One of the most beautiful ways that the Holy Spirit teaches me to think about the Eucharist is that of pondering upon its immense spiritual richness. This thought makes perfect sense because the Eucharist, the Sacrament of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, instructs us by its very presence how we should be Christ for others, precisely by showing us, more and more, its indescribable divine richness.
To begin with, the Eucharist teaches me the virtue of real love which warms the heart. St Angela of Foligno says: If we but paused for a moment to consider attentively what takes place in this Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of Christ’s love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude. Thus, real Eucharistic virtue is one of self-giving as Jesus Christ was. St Augustine reminds us of this truth when tells us: Christ held Himself in His hands when He gave His Body to His disciples saying: ‘This is My Body.’ No one partakes of this Flesh before he has adored it.
In sermon 3 St Augustine affirms that the Eucharist was already prophesized in the Old Testament. Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from His side… whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament. – from the writings of St. Augustine, Sermon 3, 2; circa A.D. 410 {original translation}. The Eucharist helps those who partake grow in the virtue of purity in order that we can receive more and more its incessant self-giving love for us that needs to flow on to our fellow human beings. Thus says St Ephrem: O Lord, we cannot go to the pool of Siloe to which you sent the blind man. But we have the chalice of Your Precious Blood, filled with life and light. The purer we are, the more we receive.
The Eucharist is rich because it is God’s most delicious food. St Francis de Sales explains this magnificently when he says: When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth’s sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven, and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food. In the Eucharist Sacrament Jesus invites us to speak to Him, let Him form us in Himself to then send us to be His loving Presence to others. On this point, St Francis de Sales states: When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence.
The Eucharist superbly shows God’s majesty, condescension and humility. St Francis of Assisi was so focused on these qualities that he wrote to us: What wonderful majesty! What stupendous condescension! O sublime humility! That the Lord of the whole universe, God and the Son of God, should humble Himself like this under the form of a little bread, for our salvation. …In this world I cannot see the Most High Son of God with my own eyes, except for His Most Holy Body and Blood.
We cannot learn what the Eucharist is if we do not spend time at its feet in adoration. Saint Faustina personally convinces me about the urgency of the Eucharistic adoration when she says:
O Jesus, Divine Prisoner of Love, when I consider Your love and how You emptied Yourself for me, my senses deaden. You hide Your inconceivable majesty and lower Yourself to miserable me. O king of Glory, though You hide Your beauty, yet the eye of my soul rends the veil. I see the angelic choirs giving You honor without cease, and all the heavenly Powers praising You without cease, and without cease they are saying: Holy, Holy, Holy.
Oh, who will comprehend Your love and Your unfathomable mercy toward us! O Prisoner of Love, I love up my poor heart in this tabernacle that it may adore You without cease night and day. I know of no obstacle in this adoration: and even though I be physically distant, my heart is always with You. Nothing can put a stop to my love for You. No obstacles exist for me…
O Holy Trinity, One and Indivisible God, may You be blessed for this great gift and testament of mercy. Amen.
I adore You, Lord and Creator, hidden in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I adore You for all the works of Your hands, that reveal to me so much wisdom, goodness and mercy, O Lord. You have spread so much beauty over the earth and it tells me about Your beauty, even though these beautiful things are but a faint reflection of You, incomprehensible Beauty. And although You have hidden Yourself and concealed your beauty, my eye, enlightened by faith, reaches You and my souls recognizes its Creator, its Highest Good, and my heart is completely immersed in prayer of adoration.
My Lord and Creator, Your goodness encourages me to converse with You. Your mercy abolishes the chasm which separates the Creator from the creature. To converse with You, O Lord, is the delight of my heart. In You I find everything that my heart could desire. Here Your light illumines my mind, enabling it to know You more and more deeply. Here streams of grace flow down upon my heart. Here my soul draws eternal life. O my Lord and Creator, You alone, beyond all these gifts, give Your own self to me and unite Yourself intimately with Your miserable creature.
O Christ, let my greatest delight be to see You loved and Your praise and glory proclaimed, especially the honor of Your mercy. O Christ, let me glorify Your goodness and mercy to the last moment of my life, with every drop of my blood and every beat of my heart. Would that I be transformed into a hymn of adoration of You. When I find myself on my deathbed, may the last beat of my heart be a loving hymn glorifying Your unfathomable mercy. Amen.
As I read this deep Eucharistic reflection, generously left to us by St Faustina Kowalska, I am naturally called and more inclined to give heed wholeheartedly to what another Polish saint, St Pope John Paul II invites us to do in his marvelous encyclical on the Eucharist and its relationship to the Church, Ecclesia de Eucharistia:
It is pleasant to spend time with him, to lie close to his breast like the Beloved Disciple (cf. Jn 13:25) and to feel the infinite love present in his heart. If in our time Christians must be distinguished above all by the “art of prayer”,48 how can we not feel a renewed need to spend time in spiritual converse, in silent adoration, in heartfelt love before Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament? How often, dear brother and sisters, have I experienced this, and drawn from it strength, consolation and support!
This practice, repeatedly praised and recommended by the Magisterium,49 is supported by the example of many saints. Particularly outstanding in this regard was Saint Alphonsus Liguori, who wrote: “Of all devotions, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest after the sacraments, the one dearest to God and the one most helpful to us”.50 The Eucharist is a priceless treasure: by not only celebrating it but also by praying before it outside of Mass we are enabled to make contact with the very wellspring of grace. A Christian community desirous of contemplating the face of Christ in the spirit which I proposed in the Apostolic Letters Novo Millennio Ineunteand Rosarium Virginis Mariae cannot fail also to develop this aspect of Eucharistic worship, which prolongs and increases the fruits of our communion in the body and blood of the Lord (no.25).
How rich is the Eucharist! How wise would we be if we receive it possibly daily! What a blessing would we be for others if we let Jesus in the Eucharist show us His way of being and behaving as we live side by side with our contemporaries! In effect and by Christ’s Eucharistic grace, we shall be its most convincing ambassadors. As Jesus told us: By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35).