Encountering Christ, Discovering Ourselves
Corpus Christi
Have you ever wondered who you are and what God is asking of you? As we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, it is worth reflecting on how the gift of the Eucharist helps answer those questions. Jackie certainly wasn’t expecting to find the answer in an adoration chapel.
Jackie spent a lot of time pondering the upcoming months. She would often slip into feelings of anxiety, not sure what the future could hold for her. She didn’t find much support in her family, as it seemed that they did not understand her. Her job was OK, but not exciting, certainly not something that lent much purpose to her life. One day, she walked into an adoration chapel, and everything seemed to be different.
At first, she didn’t really know what to do. She walked in, genuflected before the monstrance, and sat down in silence. First, a rush of thoughts invaded her mind. There was so much to think about, so much to do. Then, she began to enjoy the silence. Her world was so full of noise and distraction. The chapel seemed like a respite from so many problems. After about fifteen minutes, she started to feel bored, so she got up and grabbed her things to go.
Over the next several weeks, her visits became more frequent. She asked some friends for advice about what to do during adoration, and they gave her some good spiritual books to read. She began to make her visits to the Blessed Sacrament a daily habit, committing to 30 minutes each time.
Eventually, she couldn’t imagine a day without an extended visit to the Eucharist. It was helping her to grow in her relationship with God and to understand herself more fully. Sometimes, she would meditate on Scripture. She especially liked a passage from Deuteronomy, recalling the Israelites' journey through the desert.
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your ancestors, so you might know that it is not by bread alone that people live, but by all that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Dt. 8:3).
She truly felt fed each time she went and spent time in adoration. She felt that her Communions at Mass were becoming more meaningful and spiritually nourishing. The time spent in adoration was preparing her heart to receive Jesus more worthily each time she attended Mass. Jesus had come to earth in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago, but now through the Eucharist, he remained present right where she was. Salvation was no longer merely a doctrine she had learned but a reality she was beginning to experience. What Jackie was discovering through adoration points toward a deeper truth about God’s plan for humanity.
Salvation was not planned and effected independently of that which is essentially human, and that which is human has the divine stamp on it, for it is an image of God (see Gen. 1:26). If we approach the mystery of the Incarnation from this angle, we can discern its profound significance as a focal point of the plan of salvation (Karol Wojtyla, Sign of Contradiction, 14).
The Incarnation is extended in time through the tremendous gift of the Eucharist. Salvation history tells the story of generations of faithful men and women who were waiting for the coming of the Messiah. He came at a concrete time in a real place over 2,000 years ago. We might feel like we missed out on witnessing Christ’s earthly life, yet he chose to remain with us through the mystery of the Eucharist. Each time we step into a chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, we encounter anew the abiding presence of the Incarnate Lord.
The work of our salvation is not something purely spiritual, divorced entirely from our human experience. Rather, the divinization that we experience through growing in sacramental grace touches on our humanity as well, making us more human and helping us to know ourselves more fully. “Only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light” (Gaudium et Spes, 22).
If we want to know ourselves more perfectly and live up to our ideal, we need to get to know Jesus and allow him to reveal to us who we are called to be. The mystery of who we are has to be met by the truth of Christ, and this is accessible to us especially through the Eucharist. How would your life benefit from spending time each day with Jesus in the Eucharist? Jackie entered the chapel searching for peace. What she found was Christ, and in finding Christ, she began to discover herself. The same invitation remains open to us today. The answer Jackie found is the answer Christ offers each of us. Are you ready for transformation? Seek out Jesus in Eucharistic adoration and allow him to reveal who you are called to become.