Last Sunday we celebrated the Feast of The Most Holy Trinity, the central mystery of our faith. Today we celebrate another great mystery: the real presence of Jesus under the form of bread and wine in the Eucharist. I honestly think this mystery is more difficult for many people to accept than the mystery of the Holy Trinity because four out of our five senses tell us that it is just bread and wine. But our sense of hearing, however, tells us the bread and wine is no longer bread and wine but it is the body and blood of Christ. I know some find it difficult. My question to you is, can you be humble enough to
add faith to your reason and intellect, to admit that intellect by itself does not provide all the answers and that God can perform miracles every day making it possible for bread and wine to become the Body and Blood of Jesus while keeping the same appearance? Can you add faith to your reason and logic? To help us in our weak faith, from time to time, God has given us Eucharistic Miracles so that we may believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Five years ago, I attended a retreat at a Benediction monastery and our retreat preacher was a Benediction priest. He showed us a pix. Do you know what it is? It is a Eucharistic container to take communion to the sick and home bound. The pix was given to him by a Jewish lady (which in turn was given to her by her mother - who was a concentration camp survivor). He said there is a story behind this pix. The pix was a cylinder figure, of three inches long, the size of a quarter in diameter. It may contain 25 to 30 pieces of the Eucharist. This story happened in Germany, at a concentration camp. A priest was secretly ministering to the Christians in the concentration camp, but finally he was captured. As he was being taken away, he handed his pix over to a Jewish woman and told her to serve the people who come to her. The Jewish woman served the people with the Eucharist in the pix for over a year! The miracle is that the pix could only contain a maximum of 30 pieces of the Eucharist, but was able to feed hundreds of people over the course of a year.
Come to Jesus, not like a scientist trying to analyze, but come and trust, surrender, believe and receive his love. Say to Jesus that you believe He is really present in the Blessed Sacrament and gradually grow from merely believing, to loving Jesus, and being loved by Jesus. Come to visit Jesus in the Tabernacle here in the church’s chapel often where you will have a wonderful opportunity to trust, surrender, believe and receive the love of Jesus. Because our diocese loves Jesus in the Eucharist so much we have Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in every town in our diocese. Every hour of every day and night, our diocese is trusting, surrendering, believing and receiving the love of Jesus in the Eucharist.
As a symbol of our love for Jesus we will carry him in procession. It is also a symbol of Jesus’ love for us. We cannot carry Jesus through every street or road in our parish, but nevertheless we know that Jesus is with us and loves us, his blood is poured out for us and his body broken for us. As Jesus passes you in the Blessed Sacrament adore him and thank him for all that he has done for us unworthy sinners. Also as Jesus passes you in the Blessed Sacrament ask him for whatever healing you need. Try to put words on the deepest healing of your life that you need and ask Jesus to heal you. Holy Communion is our healing remedy. I think you pay attention to the prayer that I say loudly which is supposed to be said silently before we receive communion. “May the receiving of your body and blood Jesus Christ not bring (me) us to judgment and condemnation and but through your loving mercy be for (me) us protection in mind and body and a healing remedy”. At every healing Mass and at every Eucharistic adoration, healing always takes place, especially when people are blessed with Jesus in the monstrance. Jesus in the monstrance will pass you by today. Adore him, love him and ask him for help. He is waiting for you. Remember the words of the consecration of every Mass recalling Jesus giving himself for us, “This is my Body which will be given up for you....This is the cup of my blood. It will be shed for you...”
I want to share with you a quotation from
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit round and pluck blackberries.” May Jesus in the Eucharist always be the very center and heart of our church, the center and heart of our faith, the center and heart of our parish, and the center and heart of the lives of each of us. O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine!