Eucharistic Reflection - Home

"Home...

That’s the word that the Lord lays on my heart when I walk into the Adoration Chapel. But it wasn’t always that way. For a couple of years, I went to Adoration, to beg, borrow, plead, and to try and 'make a deal' with God; what I’d do for Him, if He’d only do what I wanted for me.

But that isn’t how God works. He loves us too much to give us what we 'want,' instead, in His Love for us, He gives us what we 'need.' And often times in my life, well, in my 'old' life, those two things were rarely the same. And so, I literally spent hundreds of hours in Adoration, trying to 'convince' God that I knew better.

But today, I thank God without ceasing for loving me too much to give me what I 'thought' was best, instead; because of His love for me, He chose to give me more than I ever could have imagined or even conceived of asking Him for.

And since He’s given these things to me, has my life smoothed out and gotten happy, or fun, or easy?

No. Actually, it’s never been more challenging and His 'buffering' has been more painful than I ever could have conceived.

But there’s really only one reason why God, in His infinite love for me and for each of us, that He allows us to 'share in His suffering.' Because it’s only there, when we’re broken, that He can teach us things that we could learn no other way. It’s not easy, but more than being painful or difficult, it’s beautiful.

Because it’s in those moments, when you’re broken, and you are there in His Presence; that He kneels down in front of you, lifts up your chin with His Hand, looks you in the eyes and says to you, 'I know, I know it all, and it doesn’t matter, I love you.'

And when God looks you in the eyes and tells you that 'you' are that beloved; so beloved, that He would leave the ninety- nine again, and again, and again; an infinite number of times, just to keep looking for you. Looking for 'you' until He finds you. And when He does find you, that He’ll carry you back in His Arms, back 'home' again.

Well, when you 'truly' know in your heart and in your mind what it feels like to be loved by Him, in that way; it won’t only change your life, it will save your life, and give you life.

There are many 'reasons' why I go to Adoration; but the 'real' reason that I go is because when I’m there, I’m home."

(Rodney Raugh, St. Thomas Aquinas Fraternity, Lancaster, PA from Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore - Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration)