Remained

“Jesus has remained in the Eucharist for love ... for you. He has remained, knowing how men would treat him ... and how you would treat him.” (Holy Rosary, The Institution of the Eucharist).

Jesus as the Bread of Life and in the Eucharist (Unknown)

I have been thinking about Christ and His role in the salvation of Humanity…

“Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

And when I reflect on that, that Institution of the Blessed Eucharist – that most Sacred of Sacraments – is such a gift to us.  No wonder Pope Saint John Paul II decided to commemorate it in the Fifth Luminous Mystery of the Most Holy Rosary…

It is such a wonder because “Jesus has remained in the Eucharist for love ... for you. He has remained, knowing how men would treat him ... and how you would treat him.” (Holy Rosary, The Institution of the Eucharist).

Christ knew what we would do.  He knew how we would treat Him.  He knew that we would dishonour Him (and ourselves).  He knew that we would receive Him in the Blessed Eucharist in a state of sin rather than in a state of Grace.  And He knew that it would hurt Him very much for us to receive Him in that way.

And yet, He deliberately chose to remain in this form for us.  He chose to be here in the Eucharist because He knew that we would need something physical, He sent the Holy Spirit to us, but we do not know how to love as God loves, and so the Holy Spirit is such a mystery to us.  We cannot understand the power of a love so great that the LOVE itself is equal in Divine Power and Perfection to the other Two Persons of God.

In “Christ is Passing By”, at page 154 it says, “For me the tabernacle has always been a Bethany, a quiet and pleasant place where Christ resides. A place where we can tell him about our worries, our sufferings, our desires, our joys, with the same sort of simplicity and naturalness as Martha, Mary and Lazarus. That is why I rejoice when I stumble upon a church in town or in the country; it's another tabernacle, another opportunity for the soul to escape and join in intention our Lord in the Sacrament.”

And there is such beauty in that.  There is such power in the idea of the Tabernacle that I can be.  That God Himself can come into me – not in a symbolic form, but in a real and tangible form – and that He can use my unworthy body and soul to bring others to Him.  And as His vessel, I have been given the Grace to do His Holy Will.

And when I think about all the times that I refuse to do this and all the time that I cause Him such distress, I am overcome.  For God – who is King of the Universe – lives in my soul, in the Holy Eucharist, and I do not even bear witness to Him then.  Not even then…

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