Corpus Christi – May Our Adoration Never Cease

Every day, upon altars of the Catholic Church throughout the world, Our Lord is made incarnate in the Most Holy Eucharist. We have heard this many times. “Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist,” “Jesus is in the tabernacle.” Reflect for a moment on how often we let this great gift pass us by and how sometimes we nod in affirmation or in our minds say, “sure” and continue as if nothing has affected us?

Now consider this… Jesus came to be with you in your pain. Jesus came to be with you on your wedding day. Jesus came to be with you on your drive to work. Jesus came to be by your bedside as you lay dying. Jesus came to show you how real he is by entering into the grime and grit, the normal everyday of life. He shows up more faithfully than any other person. And do we acknowledge that, everyday? Do we grasp the depth of Jesus’ “realness?” That he is with us in our day to day normal.

You can look on Facebook or the television and find beautiful pictures of wonderful Eucharistic processions. But do you grasp the reality that Jesus wants you, yes you, specifically, and he wants to know you personally, and to spend his every moment with you? He wants you badly enough that he will allow you to take him into yourself. He will let you consume him so that his love will consume you. We need to remember how much he desires union with us.

Pope Benedict XVI explains in his document, the Sacrament of Charity, that Corpus Christi is “a feast that was established to publicly adore, praise, and thank the Lord, who continues “to love us” to the end’, even offering us his body and his blood.”

Saint John Vianney said, “Everyone is ready to run after the latest novelty…But as for Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, he is deserted and forsaken.” Isn’t this still true for our world today? We can look around at almost any moment and see that so many are only concerned about the latest novelty; people concerned for themselves and nothing else, some barely leaving room for God in their lives.

On the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the entire Church celebrates a great feast that has the “precise purpose of openly reaffirming the faith of the People of God in Jesus Christ, alive and truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist” (Sacramentum Caritas). Today we must, as an entire Christian Community, go out to the ends of the earth proclaiming that Jesus Christ has risen and has given us the Holy Eucharist until the end of the ages. We must not leave the greatest gift given to all of humanity deserted or forsaken. Remember the great mystery of the Eucharist where Christ makes an offering of himself, which is infinite love for all.

May our adoration never cease!

Charles Peirano, a junior at Conception Seminary College, studies for the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau.