Friday, June 16, 2006

"The Real Presence"
by Fr Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen OCD

PRESENCE OF GOD- "Hidden God, devoutly i adore thee, truly present beneath these veils: all my heart subdues itself before Thee, since all before Thee faints and fails (cf. Adore Te Devote)

MEDITATION
2. Jesus is present in the Eucharist with all His divinty and all His humanity. Although His humanity is present :"per modum substantiae," that is, in substance and not in corporeal extension, it is whole and entire in the consecrated Host - body and sol, and this latter with its faculties of intellect and will. Therefore our Eucharistic Lord knows and loves us as God and as Man. he is not a passive object for ou adoration but He is living; He sees us, listens to us, answers our prayers with Hhis graces. Thus we may have, with the gentle Master of the Gospel, living, concrete relations which, although impreceptible to our senses, are similar to those which His contemporaries had with Him. It is true that in the Eucharist not only His divinty but even His humanity is hidden; however, faith suppliesfor the senses, it substitutes for what we do not see or touch; "sola fides sufficit," says St. Thomas, faith alone is sufficient (Pange Lingua). As Jesus, disguised as a traveler, once taught the disciples of Emmaus, and inflamed the hearts , so too, Jesus hidden under the Eucharistic veil illumines our souls, inflames them with His love and inclines them ever more effectively toward sanctity.
Jesus is there, in the consecrated Host, true God and true Man; as he become incarnate for us, so for us too, has he hidden Himself under the sacred Species. There He waits for us, longs for us, is always ready to welcome and listen to us. And we need Him so much! Gos, pure Spirit, is present everywhere, it is true; and in His Unity and Trinity, He even deigns to dwell within our souls. vivifies by grace. Nevertheless, we always have need of contact with Jesus, the Word made Flesh, God made Man, our Mediator, our Saviour, our Brother, and we find Him present in the Eucharist. here on earth we are never close to Him than when we are in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.

COLLOQUY
...."O Lord, wealth of the poor, how admirably You can sustain souls, revealing your great riches to them gradually and not permitting them to see them all at once. When I see Your great Majesty hidden in so small a thing as the Host, I cannot but marvel at Your great wisdom. O God, if You did not conceal Your Your grandeur, who would dare to come to You so often, to unite with Your ineffable Majesty a soul so stained and miserable? Be forever blessed, O Lord! May the angels and all creatures praise You for having deigned to adapt Your mysteries to our weakness, so that we might enjoy Your treasures without being frightened by Your infinite power. Otherwise, poor, weak creatures like ourselves would never dare to approach You. " (T.J. Life, 38).