St. Matthew's Catholic Church, Winder
September 5, 2003
Dear Friends in Christ,
Our beloved Holy Father Pope John Paul II has spoken hundreds, perhaps thousands of times during his pontificate of the necessity for the Church to increase her Eucharistic awareness. And indeed, all the popes of this century, especially St. Pius X, have implored the world not just to acknowledge the truth of Christ's Presence in our midst, but to live truly as if Christ were sitting right next to us, speaking to us, person to person, and sharing, as intimately as a brother or a father might, every aspect, every detail, every shade and nuance of our own lives.
To do this, we must learn to listen – to listen to the prompting of our own hearts – yes; but before that, to listen to the call of Jesus Christ, which comes out from His heart, and penetrates the noise and cacophony of this world, and makes its way, like a spear through the air, straight into the center of our own hearts. To hear Christ, to feel Him next to us, and to understand the great mystery of Church which He makes through us, we must be humble – we must bow our heads, shame our human pride, and confess that we do not come to Him on our own, that we do not build the Church by our own efforts, but rather, we come to Him because He calls, and we become the Church because He is here to lead us and to make us holy. In other words, we are drawn tonight, into the mystery of Christ and into the unity of the Church, not by anything we have done, but by the goodness of God, poured forth in Jesus Christ, the Lord, and seen through the eyes of our Faith.
When we come together as we do tonight, drawn by the Real Presence of Jesus, we also come to understand better and feel more strongly the truth of what the Church really is - an living expression of the "breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love" as St. Paul says. . . "the love which surpasses all knowledge. . . and which is the fullness of God Himself." – the mystical Body of the Lord, as the Catechism teaches us.
And so, dear friends, tonight we are here in complete joy, and we leave behind, outside this holy ground, outside the Presence of our Lord who is here with us in every possible way – we leave behind that which divides us - we leave behind our conflicts, our disagreements - we leave behind the words of politicians, of commentators, of armchair philosophers and pundits, who think they have the solutions, but who really traffic in creating more problems - we turn from all sophisticated nonsense, and become, as Christ called us, "little children" – little, before the great, blinding truth of His overwhelming sacrifice; and children, because to love Him truly, we must become like children.
Christ has saved us, and given us the word of Truth to follow, and the Church to lead us forward - He does not leave us, He does not leave the Church – He sits, even now, enthroned in the eye of this monstrance, and sends forth the light of His benediction, of His blessing, of His wondrous mercy and His amazing grace upon us all.
Let us now kneel before this King who loves us so – let us gratefully receive His blessing, so our hearts may be filled, and for yet another hour, another day, another year, with the grace He gives us – the grace to continue, to endure, to overcome the weakness of our nature, and to hear always, His voice saying:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and (in me), you will find rest for your souls. . . for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
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