers after things like earthquakes and other sorts of disasters.  When the dogs reached the chapel where the Blessed Sacrament was they whined and pointed and refused to leave.  This was the same behaviour that they would exhibit if they had located a person according to their trained.

The bishop there said, “It’s funny that even dogs can recognise what some Catholics can’t: that there is a real living Person in the Tabernacle and that He has been there for 20 centuries waiting for each one of us.”

And I have been reflecting on that story over the last few days.  You see, there is much great work that is done when we acknowledge the real presence of God in the Tabernacle and in the Blessed Eucharist…

“The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.’” (John 6:52-59).Christ did not offer us a symbol or an empty promise or icon.  He offered us Himself – as God – with all the Grace and glory that such a thing affords.  And He offers this in such a way that I can access it.  I can access that Grace eve as quite a young child in Holy Communion.  I can access it in my brokenness as I age and in my fear and distress.  He even allows me to access that Sacrament if I am in a state of mortal sin – though that is a sin in itself and causes Him terrible pain because sin is an offence against God and therefore it is offensive to be close to God when we are trying to offend Him.  He allows this because as the Eucharist He will not stop me from consuming Him…

I have been thinking about that too.  You see, it seems that God Himself deliberately makes Himself small to give me the benefit of the doubt – so that He is vulnerable in this form and will concede to my will in receiving Him – even when I am unworthy.

And it occurs to me today that the bishop was right.  Even the dog recognise the glory of what I often fail to acknowledge…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.