Unfathomable Love! - Awesome Privilege!

It has been discovered that an ordinary, 8oz. drinking glass can hold approximately 2 million grains of sand.

The photographs and data scientists have gathered through the use of the Hubble telescope indicate the majesty and incomprehensible size of the universe that exists beyond our planet. It is estimated that there are more stars in the heavens than there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the world.

Consider the world unseen by the naked eye and all of its wonder. The complex structure and life-sustaining automated functions of just the trillions of cells in the human body alone.

Contemplate the fact that all of creation is maintained in a perfect, life-sustaining balance, i.e., the perfect mixture of gases in the air we breath, precise distances of the sun and the moon from our earth, which are necessary to sustain life on earth.

Think of the marvelous, awesome complexity of the vast variety of insects and birds, and the variety of life existing beneath the ocean waves!

I don’t about you, but whenever I’m in our Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament, or at Mass during transubstantiation as the priest says the words, “This is My Body”, my mind is immediately aware of the fact that the awesome Creator of our vast universe is not only present, but desires to be with us!

It is truly a humbling experience, and an inexpressible privilege, not only to be in the presence of the Creator, but to be able to receive His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity as spiritual and physical nourishment for our journey.

Armed with the knowledge that God, the Creator of the universe, longs to give Himself to us fully, and makes Himself available to us daily under the appearance of bread and wine, ONE SHOULD NEVER AGAIN HAVE A REASON TO FEEL UNLOVED! For this is the perfect love! Out of love, God gives Himself to us, and accepting His Gift assists us in passing the love of God on to others. This is how love remains eternal. St. Paul illustrates the permanence of love in his first letter to the Corinthians when he says, “love never fails”. St. Paul emphasizes the fact that love remains long after prophesy, knowledge, and tongues pass away.

The next time you receive Christ in the Eucharist, or are privileged to spend time with Him at adoration, ponder the magnificence of the love our awesome Creator has for us!

How Do We Reject Christ?

I preface the following post by saying that I offer it in the spirit of love, and by no means out of a sense of self-righteousness! I have certainly been guilty of countless instances in which I traded Christ’s offer of an intimate relationship for the things of this world and my own selfish desires!

There is no doubt Christ experienced tremendous physical pain and suffering as he went to the cross for us, but was his physical suffering the thing that caused him the most anguish?

I thought of this during Mass today. I thought of all the times I chose to satisfy my physical needs and desires by making and taking the time to do so, rather than making the time to do the things that would help build my relationship with the God of the universe, the God who longs to be a close friend to this lowly sinner! In other words, I REJECTED HIM! I rejected him no less than those who cried out, “CRUCIFY HIM”!

We must ask ourselves, is it the rejection of Christ’s unending and extreme love for us that caused him the most intense anguish and pain as he prepared for the cross at Gethsemane? How do we feel when we are rejected by those we love? Magnify that feeling trillions of times over and we would only be able to begin to imagine what Christ must have felt and still feels today as we reject his love and invitation to share in his divinity!

We always seem to be able to make time for everything else but for the one who really matters, Jesus Christ!

Jesus strongly desires to be with us! Do we strongly desire to be with him? How painful it must have been for our Lord to know that so many would never respond to, or even give a second thought to what he was about to do out of love for us and a desire to be with us for eternity!

Jesus gives himself to us daily in the Eucharist – please consider preparing yourself through the sacrament of Reconciliation to receive him into your heart with all of the praise and worship he deserves, and then welcome him eagerly under your roof by receiving him in the Eucharist!

Transubstantiation – Christ Is Truly Present!

Believing that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist is essential to the practice of our Catholic faith! (CCC 1324)

Why is it so hard for some to believe that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist?

After all, if Christ is the Creator of the vast universe in which we live and all that it contains, then what could possibly prevent him from making himself present to us under the form of something with which we are familiar, and are capable of experiencing with all of our senses?

St. Thomas Aquinas explains the mystery of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist in terms of what the Church refers to as transubstantiation. He tells us that everything that has substance, such as bread and wine, stands under what philosophers refer to as “accidents”,. The accidents give a substance its appearance, texture, taste, and smell.

UPON CONSECRATION OF THE BREAD AND WINE, CHRIST HIMSELF BECOMES, OR REPLACES, THE SUBSTANCE UNDER WHICH THE ACCIDENTS OF THE BREAD AND WINE STILL REMAIN. In other words, what we still perceive through all of our senses as bread and wine, has now supernaturally become transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Listen to what St. John Chrysostom and St. Ambrose have to say about transubstantiation in the following references found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church #1375.

“It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's. This is my body, he says. This word transforms the things offered.” (St. John Chrysostom, prod. Jud. 1:6: PG 49, 380.)

“Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what the blessing has consecrated. The power of the blessing prevails over that of nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed. . . . Could not Christ's word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things into what they were not before? It is no less a feat to give things their original nature than to change their nature.” (St. Ambrose, De myst. 9, 50; 52: PL 16, 405-407.)

Read More About Our Lord's Presence in the Eucharist

Present at Calvary at Every Mass!

Yes! Along with the saints and all the choirs of angels, God, the creator of the universe, allows eternity to fold into the present and the present to fold into eternity at each mass, as we place ourselves at the foot of the cross and celebrate Christ’s one and only sacrifice for the past, present and future sins of all humanity, as Transubstantiation occurs at the moment the priest speaks the words of consecration.

If we believe that God created the universe and all it contains, why is it so hard for some of us to believe Jesus is really present in the Eucharist?

To believe that Christ is really present in the bread and wine following the words of consecration is a matter of faith. It is the Sacred Mystery and the center of our Catholic faith! Jesus instituted this Sacrament on the night before he died as he shared a meal with his friends.

As St. Thomas Aquinas points out in his Summa Theologica, that it is fitting and proper that we as corporeal beings need to be led to spiritual things through the senses of sight, touch, feel smell and hearing. Jesus knew this and so established a way in which he could remain physically present among believers until his return.

The same way he strongly desired to be with his friends at the last supper, Jesus so desires to be with all of us! Do we strongly desire to be with him? As Catholics, we are invited to his table daily, where Jesus himself provides the spiritual nourishment for our journey!

We read in Luke’s gospel, “When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." (Luke 22:14-16 NASB)

Research more about the Eucharist @ http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/realpres/a12.html, as well as what St. Thomas

Aquinas has to say about the sacraments, including the Eucharist @ http://www.newadvent.org/summa/4.htm