By Fr. Roy Cimagala
WE should try to avoid the reaction of some Jews who could not believe what Christ said when he told them: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven.” (Jn 6,41) Instead, we should sharpen our Eucharistic piety, convinced that whenever we are before the Blessed Sacrament, we actually are having a living encounter with Christ in real time.
If we take seriously this truth of faith, we can just imagine how overwhelmed we would be with both joy and concern since we cannot deny that it would be quite a challenge for us to properly deal with this reality. But we can always try.
What we have to do is to stir up our duty to adore Christ, which is a basic attitude we ought to have toward Christ really present in the Blessed Sacrament. Adoration is the primal attitude we ought to have, if we want to remain faithful and true to our identity not only as God’s creatures but also as God’s children. This is what our Catechism affirms—
“Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us and the almighty power of the Savior who sets us free from evil.” (CCC 2628)
In short, an abiding attitude of adoration, regardless of what we may doing at a given moment, makes us always united to God and converts all our activities into God’s work and not just our own.
Adoration is our way of entering into a life with God, which is what our life is all about. It’s a shared life, not just our own life. Thus, failing in that duty, we have no other possibility but to miss the boat, regardless of our brilliant performances in our earthly life.
Adoration is never an idle activity, completely useless and irrelevant especially to our very active life now. As the Catechism says, “Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration.” (2114)
Aside from adoration, we should be filled with the desire of praising Christ and thanksgiving whenever we are before the Blessed Sacrament. To praise Christ and to be grateful is a necessity for us. It does us a lot of good. It keeps alive the reality that we depend on God and others for everything. It strengthens our intimacy with him, and our awareness that whatever happens in our life, God is always in control.
It makes us keenly aware of the all-powerful and merciful providence of God. With that providence, we would know that even the dark, negative things in life have meaning and purpose. They, at least, give excitement and beauty in life, because life, without these elements and when it only has all things bright and rosy, would be boring.
It keeps us humble and simple, traits and virtues that are always necessary to us, otherwise we start inventing things and distorting reality. It keeps our feet on the ground even as we let our mind and heart soar to high heavens.
It makes our heart tender and at the same time strong, a perfect foil to our tendency to be hardened or to get lost as we tackle life’s many challenges. In other words, it helps us to maintain our humanity well, resistant to the temptation to become mechanical and robotic as we face life’s trials and hardships.
These are some of the basic attitudes we ought to have when we are before the Blessed Sacrament. This is how we grow in our Eucharistic piety.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
