CSF December 2022: Eucharistic Revival

THE JOY OF ADORATION

Editor’s Note: This reflection on the Eucharist by St. Teresa of Calcutta is one of a series by Catholic authors and saints that will be published by Catholic San Francisco Magazine as part of the U.S. Catholic Church’s Eucharistic Revival (eucharisticrevival.org/) that began June 19, on the feast of Corpus Christi, and continues through Pentecost 2025.

BY ST. TERESA OF CALCUTTA

The Holy Eucharist is the continuation of Christ’s incarnation on earth. The mystery of the Eucharist gives us the joy of having Christmas every day. When we come to the Blessed Sacrament, we come to Bethlehem, a name which means house of bread.

Jesus chose to be born in Bethlehem because He would dwell with us forever as the “Living Bread” come down from heaven. When the shepherds and Magi came to adore Him, they brought Him so much joy with their humble visit to Bethlehem that their visit has been praised and retold down through the centuries. God has never stopped honoring them for honoring His Son in Bethlehem. So too, your humble visit to Jesus today in the Blessed Sacrament brings Him so much joy that it will be retold for all eternity and bring the world closer to His promise of peace on earth.

We are as privileged in being called to adore Him today as were Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and Magi then, because here, Jesus continues His incarnation on earth. Here, Jesus loses His heart to us in love. Love expresses itself to the object of its affection; the Eucharist is the continual expression of God’s perfect, unselfish love for man. The Word again becomes flesh and dwells among us, veiled under the species of the Sacred Host, where the same Jesus born 2,000 years ago as a little babe in Bethlehem is truly, really, bodily and personally present to us in this Most Blessed Sacrament.

The greatest love story ever told is contained in the Sacred Host. Here, we see His glory in the depth of His humility, for God Who created the whole world and Whom the whole world cannot contain, contains Himself in the Blessed Sacrament for love of us, to be our Good Shepherd who leads us to life-giving waters, to be our Divine Physician who heals the brokenhearted, to be our Divine Companion in our pilgrimage throughout life. Here, you behold His glory IN THE MIRACLE OF HIS LOVE, for He becomes small in the Sacred Host so that He may give Himself to you where “you are filled with the fullness of God.”

Jesus becomes poor in the Blessed Sacrament, “emptying Himself” of His glory and majesty, that He may make you rich with the abundance of His grace, “transforming you from glory to glory” and making your soul everlastingly more beautiful with each Communion and each visit you make to Him in the Blessed Sacrament. “For your sake, He made Himself poor though He was rich, so that you might become rich by His poverty.”

The Eucharist is Divine Love made visible in the Sacred Host! This is why the angels continue to sing to Him here as they did in Bethlehem: “Glory to God in the highest and peace to men of good will.” COME LET US ADORE HIM for here Jesus continues to come to us “filled with enduring love” as the Word becomes flesh in the Holy Eucharist and makes His dwelling among us. “IT IS HE WHO IS OUR PEACE.” ■

Excerpt from “Rosary Meditations from Mother Teresa of Calcutta: Loving Jesus With the Heart of Mary: Eucharistic Meditations on the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary” Paperback. By V Lucia (Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament, 1984). Copyright, Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament. All rights reserved. Used with permission. To order the book, or for more information on the Holy Eucharist and Adoration, contact: Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament, PO Box 1701, Plattsburgh, NY 12901. www.ACFP2000.com