II — THE REAL PRESENCE

Presence of God. — “I devoutly adore You, O God hidden beneath the Eucharistic veils. To You my heart surrenders itself entirely, for in contemplating You it faints away” (cf. Adoro te devote).

Meditation

1 — Verbum caro factum est (Jn. 1:14). The Incarnation of the Word, the ineffable mystery of God’s love lowering itself to man, to the point of becoming man, of taking “flesh” for his salvation, is continued and amplified through the Eucharist. The Father sent his Only-Begotten, willing that He take flesh from a Virgin, flesh like ours, so that He might suffer and die on the cross; but He also willed that this presence be perpetuated, perpetuating his sacrifice in the Eucharist. If it were not so, if we had only the Gospel, we would be full of nostalgia at the thought of Jesus who sits in heaven at the Father’s right hand, having definitively left the earth; and with what painful regret we would turn our gaze to the Savior’s thirty-three years of earthly life, now passed for centuries! But it is not so. The Eucharist makes Jesus’ presence permanent in our midst. In the consecrated Host we find that Jesus whom Mary gave birth to; whom the shepherds found wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in the manger; whom Mary and Joseph fed, guarded, and saw grow under their gaze; that Jesus who called the Apostles after Himself, who captivated and taught the crowds, who worked the most astounding miracles, who declared Himself the “light” and the “life” of the world, who forgave Magdalene, who raised Lazarus; who for love of us sweated blood, accepted the traitor’s kiss, was reduced to a wound, died on the cross; that Jesus who, risen, appeared to the Apostles and into whose wounds Thomas put his finger; who ascended into heaven, where now He sits glorious at the Father’s right hand and, together with the Father, sends us the Holy Spirit. O Jesus, You are always with us! always the same “yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Always the same in eternity by the immutability of your divine Person; always the same in time by the Eucharistic Sacrament.

2 — Jesus in the Eucharist is present with all his Divinity and with all his Humanity. Also the Humanity, although present per modum substantiae - that is, by way of substance and not as bodily extension - is whole and entire in the consecrated Host: Body and Soul, and the latter with its faculties of intellect and will. Therefore Jesus in the Eucharist knows and loves us as God and as Man; He is not a passive object of our adoration, but living: He sees us, listens to us, answers our prayers with his graces, so that we can have with the sweet Master of whom the Gospel speaks living, concrete relations, and, though not sensible, similar to those his contemporaries had with Him. It is true that in the Eucharist not only Divinity but also Humanity is hidden; nevertheless faith advantageously replaces the senses, replacing what we do not see and do not touch: sola fides sufficit; “to persuade a sincere heart, faith alone suffices,” sings St. Thomas (Pange lingua). As once Jesus, hidden under the appearance of a traveler, instructed and enkindled the hearts of the disciples of Emmaus, so Jesus, hidden under the Eucharistic veils, enlightens our souls, inflames them with his love, and inclines them ever more effectively toward good.

Jesus is there, in the consecrated Host; He is there, true Man and true God; and as for us He became incarnate, so for us He hid Himself under the sacred species: there He waits for us, loves us, is ready to listen to us. And we need to stay with Jesus, the Word made flesh, God made man, our Mediator, our Savior, our Brother, and we find Him precisely in the Eucharist. Here, never are we nearer to Him than when we are near the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar.

Colloquy

“O Lord, wealth of the poor, how well You know how to sustain souls! Instead of unveiling all your treasures at once, You reveal them little by little, so that I, contemplating your exalted Majesty veiled beneath the fragile appearances of a Host, do not faint.

“Blessed are You, my God! Let Angels and all creatures praise You for having adapted your mysteries to our weakness, so as to make us enjoy your riches without being terrified by your great power. Poor and fragile creatures as we are, if You had not had recourse to this expedient, we would never have dared approach You. Lord, how could I, poor sinner who has offended You so many times, have courage to stay near You if I saw You in all your Majesty? Under the accidents of bread, however, You are much more accessible, just as when a king disguises himself, it seems that speaking with him one need not have so many formalities and fears. If You, Lord, had not thus disguised Yourself, who among us would dare approach You, so full of coldness, unworthiness, and imperfection as we are?

“As for me, I cannot doubt at all your real presence in the Eucharist. You gave me so strong a faith that when I hear others say they would have liked to live in the time when You were on earth, I laugh within myself, since it seems to me that, possessing You in the Most Blessed Sacrament, there is nothing else to desire!” (St. Teresa of Jesus, Life 38, 20 and 19; cf. Way 34, 9 and 6).