god broken-hearted again
"The Lord Jesus on the night in which He was betrayed took bread, and after He had given thanks, broke it and said, 'This is My body, which is for you.' " —1 Corinthians 11:23-24
At the Last Supper, Jesus first gave us His body and blood on the night He was betrayed. This was a harbinger of Masses to come. Jesus' greatest gift, the gift of His own body and blood, is often rejected when we refuse to believe in the Eucharist or when we have attitudes of selfishness at Mass. How heartbreaking to Jesus when He sees us trying to make the Mass fit conveniently into our lives rather than radically transforming our lives to center them on our eucharistic Lord!
Jesus is the most rejected, divorced, and abused Person Who has ever lived. Yet He keeps coming back for more. He makes Himself so vulnerable when He faithfully and constantly changes bread and wine into His body and blood. The Lord appears to be a masochist, a "glutton for punishment." However, Jesus exposes His broken heart to further brokenness because He is God, Who is Love (1 Jn 4:8, 16). Love loves unconditionally. Love loves even if hated and crucified in return.
On this solemnity of the body and blood of Christ, decide to accept the grace to love our eucharistic Jesus. Offer your body as a living sacrifice (Rm 12:1) so that His body and blood will no longer be disbelieved, ignored, and pushed even further into the margins of so many people's lives. Make reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Prayer: Jesus, I will suffer anything so as to never reject You.
Promise: "Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish, Jesus raised His eyes to heaven, pronounced a blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to His disciples for distribution to the crowd. They all ate until they had enough." —Lk 9:16-17
Praise: "Sweet Sacrament, we Thee adore. O make us love Thee more and more."
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert A. Stricker, December 13, 2003
Imprimatur: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, December 18, 2003