The Heart of a Friend

In these days of social media and digital communications, when life is fast paced and it is difficult to find time for anything or anyone, so many are yearning for the heart of a friend. We all have an innate desire for someone with whom we can share our dreams, and to whom we can pour out our hearts, someone we can trust and who will love us with all our idiosyncrasies and imperfections. What if I told you where you could find such a person? He is so hidden that only faith can find Him, but what joy fills the heart when one truly encounters our Eucharistic Lord!

On the night before Jesus died for us, He celebrated the last Supper, giving us Himself in the Eucharist. He found a way to leave and yet to stay with each generation, for His delight is to be with the children of men. In the Most Holy Eucharist, He is present with us, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity! He is not a passive object for our adoration, but is alive; He sees us, listens to us, answers our prayers, and intercedes for us. Our Eucharistic Lord, as God and as man, knows and loves each one of us, and truly desires our love and friendship. Though hidden beneath the forms of bread and wine, faith and love remove the veil, and we see the face of our beloved Lord and Savior.

Some years ago, there was a priest from Ireland doing work in Arizona. He was quite frustrated with everything going on in his life, and the constant fare of tortillas and beans instead of his good old Irish potato stew didn’t help the situation. One morning, he was in the little rectory chapel, spending time with our Eucharistic Lord. As he distractedly looked at the door of the tabernacle, something happened that changed his life - He suddenly saw Jesus. Jesus was smiling and laughing at him. It was a friendly, loving laughter; not one of ridicule or anything like that. The priest said to Jesus, 'Why are You laughing at me?” Jesus told him, “Because, you are always complaining!” He replied “Well, if You felt the way I feel, you would complain too.” Then the Lord gave him a look of intense love and said very seriously, “But don’t you know that all that matters is you and Me?” A few days later, Jesus asked him, “Are you now going to take our relationship more seriously by a new life of prayer?”

I love this true story because it reminds us that the most important thing in this life is our relationship with God. If we are searching for Him, how much more does He long for us! He is not a tyrant looking for our faults, but a loving God and King who will be what we desire Him to be, be it Father, Friend, Brother or tenderest Spouse. Very few come to visit Him, so He is left alone in our tabernacles. He remains there for each one of us, so that we may tell Him of our love and ask Him for our deepest needs.

Imagine for a moment that you lived at the time when Jesus walked the earth. You would have still needed the gift of faith. It took faith for the people of Jesus’ time to see God in a man. The Magi sought a great king and found a poor babe with his mother, but bowed down and adored Him! They saw a babe but their faith saw God in a Child! Today when I go into a quiet church where Jesus is present, I see only a small host, but with faith I see my Lord and my God! Although Jesus comes to us under the appearance of bread and wine, His presence is as real to us now as He was flesh-and-blood-real to His disciples when He walked this earth. In the Eucharist we find the same Jesus whom Mary brought into the world.

When we have good news, don’t we want to share it with everyone? The apostles went around the whole known world and spread the Good News. Just as they knew that Jesus rose from the dead and was still with them, our faith tells us that He is still with us now in the Holy Eucharist. Today, more than ever, people need to be reminded that Jesus is truly alive and with us! I often try to console our Lord in the tabernacle in all the places where He is left alone and unloved. I think of the huge football stadiums filled with people, and then the churches with only a few there to visit our Lord and King. What a drastic difference! People will travel across the oceans to see ancient monuments or famous celebrities, but they do not think of going into a simple church to visit the King of all creation. We have such a Treasure in the Eucharist, and so few go to Him!

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French Visitation Nun of the 17^th century, received revelations in which Jesus explained His love for all people. In one apparition Jesus told her: "Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love.” He only asks for our love and gratitude. Once we understand that He has first loved us, we can have the trust of a child in a loving, merciful Father.

When we spend time before the Eucharist, we contemplate the Heart that has been pierced out of love, the Heart that constantly renews His self-oblation, His sacrifice for love of us. We adore the Heart of Christ that has loved us: taking on our poor human nature, suffering on the cross, and remaining with us now in the Eucharist. Our time of adoration is not an official prayer of the church, but it is taking time to be with your best friend! Sometimes it is good to bring along the Holy Scriptures and immerse your soul in the word of God. We all desire to truly know Jesus, rather than simply knowing about Him. As we spend time with Him and get to know Him better, our friendship will deepen, and we will desire to please Him in all we do, because we value our relationship with such a loving and faithful Friend.

One day, an Arabian prince, while passing through a street of Marseille with a French official, saw a priest who was carrying Holy Viaticum to a dying man. The French official stopped, uncovered his head, and knelt. His friend asked him the reason for this gesture. “I adore my God, whom the priest is carrying to a sick person,” replied the official. “How is it possible,” the prince asked, “for you to believe that God who is so great, makes Himself so little and lets Himself go even to the homes of the poor? We Mohammedans have a much higher idea of God.” The official answered, “It is because you have only an idea of the greatness of God; but you do not know His Love.”

If you seek the pierced Heart of Christ, beating with love for the Father and with love for each of us, you will find It in the Eucharist. If you take time to be with Him, you will come to know that He is your Best Friend. He promised, "Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world" (Mt 28:20).

Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament ...

There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth. — J.R.R. Tolkien 

Written for Rosie Magazine, Embracing the Beauty of Motherhood, Summer 2023. If you are interested in this magazine, see the link below.

https://www.seeyouinheavenbook.com

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