Before He ascended to the Father's Righthand, the Risen Lord promised to remain with us until the end of time. This pledge is filled with salvific tension. The dissonance between heaven and earth, time and eternity, and spiritual and material is not permanent. A heart-piercing movement toward unimaginable resolution is already unfolding. The Gift of the Holy Spirit seals the Lord's promise and all those who receive this Uncreated Gift know that new life that brings everything into a harmony -- joy and holy sorrow live in the shadow of the Lord who is ascended from our sight yet still at work among us.
The Son of Mary's irrevocable word conveys that what is above implicates itself with all that is here below. Against the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus, all the meaninglessness of evil can only wreck itself against the invincible rock of Divine Mercy. The Savior's oath anticipates a final consummation when the stream of time will run its course only plunge into eternity. His promise provides hope that the merely material manner of men can be spiritualized and raised into a transforming union of life and love shared by creature and Creator.
How is this promise realized? The presence of the Lord evokes faith and all those who will live by this faith without compromise become icons of this presence to the whole world. Today, countless witnesses, ordinary men and women of all ages and of diverse social backgrounds, undergo the loss of all things and suffer bitter martyrdom for professing His presence in their lives. Others encounter Jesus reading the Scriptures and seeking Him in prayer. Others encounter the Lord among the poorest of the poor, and in the most difficult of human circumstances even as they strive, for the sake of the Lord, to put love where love is all but forgotten. Some even meet Him in their adversaries whom they have persecuted or else attempted to ignore. Here, repentance and conversion from bitterness are the sure signs of His presence. Wherever He is sought in faith, there He is found.
There are other, even more wonderful ways, He reveals His presence. A full encounter with Christ always involves His mystical Body and the visible bonds through which He delights in working. When the Church gathers in prayer, even if only two or three, He is always in their midst. He is present as their foundation, their cornerstone, their capstone - and He implicates Himself in their every care. To cry out to Him, no matter how alone one might feel, is to enter into this magnificent edifice of His undying presence and to be embraced by a solidarity of hearts so profound that not even death can overcome it.
He is present in all the baptized in the Holy Spirit joined as they are in Him by powerful sacramental mysteries. In those joined in marriage, He is present as the Bridegroom to His Bride -- manifesting a mystery so beautiful that even the mightiest of angels gaze in astonishment. In the deacon, the Lord Himself is present as the very servant of those who He loves. In the priest, because Christ has ordained Him, the Lord's holy presence heals, builds up, and nourishes His whole Mystical Body.
Yet, of all the gifts of His presence, the greatest and most beautiful of all is His Real Presence in the Sacrament of His Love. What is the Eucharist but the great hymn of thanksgiving rendered by the Son from all eternity before the Father in a manner so real we can see and taste it? Under the appearance of Bread and Wine, the Eucharistic Lord communicates Himself into us Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. His spiritual power resonates in our very bones and raises into harmony the most painful thoughts and difficult desires. In the gift of the Real Presence, He fulfills promise to remain and answers to our desire that He stay with us -- not as an idea or a memory, but in the objective reality before which the drama of our lives unfolds. Because of His Real Presence, we are never alone even when distance and circumstances separate us from the powerful sacrament that conveys this encounter of Truth on fire with Love.
In this Real Presence, a new heavens and a new earth are already being refashioned if only we were open to the conversion He evokes. In this Sacred Banquet human existence is spiritualized and the union for which the heart longs already takes hold if only we will nourish ourselves in the adoring reverence His majesty establishes. Here, heaven embraces our earthly ways, spiritual life flows into our dying bodies, our misery confronts a mercy so much the more and eternity begins in time. Here, no matter the battles we fight, new confidence is conceived, peace flows, judgments surrender before the truth, insight is granted, the resolve to try again restored, and a new beginning is born. Unleashed by faith, this Real Presence inebriates with untold joy even as exhausted eyes strive to lift themselves to behold such a tireless gift so generously lavished upon them.
The Son of Mary's irrevocable word conveys that what is above implicates itself with all that is here below. Against the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus, all the meaninglessness of evil can only wreck itself against the invincible rock of Divine Mercy. The Savior's oath anticipates a final consummation when the stream of time will run its course only plunge into eternity. His promise provides hope that the merely material manner of men can be spiritualized and raised into a transforming union of life and love shared by creature and Creator.
How is this promise realized? The presence of the Lord evokes faith and all those who will live by this faith without compromise become icons of this presence to the whole world. Today, countless witnesses, ordinary men and women of all ages and of diverse social backgrounds, undergo the loss of all things and suffer bitter martyrdom for professing His presence in their lives. Others encounter Jesus reading the Scriptures and seeking Him in prayer. Others encounter the Lord among the poorest of the poor, and in the most difficult of human circumstances even as they strive, for the sake of the Lord, to put love where love is all but forgotten. Some even meet Him in their adversaries whom they have persecuted or else attempted to ignore. Here, repentance and conversion from bitterness are the sure signs of His presence. Wherever He is sought in faith, there He is found.
There are other, even more wonderful ways, He reveals His presence. A full encounter with Christ always involves His mystical Body and the visible bonds through which He delights in working. When the Church gathers in prayer, even if only two or three, He is always in their midst. He is present as their foundation, their cornerstone, their capstone - and He implicates Himself in their every care. To cry out to Him, no matter how alone one might feel, is to enter into this magnificent edifice of His undying presence and to be embraced by a solidarity of hearts so profound that not even death can overcome it.
He is present in all the baptized in the Holy Spirit joined as they are in Him by powerful sacramental mysteries. In those joined in marriage, He is present as the Bridegroom to His Bride -- manifesting a mystery so beautiful that even the mightiest of angels gaze in astonishment. In the deacon, the Lord Himself is present as the very servant of those who He loves. In the priest, because Christ has ordained Him, the Lord's holy presence heals, builds up, and nourishes His whole Mystical Body.
In this Real Presence, a new heavens and a new earth are already being refashioned if only we were open to the conversion He evokes. In this Sacred Banquet human existence is spiritualized and the union for which the heart longs already takes hold if only we will nourish ourselves in the adoring reverence His majesty establishes. Here, heaven embraces our earthly ways, spiritual life flows into our dying bodies, our misery confronts a mercy so much the more and eternity begins in time. Here, no matter the battles we fight, new confidence is conceived, peace flows, judgments surrender before the truth, insight is granted, the resolve to try again restored, and a new beginning is born. Unleashed by faith, this Real Presence inebriates with untold joy even as exhausted eyes strive to lift themselves to behold such a tireless gift so generously lavished upon them.
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