We receive our Lord, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in Holy Communion. Due to our extremely weak human nature we can forget about this great and daily miracle. We can even become indifferent to this miracle. We may even receive Our Lord with piety, yet without the profound adoration and piety worthy of such a miracle.
It is common for us to imagine living at the time of Our Lord and seeing Him in person. We marvel at what a magnificent privilege that would be. We imagine adoring Our Lord at the stable in Bethlehem. We imagine seeing him instructing the learned ones in the temple. We imagine witnessing the many miracles of Our Lord, such as raising the dead, curing the sick, forgiving sinners, and the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. We imagine hearing him preach the Sermon on the Mount.
We imagine His glorious entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We imagine attending the first Mass on Holy Thursday. We imagine Our Lord's arrest and trial, His scourging, His crowning with thorns.
We long to console Our Lord accompanying Him on the road to Calvary. We imagine seeing Him upon the Cross. We want to be there when Our Lady held Him in Her arms after He was taken down from the Cross.
We imagine the Resurrection of Our Lord on Easter Sunday. We imagine being there when He appeared in the upper room to the Apostles. Imagine witnessing His Ascension into Heaven.
These are all excellent meditations that help bring us close to Our Lord.
As great as these reflections are however, they are less than receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion. With Holy Communion we do not just see and hear, but Our Lord enters into our lowly body and soul transforming us with His grace. What is greater seeing and hearing, or receiving the fullness of Our Lord?
But, we do see and hear Our Lord as well. We see and hear Our Lord through the Holy Catholic Church, His Mystical Body. We have the immeasurable honor of being part of that Body and receiving all that Our Lord has to offer us through the Sacraments, through the Sacred Scriptures, through the Holy and Infallible doctrines of the Church and through the Saints Whom Our Lord has sent to give examples so that we might more closely match Our Lives in accordance with the Sacrament that we receive in Holy Communion.
The next time that we receive Holy Communion let us continue to reflect on being in Our Lord's presence while He was upon earth and let us express our profound adoration and gratitude to God for allowing us to receive much more than those who lived while Our Lord was upon the earth.
If we persevere and die in the state of Sanctifying Grace then we shall eternally be in the visible presence of Our Lord as well as be filled with His presence in every way.
O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine.
Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
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