Adoring and Returning His Sacrament of Love

Every Thursday, we have Adoration and Benediction at St. Joseph's from 5:30 until 8:30pm. It is easily one of my favorite things that we do. Not only is it a great way to adore our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, but it is also an amazing way in which to pour out our hearts to Him, filled with the events of our day.

This past Thursday, as I was in Adoration, I looked at the book that I brought for spiritual reading. The book was entitled, "I Believe in Love," by Pere Jean D'Elbee, a priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts. I turned to a page dedicated to the Eucharist. In this chapter, D'Elbee relates the conversations of Our Lord Jesus and St. Margaret Mary-

  As He was sweating blood on Holy Thursday,- His greatest suffering- He confided in her, was the ingratitude of men, especially toward the Sacrament of His love. He saw in advance the long days, the long nights in which He would be alone, forgotten, in thousands of tabernacles in solitary churches, the thousands of indifferent people that would pass each day without even thinking that he is there. He saw those who would enter churches, only to admire the windows or architecture, not even acknowledging him with a little genuflection before the tabernacle. He saw the multitude of the baptized, whom He was supposed to adopted as his children in His blood, who would neglect even Sunday mass, who would fail to receive Easter Communion. After delivering himself up in the Host, as he did, what does he ask of us? He gives without a cost, and he is refused love. He foresaw everything in Gethsemane, and he accepted it all, that he might descend into a single soul who loves him. "For you alone I would have instituted the Sacrament of my love."

As I read this and gazed at the Eucharist, I realized how guilty I am of these very acts of irreverence. There were times where I did not genuflect and adore Christ. There were horrible times where I felt like praying in front of Jesus was a burden. I couldn't even sit in front of my Lord for a half and hour without feeling bored. How ashamed I am to say this. I was so ignorant and so immature, to not adore the very person in whom my life is indebted to.

I overheard a conversation the other day in which a Muslim man and a Catholic man were conversing about the differences between their religions. The Muslim man brought up a profound point. " If I really believed God was right in front of me," he said," I would be trembling in fear and would not be able to leave my knees in adoration, but you Catholics simply look at the host, consume it and then you carry on with your day." This man made a very great point. If we truly believe that the host that we consume is Christ, why are our lives not dramatically changed? Why do we constantly eat His Precious Body and Blood, and then go back to leading our sinful lives, no longer adoring Christ until next week Sunday? As we continue to live our lives, my prayer is that all of us adore Christ with our whole hearts and that we no longer leave him in the dark, alone and forgotten.This is not the way that we should be treating our King. As we come to Christ in the Holy Eucharist, may we truly be motivated to change our lives and never cease praising and adoring Him, who is so worthy of all of our love.

*May the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised and adored and loved in all the tabernacles until the end of time.*