VJE
As Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi is a feast near and dear to our hearts. At the Last Supper, Jesus left us the gift of the Eucharist before he entered into his Passion. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, Jesus instituted the Eucharist in order to remain with us, to perpetuate the graces of his ultimate sacrifice, and to grow in affection/friendship. Jesus is completely present to us, in a unique and sacramental way, in the Eucharist.
What strikes me about the Eucharist is how vulnerable Jesus makes himself while being completely himself. This authenticity demands us to face our true selves, and to also become vulnerable before the One who loves us the most. We all have wounds, weaknesses, and insecurities. Don’t we all want to show our “best” self to others, which may actually be a “false” self? Do we truly see ourselves as God sees us? Are we willing to be vulnerable and authentic, like Jesus in the Eucharist?
In a book titled Lift Up Your Heart by Fr. John Burns, the author invites us to reflect on this topic:
In order to make true progress – not in terms of worldly success but in terms of deepening communion with our eternal loving Father – we have to strip away the false layers and really get to know ourselves. We must tear down whatever walls we have built up, walls designed to hide our true selves from the world. We must truly be ourselves before God and then before others; if we cannot be so, we cannot give of ourselves, to God and to others. If we cannot enter into our own personally lived gift of self in imitation of Christ’s self-gift on the cross, we will never truly find the fulfillment God longs for us to know (pg. 49).
I encourage you to spend time before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Allow yourself to be truly loved, and come to know who you are and your true identity in him.
May the Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and loved, with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world until the end of time. Amen.