And yet, how sad it is to consider the long hours and days that He spends adored only by Our Lady, the Angels and the Saints in Heaven? like a divine prisoner between bars of gold.

Newsdesk (28/07/2022 20:47, Gaudium Press) A person who believed in the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who had followed His Passion and Resurrection, and watched His Ascension, could well ask himself whether it was reasonable, coherent, architectonic that He should thus leave the earth without somehow remaining among men redeemed by Him.

There are no adequate words in the human vocabulary to express the unfathomable love of God for His creatures, going so far as to give them His only Son so that they might have eternal life (cf. Jn 3:16), even though they are immersed in sin and therefore at enmity with Him (cf. Rom 5:8).

Now since our Redeemer has condescended to enter into this special relationship with men, saved by Him, so as to become – by dwelling in Him through grace – the soul of our own soul, can we accept that it is true that when Christ ascends into Heaven, His presence on earth will never again be felt or seen?

The Holy Eucharist

Of course, it would be excessive to say that the Redemption and the Cross imposed upon God, as a matter of course, the institution of the Holy Eucharist. But everything cried out, everything clamoured, everything pleaded for Jesus Christ to find a divine solution whereby He might always remain in Heaven, on the throne of glory due to Him, and at the same time accompany here on earth, step by step, the sorrowful journey of every human being redeemed by Him, until the extreme moment when each one would say in his turn: “Consummatum est”.

This marvelous conviviality comes about through the Eucharist, an infinite prodigy of mercy that only a divine intelligence could conceive of and realize.

Everywhere on earth, at every moment, He is present: in the opulent cathedrals, in the poor little churches, in the little chapels built on the side of the road… in the interior of every communicant!

Present with all the glory of Tabor, all the sublimity of Golgotha, all the splendour of divinity … in the little tabernacle on the altar!

And yet, how sad it is to consider the long hours and days that He spends adored only by Our Lady, by the Angels and Saints of Heaven… as a divine prisoner between bars of gold, abandoned by this absent and distant humanity, waiting for someone to deign to visit Him.

However little we think about it, our soul cannot but overflow with gratitude, wonder and delight at all that Our Lord worked in the Holy Supper.

Now, every divine gift is granted to men at Mary’s request, and there can be no doubt that she implored her Son for the institution of the Eucharist. The Fathers of the Church saw in the supplication at Cana – “They have no more wine” (Jn 2:3) – the expression of a secret hope that this was the moment …

Therefore, we must also thank her. To Him who condescended to institute It and to Her who, moved by grace, asked God and obtained for us this most transcendental favour.

Text taken from the magazine Heralds of the Gospel, n. 157, June 2016.

Compiled by Roberta MacEwan