In this world, man has always been in search of that which is most beautiful. Beauty is the ideal to which sculptors, artists, writers, poets, and musicians have been striving towards since the beginning of time. But it is a vain search. The greatest beauty has already been given to us. It has been given to us by God. This apex of beauty is none other than the Eucharist.
There is no need to search for the Eucharist, to attempt to hew its form out of marble or breathe it to life from a canvas. The Eucharist is set before us, made available every day of the year.
I should have no need to explain what the Eucharist is, though for the sake of clarity, I will digress. The Eucharist was established by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. But His final Passover meal before His Crucifixion was not the first time that Jesus instructed his disciples about the wonderful mystery of the Eucharist. The whole of Christ's teaching led up to the dual climax of the Institution of the Eucharist and Crucifixion. And it is not a coincidence that Jesus gave His disciples the Eucharist just before He gave Himself up to the Romans.
The Eucharist is beautiful because of its impossible reality. Our limited human understanding cannot so much as hope to attain so much as a child's understanding of the Eucharist. What our mortal senses perceive to be merely blood and wine is so much more than that. The "bread" is the flesh of Christ. The "wine" is His blood. This is an astounding contradiction of human reasoning.
The Eucharist is the greatest of sacrifices. Just as love is a sacrifice, the gift of the Eucharist in every Mass is the greatest expression of God's unconditional love for us. He does not hold anything back. There are no misgivings in the love of God, no terms that He sets on his affections for us. He gives Himself to us in the guise of bread and wine, giving us His all: His body and His blood. Just as human understanding cannot comprehend the Eucharist, human expressions of love cannot rival the eternal sacrifice of the Mass.
Often, the beauty of the Eucharist goes ignored. How often do we go to Mass and spend more time thinking about what the person next to us or the baby two pews ahead is doing instead of reflecting on and recognizing what is happening on the altar? How often do we receive the body and blood of Christ, freely given, and mistake it for a symbol?
God gives Himself to us, us worthless sinners. He loves us with an incomprehensible love even when we disobey Him. God sees our every flaw, He is the Witness to our every iniquity. It is difficult for us to believe that any human being could know every one of our sins and still love us. But that is exactly what God does, most fully expressed in the Eucharistic miracle.
Let us make sure that God's passionate love for us does not go unrequited. There are two ways in which we can thank God for his love, for there is nothing we can do to deserve it. We can love God through the people He has placed around us. Our love for our brothers and sisters, even if it is just a faint shadow of the love of God, brings us into closer communion with the will of God, closer to Heaven. The other thing we can do is show a greater appreciation for the Eucharist. Go to Mass every week. Reflect, not on what you will be eating for dinner or which NFL team will win the Super Bowl, but rather on the divine mystery of the Eucharist made manifest in the Mass. Eucharistic Adoration is also a worthy expression of our gratitude for the gift of the Eucharist. Kneel before the Blessed Sacrament. Bring yourself into the real presence of God.
O Lord Jesus, please help us, the Church, and the world, gain a greater understanding and love for the great act of love You have given to us undeserved. Thank you for the sublime, the beautiful, Eucharist.
Deus Volt!
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