“If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, then you cannot find Christ in the Chalice.” (Saint John Chrysostom).
Saint Josephine Bakhita is a very remarkable saint.
She was born in 1869 in Sudan. While she was a young girl she was kidnapped by a slave tragers and sold as a slave. She suffered very greatly as a slave used physically for whatever pleased her masters and was treated very badly as a slave, including through beatings and abuse. Her final owner was the Italian consul, who did not beat or abuse her. After being a slave in that last man’s home, Josephine was transferred to the home of a good Christian family who loved her and supported her for the first time in her entire enslavement. That love healed Josephine and as a result of that love in that family, Saint Josephine decided to become a Christian and fell in love with Christ. Upon gaining her freedom, Saint Joseph, entered the convent of the Canosian Sisters and remained a Canosian Sister for the last fifty years of her life. During those last fifty years of her life, Saint Josephine dedicated her FREEDOM to the God who had DIED for her spiritual freedom…
And as I have been reflecting on the story of this saint – considering her humble origins – it occurs to me today to consider the perfect example of humility…
In Zaragoza, in 1920, Saint Josemaría saw a famous bullfighter in the street. He stood aside and watched as some local children ran up to the man in the street and touched him. After touching him, they ran away, shouting to each other, “I touched him! I touched him!”
And I have been reflecting on this scenario, because Saint Josemaría often commented upon it when he considered the Blessed Eucharist. He would reflect on the excitement of the children who had touched a mere human man, when compared with our own complacency in receiving the Most Blessed Eucharist into our souls. The Saint would wonder at the extraordinary presence of Gold Almighty inside us and our own apparent indifference to that. And God in perfect humility continues to come to us in the form of the Eucharist.
And I have been thinking about that today. For Saint John Chrysostom said, “If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, then you cannot find Christ in the Chalice.”
And I have been considering that too. For it seems that we shall have to understand first the importance of God in the Blessed Eucharist to later be able to see Him in every soul – even the beggar on the street.
And that makes me think… Maybe today is the day that I shall have to rearrange my priorities so that I know exactly where my Lord and God is and exactly how to feel His Holy presence there. For without that, I do not think that I shall be able to “find Christ in the beggar at the church door…”
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.