During
the Fatima apparitions the children saw an Angel prostrate before a chalice and
host suspended in the air and the Angel taught the children this prayer: Most Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy
Spirit- I adore You profoundly. I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul
and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in
reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifferences whereby He is
offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.
It is
this extraordinary gift and sacrament Jesus begins to reveal in detail: Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of
life; whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will
never thirst.” V.35
The
primary hunger in ever human heart and soul is for communion of love with the
Most Holy Trinity, for Love Himself has created us to be Beloved.
We all
know any degree of separation from our beloved, on the human, level creates an
immense ache, a real pain in our hearts until we are together again.
The
more we seek, in and through Jesus, communion of love with the Holy Trinity,
the greater will be the intensity of the hunger, the thirst, yes, the pain, of
this seeking this communion of love while on our earthly pilgrimage for, until
death and embrace for ever by the Holy Trinity in heaven, we live in an aspect
of separation.
It is
the grace and gift of every Holy Communion, every moment spent participating in
Holy Mass, in adoration with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, that we are filled
more and more with the loving presence, through Jesus, of the Holy Trinity
within us. This gift, for our pilgrimage towards the Absolute here on earth,
prevents us from being overwhelmed by the hunger and thirst, the pain, of the
not yet fulfilled eternally communion of love.
Vs.
36-38: “But I told you that although you
have seen Me, you do not believe. Everything that the Father gives Me will come
to Me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to Me, because I came down from
heaven not to do My own will but the will of the one who sent Me.”
Before
arguing we have never seen Jesus it is important to remember every time we gaze
upon the Sacred Host during exposition or Benediction, or when we contemplate
Him at the elevation during Holy Mass, or when holding Him in our hand at Holy
Communion, and equally when we care for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the
naked, the sick, the prisoner, encounter any human being {cf. Mt. 25: 31ff.} we
do indeed see Jesus, are in His presence.
Such
moments are moments to choose to believe, or not.
What a
consoling promise that IF we come to Jesus we will never be rejected!
The
impetus for this accepting love of Jesus is His obedience, and He is obedient
because He loves the Father and is filled with the Father’s love, and the love
of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus,
as a living chalice filled with this love and overflowing, pours this love
within us, IF we come to Him and ask for it.
Jesus
then assures us of just how far this love extends, to the very union in
communion of love with the Holy Trinity we have been created for, the point to
which our pilgrimage to the Absolute leads, in, with, through Jesus: “And this is the will of the One who sent
Me, that I should not lose anything of what He gave Me, but that I should raise
it on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees
the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the
last day.” Vs.39,40
Once
again, the crowd’s reaction shows how quickly we human beings can switch from
acceptance of Jesus to challenging Him, rejecting Him: The Jews murmured about Him because He said, “I am the bread that came
down from heaven,” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we
not know His father and mother? Then how can He say, ‘I have come down from
heaven’?” vs. 41,42
There
can be no acceptance of the truth of Jesus’ Real Presence in the Holy
Eucharist, if, as the crowd is doing, we reject His Holy Incarnation.
© 2018
Fr. Arthur Joseph
