Why You and I Need Eucharistic Adoration
Not only is the silence soothing to our souls, but the humble act of submitting ourselves to the will of God, of relinquishing control of our lives, of giving ourselves completely over to God is freeing. I know it sounds more like slavery, but being God’s is actually the most freeing experience we can ever have. It takes the power out of our hands and gives it to God. That’s when the magic can happen. That’s when He can do what He does in our lives. We have to place ourselves in the palm of His hands, so that He can mold us and shape us and transform us into the person He has created us to be, the best-version-of-yourself (Jer 18). If anyone knows our potential it’s God!
Falling to our knees in adoration allows us to step outside of ourselves, to do away with the selfishness and self-centeredness that plague our modern American culture, eating away at our human dignity like a cancerous disease. Eucharistic Adoraiton is the solution to all of our problems.
I know it can sometimes be difficult for us to understand the Real Presence—the truth that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is truly present in body, blood, soul, and divinity in that piece of unleavened bread. But Jesus wasn’t kidding when He gave Himself on the cross. He wasn’t kidding when He said “this is my body” or “do this in memory of me”. He wasn’t speaking symbolically when He said “my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink”. He said it and He meant it.
Allowing Jesus into Your Heart
Jesus is present in the Eucharist for you and for me. He is there waiting for us. He is humble. He is quiet. He just wants to be with you. He doesn’t need to say anything and neither do you for that matter. When you are in the presence of God there are no words necessary. His grace, mercy, and love radiate out like the golden rays of the monstrance and flow into you. God’s language is love, plain and simple.
We all want love, to feel it, to know it, to experience it, and to give it away. But all of these things can be very difficult or even impossible until we are able to open our hearts, to let down our guard, to step outside of ourselves, to die to ourselves. For many of us there is a great wall, a barrier that we have constructed around our hearts. We have done this sometimes unconsciously, usually to protect ourselves from hurt, from the possibility of a broken heart. But Jesus will never break your heart. He will never use or abuse you. He will only give you Himself, true love, perfect love.
And until you know Him and spend time with Him on a regular basis you will find it very difficult to know your purpose, His plan for your life. And God has plans for you, big plans. Ask Him. Listen. So that you can say:
“I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”
Because It’s All About Jesus
Jesus Christ is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. It’s all about Him. As I mentioned last week this whole conclave process began with the cardinals in prayer and adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It seems only fitting that the new pope begin his petrine ministry at the feet of Jesus. Not only is this an opportunity for him, whoever he may be, to take a deep breathe and ask for guidance and help, but it’s also an occasion for him to lay himself down at the feet of Christ, to let go of his own selfish desires and submit himself completely to the will of God. It is here that he will remember and accept that this is Jesus’ Church, the Church that He founded upon the Peter the rock, the first pope.
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”
Jesus told Simon Peter that His Father had revealed to him the truth and then Jesus gave him a seemingly impossible task, to lead the Church.
Peter’s Last Experience with Jesus
At this point I’d guess Peter probably felt pretty good about all of this, but after Jesus was crucified he must have realized the difficulty of his mission. I imagine that each new pope feels just like Peter after he accepts the call of the Lord to “tend my sheep”. So a certain provision has been made to allow for the newly elected successor of Peter to spend some time with his Shepherd before he is presented to the world. I’m sure the conversation will go something like this:
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” [Jesus] said to him, “Feed my sheep.
Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”
The “feed my lambs” and “tend my sheep” parts are pretty basic. He’s giving him authority which of course comes with an enormous responsibility. The new pope is a shepherd of over 1 billion souls! I doubt any of these cardinals want that kind of responsibility.
Then there is that last part where they will “lead you where you do not want to go”. I say again, nobody wants this much responsibility. If God holds each of us accountable for ourselves and our families, imagine the accounts the popes must give as they stand before God in judgement? Not a fun job. Not an easy job. That’s why he needs Jesus, because only with Him is any of this possible. It’s His Church and the pope is His vicar, His representative on Earth.
We All Need God
The new pope will need our prayers. He will need to pray. We will need to pray. Prayer is union with God, with or without words. And we all need God. The pope is like a modern day Moses, leading the people to the promised land of Heaven. But first comes the encounter, the intimacy of the burning bush. Then comes the journey—the call, the exodus, the desert, then the promised land. It is not an easy journey by any means, but “with God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26).
The good thing for us is that we don’t have to venture out in search of the burning bush, we don’t have to climb any mountain. Jesus has come down from the holy mountain of Heaven to be with us always. He has made Himself present to us in our daily bread. We have the burning bush alive and aflame with love in every tabernacle across the world. We have that intimate encounter with the living God in Eucharistic Adoration. Why don’t we take advantage of this grand opportunity? Fear? Laziness? Excuses? Priorities?
God isn’t up there, He is here among us waiting for you. Our new pope will know this first hand. But we too must come to know this, to know Him who loves us. Pray for the conclave. Pray for the new pope. Go and find Jesus in the tabernacle or on the altar and find He whom your soul yearns for.
Read about Michael Gungor’s first experience of Eucharistic Adoration on the Gungor blog.