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"Christ's body on earth at Bethlehem was the same
body which is now on earth in our tabernacles all over the world. The only difference
is that now He is veiled beneath the species of bread and wine. The Blessed
Sacrament is the continuation of Christmas; we cannot think of Christ's first
personal visit two thousand years ago without instinctively thinking of His
constant visit at every present moment. We owe the Blessed Sacrament to
Bethlehem.
Each recurring Christmas Day should refresh in
your mind the magnificent import of the bodily presence of God among us. As you
receive Holy Communion on each occasion, the story of Bethlehem is being
renewed and continued in your heart, for the cave was the first tabernacle and
the manger was the first ciborium. You have the opportunity of 'wrapping
the Child in swaddling clothes and laying Him in the manger' of your own
heart every day if you wish.
In the Blessed Sacrament you will find the
greatest, the most tangible help and inspiration for your family life. If you
and your husband or wife can make it a practice to receive Holy Communion
together, your union will be all the deeper because it is rooted all the more
deeply in the love of Christ. There can be no doubt that the frequent reception
of Holy Communion by husband and wife does infallibly make their marriage
holier and happier.
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(Photo©Michael Seagriff)
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It is hardly possible to speak satisfactorily of
the Blessed Sacrament. The subject is too tremendous to do it justice. Just as
the moment of the Incarnation could not hold its awesome reality for itself as
the one moment when the Infinite took on the limits of time, so, too, the words
that try to portray the quiet majesty of Christ's reign among us in the
Tabernacle cannot convey their full message of truth. Jesus Christ, God and
man, is present with His glorified living body under the appearance of bread
and wine in the Blessed Sacrament. What then? The action of the frequent
communicant is the only reasonable action, and the answer of the father of the
possessed boy is the only reasonable answer: 'Lord, I believe, help thou
my unbelief!' (Mark 9:23.)
Every time we look on the mystery of the Nativity
at Bethlehem, a little deeper sense of its meaning penetrates our souls.
Sometimes for a few fleeting moments we feel that we can almost grasp the full
realization of what it means to have God as man on this earth. The extension of
Christ's life in the Blessed Sacrament adds to this realization still another
note: 'God as man is on this earth now, as my closest, dearest Friend, in
whose love I can rest my love of my husband or wife, and in whom we two are
united in the ideal of the selfless love toward which we are striving.'
(From The Holy Family by
Francis L. Filas, S.J.)
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