ELISHEBA BLOGLaura, Ivonne, and Rick
write about their lives in the Eucharist. |
ELISHEBA BLOGLaura, Ivonne, and Rick
write about their lives in the Eucharist. |
By: Ivonne J. Hernandez (This blog was originally published on 11/14/2020, but I needed this message again. I thought perhaps I’m not the only one...) I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling pretty tired lately, more than tired… depleted. Dealing with physical tiredness is something I am used to; in learning to manage my CMT (Charcot-Marie-Tooth), I have come to learn my physical limits and how to work around them. I know I need more rest than most people, and I am ok with that. But the mental and spiritual strain I’ve experienced this year is constantly testing my limits, and I’m having to learn, and accept, what those are. I am having to learn to spend more time in silence, more time in prayer. And while it can be tempting for us to try to separate our physical and mental needs from our spiritual needs, we are wholly human; one area will always affect the other. Our worries make us weary; the solution to this is rest. “Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary” (Luke 18:1). What happens when we allow ourselves to become weary? We can start to lose hope, and this is a danger we must avoid. A feeling of weariness lets us know that something is off and that balance needs to be restored. This restoration is a passive kind of work. When our bodies need healing, we must give the body what it needs and let it do its work. This is not easy. Ask anyone who has been on an extended bedrest; sometimes, the hardest thing we are asked to do is rest. But our bodies are not meant to work without ceasing. Our need for rest is clearly displayed in the work of Creation when God rested on the seventh day. “Remember the sabbath day—keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). It is interesting to note, however, that what God commands us to do on this day of rest is pray. This is also not easy. While rest from our physical or mental labors means taking a break from work, this is different in our life of prayer, where resting is the actual work. The dictionary defines weary as “feeling or showing tiredness, especially as a result of excessive exertion or lack of sleep.” In our prayer, we experience this “excessive exertion” when we try to do the work of God ourselves. Think about it; God would not ask us to do something beyond our ability. He would not ask us to “pray always” if this depended on our limited human capacities. It is when we are faced with our limits that we can surrender to his infiniteness. It is in our poverty that we realize we need a Savior. “In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings” (Romans 8:26). The only way we can pray always, without becoming weary, is when we allow ourselves to enter into His rest. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matthew 11-28-30). A different translation says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Just like the restoration of the body requires us to give the body food and rest, the restoration of our souls requires us to give the soul its food and rest. This food our soul needs is the Eucharist, Jesus Christ Himself; He is also our place of rest. In this rest, His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity mix with our body, mind, and spirit… healing the sick and restoring the broken. In this rest, we become truly whole…we become holy. So when you are feeling weary, do not despair. Lift your eyes to Heaven and enter into His rest.
0 Comments
This gospel passage is heavy on my heart today.
Through this Gospel passage, our Lord speaks to us as He looks upon His Church in the world. I see so much fighting keeping us from loving one another, and the fighting keeps us from fully giving and receiving God’s mercy. Why is that? Have we, like the Pharisees of old, gotten so used to the institution’s ways that we forget what the institution is there for in the first place? We are all sinners. All who pursue a relationship with Christ are trying to overcome sinfulness. If we see our brother struggling, we are meant to reach out our hands to help, especially those most in need of our mercy, guidance, love, and compassion. Our call is to become faithful followers of Christ, as He taught us, with humility and fully aware of our need for repentance, love, and kindness.
We need awareness of our role in the life of the Church so that we may understand how our actions, words, and examples affect our brothers and sisters. Who is that we represent out in the world? If today I am a follower of Christ, it is all due to those Christ sent to help me when my life was immersed in darkness and without direction. Through their love and compassion towards me, I rediscovered once again the love and mercy of God… mercy that I had known so well during my childhood but had forgotten… and it is because of the myriad prayers poured out for me from those who loved me even when they did not know me. When I was able to see Christ in their faces, I was able to set my heart to follow Him, the true light in the darkness. I remember thinking, “I want that same relationship with God that they have.” Repentance and its acceptance are a means for us to start noticing God’s never-ending love toward us. This humility in repentance is the means to approach ever closer to Christ and His unending mercy. In the Eucharist, we receive without limits so that we may then share without limits. Christ is alive and present in the Eucharist so that we may reach Him intimately and certainly, both in the hidden reality and in the present of our relationships with one another, united through Communion. This is so beautiful… But I also remember what made me waver on the way back to Christ so long ago. What made that straight road crooked? It was the modern Pharisees whose actions confused me and kept sending me through mazes and dead-ends, keeping me from promptly finding my way back to relationship with Christ in His Church. I shudder when I consider that my actions in life may have led someone astray. Woe to us if we keep someone from finding Christ.
For all the times I have led someone away from Christ, I lay at the feet of our Lord in repentance and asking for forgiveness. I wish for all of us to grow in this awareness and commit to loving one another, for we are, in many ways, our brother’s keeper.
What have we done, indeed… We are responsible for those who look up to us and follow our example. May we take this responsibility seriously and learn to live encouraging lives so that as we live the Gospel, we may shine Christ’s light on those who live in darkness and need us.
Let us pray: Beloved Eucharistic Lord, you are counting on us to help shepherd Your flock. May we all love You with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and our brothers as we love ourselves. Amen.
Dearest Eucharistic Family, Time passes so swiftly, and in the activity of our lives, it is easy to forget this world as we know it is passing away. The Lenten Season stops us in our tracks to look up and to look within. Last year, I was blessed to be on a pilgrimage to Israel. I remember a beautiful Liturgy with the sun shining brightly, Mass on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Gazing out onto the water, kneeling on the bow of the boat, tears were streaming from my eyes. It was imagining Jesus walking on the water and the many miracles in the Holy Land that seeped into the depths of my existence and touched my heart so profoundly. God keeps reminding me how much He loves. Our sins, shortcomings, and omissions set a tone for us to shy away rather than confidently behold God’s magnificent love for us. We are forgiven and invited to actively participate in our redemption by working out our salvation.
We can live in the mightiness of grace by our submission to God’s holy will. The gift of the Eucharist is strength for our frail humanity. My spiritual father, Saint Peter Julian Eymard, had a dream that did not come to fruition. He desired to build a cenacle in Jerusalem. Saint Peter Julian had the details and the plans with every hope for this establishment to be made in the Holy Land. The revelation for the cenacle to be manifested in his heart by the annihilation of self was the fruit God manifested in this holy saint, later titled “Apostle of the Eucharist.” In letting go, God’s love filled Saint Peter Julian so immensely that he desired to become a total Gift of Self in return for all the love he received. The cenacle, the Altar, brings to us the Body of Jesus Christ. In our reception of Holy Communion, God’s love for us overcomes every obstacle. When we comply with grace and truly live as forgiven, we can embrace and share the blessings of living in the love of God found in the Holy Eucharist. Our Lord in Matthew’s Gospel invites us to cleanse our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls; we are temples of the Holy Spirit. Lent is a good time to examine the fruits and gifts given to us and bring them to the cenacle, where they will be built into God’s love and dwelling forever.
|
Categories
All
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
AuthorsWe are Ivonne J. Hernandez, Rick Hernandez and Laura Worhacz, Lay Associates of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, and brothers and sisters in Christ. |