16-04-24 20 Abad Menanti: Kekuatan Ekaristi dalam Mengubah Hidup

Tuesday 3rd week of Easter "Jn 6:30-35" So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe you?...Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness..." Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world." They said to him, "Lord, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst." This whole Chapter 6 of St John focuses on the Eucharist. Saints have always been in love with the Eucharist. They could endure anything except to be deprived of the Mass. Bishop Van Thuan was imprisoned in Vietnam for more than 9 years in solitary confinement. Years later he wrote: "The day I was arrested I had to leave everything behind. The following day I was allowed to write and ask my friends to bring my clothes, toothpaste, etc. I also asked them to include some wine 'as medicine'. They sent me a little bottle of Mass-wine labelled 'Medicine for Stomach Aches'. Every night I kept a tiny piece of bread for the following day's Eucharist." He explained how every day he would ask the guards for a bit of 'medicine', and they would hand him the bottle of wine. "I never will be able to express my great joy," he said later. "Every day for many years I had the joy of celebrating Mass with three drops of wine and one of water in my palm. This was my altar, my cathedral. For me it was the true medicine of body and soul...Each day in reciting the words of Consecration, I confirmed with all my heart and soul a new pact, an eternal pact between Jesus and me through His Blood mixed with mine. Those were the most beautiful Masses of my life!" St Josemaría taught: "When you approach the Tabernacle remember that he has been awaiting you for twenty centuries." My Immaculate Mother, help me to convince Our Lord with deeds that His '20-century wait' for me has been worthwhile. Help me, Mother, to become a Eucharistic soul, because a Eucharistic soul is a powerful soul. Teach me to fall in love with Jesus in the Eucharist, and to receive Him with the purity, humility and devotion with which you, Mary, received Him.