By Rev. Brendan Williams
During this Year of Jubilee our Holy Father has called us to enter more
deeply into the mystery of the Eucharist since it is here that Jesus
is especially present to His Church. This year, he states, "...will
be intensely eucharistic: in the sacrament of the Eucharist, the Savior,
who took flesh in Mary's womb 20 centuries ago, continues to offer himself
to humanity as the source of divine life" (As the Third Millennium
Draws Near, n. 55).This awesome mystery of the presence of Christ in
His Church is the fulfillment of our Father's plan foretold by the prophet
Isaiah more than seven centuries before His birth: "Therefore the
Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child
and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel" (Is. 7:14).
The name, Immanuel (with us is God) would be applied to Jesus by the
angel who appeared to Joseph in a dream (Mtt 1:23), thus bringing the
prophecy to its fulfillment.
In the Old Testament we encounter the yearning of the human soul for God's presence. We see the hunger and thirst of the soul for God expressed in the Psalms: O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory (63: 1-3). In Psalm 42 we again experience the thirst of the soul for the divine presence: As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? The penitent Psalmist begs God's forgiveness and implores the Lord to keep him in the divine presence: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me (Ps 51:10-11).
Moses begged the Lord to travel with him on the arduous journey through the desert. It seems that Moses was not satisfied with an angel as a companion: He wanted the Lord beside him. After intensive prayer, God relented and promised to go with Moses and the Israelites: He (God) said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest" (Ex. 33:14).
God would show His presence through a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. This would bring great consolation, encouragement and hope to Moses and the Israelites as they struggled to reach the Promised Land.
A towering, Moses-like, figure in the history of the Church would yearn for Christ's presence as he took on the perilous task of converting the Irish. He would leave for posterity his powerful prayer—St. Patrick's Breastplate:
"… Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me. …"
The Ark of the Covenant—which carried the stone tablets bearing the Ten Commandments and, according to some traditions, a container of manna—was a symbol of God's personal presence to His people. It was the place where they could receive atonement and where God would communicate with them. God was present to the Israelites because He had elected them His people. They in turn were called to live by His commandments which were contained in the Ark.
This journey of Israel would foreshadow the mystery of the Church as she journeys through the desert of this world to the Promised Land of Heaven. The evil Pharaoh is a symbol of the Devil who strives to enslave the human race. The Pascal Lamb, whose blood saved the Israelites and set them free, foreshadows Christ, the Lamb of God in whose blood we are saved. The waters of the Red Sea prefigure the waters of Baptism which free us from the grasp of Satan and envelop us in the living waters of the Holy Spirit. The manna in the desert, that nurtured the Israelites on their journey, is a type of the Eucharist, the Living Bread come down from Heaven that promises Eternal Life to all who eat it (Jn 6:22-69). The powerful figure of Moses—leading his people, communing with God, relaying God's word—is a type of Christ. The image of Jesus, the new Moses, would become a central theme for St. Matthew in his Gospel.
In the New Testament the presence of God would take on a new meaning because God would visit His people in the person of Jesus, His Son. Through the Incarnation the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity would take the form of man so that we could take on the likeness of God. John proclaims in his Prologue: And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth (1:14). The literal translation of the Greek denotes Christ as pitching his tent among us. This is reminiscent of the presence of God in the Ark during the Exodus: (God said) And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them (Ex 25:8). God will now dwell in the person of the Incarnate Word. In the mystery of the Church, each baptized person becomes a living tabernacle of the Godhead.
Jesus, Himself, would assure us of His perpetual presence in the Church when He instructed the Apostles: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Mtt 28:18-20). The Holy Spirit would continue to unravel the mystery of this presence. In St. John's Gospel Jesus proclaims: "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them" (14:23). Jesus reveals to us that unity in the Holy Trinity and with one another is essential for the life and mission of the Church. His prayer for that unity reveals a deep yearning in our Savior's heart to live in us and we in Him: "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (Jn 17:20). In His infinite love for the Church, Jesus waits for each of us to openly and freely invite Him into our hearts as our Lord and Savior so that we may enjoy the intimacy of His presence. In the Book of Revelation He beckons us: Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me (3:20).
The great mystery of the Christian faith is that God came to save us in the person of Jesus, who took our human nature so that we might come to share a new life which is the very life of the Holy Trinity. It is through Baptism that we begin to share this new life. Jesus told Nicodemus: "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit" (Jn 3:3-5). The birth that we receive is nothing less that an incorporation into the very life of the Holy Trinity. Jesus speaks of this overflowing life in terms of living water: On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water. Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive" (Jn 7:37-39).
St. Paul, after his rebirth in the Holy Spirit, would cry out: "… and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20). To the Corinthians Paul would proclaim: "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple" (1 Cor 3:16-17).
As we grow in holiness the divine presence intensifies within us through the power of the Holy Spirit. The reality of Jesus, risen and triumphant, fills the soul. We can then understand more clearly the joy St. Paul expressed as he described to the Colossians the indwelling of Christ as riches and glory. "To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27). To the Philippians Paul would say: "For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain" (Phil 1:21).
It is through this life in the Risen Christ alone that we are saved. In what is regarded as the most important verse of Scripture in all of the New Testament—John 14:6—Jesus proclaims: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." It is through and in Christ that we "live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28).
It is through our life in Christ that we spiritually grow and bear fruit. To emphasize this point, Jesus compares His relationship to us as that of a vine to its branches: "Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing" (Jn 15: 4-5). It is through this living in Christ that we can now, with expectant faith, make intercession to our Father: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (Jn 15:1).
The Constitution on the sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council has this to say about Jesus' presence in the Church: "Christ is always present in his Church, especially in the action of the liturgy. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, in the person of the minister (it is the same Christ who formerly offered himself on the cross that now offers by the ministry of priests) and most of all under the eucharistic species. He is present in the sacraments by his power, in such a way that when someone baptizes, Christ baptizes. He is present in the word, for it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church. Finally, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he himself promised: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst."
So as we celebrate this year of Jubilee let us rejoice in the great and awesome mystery of Christ's presence in His Church. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to more fully awaken this mystery in us so that we may become more deeply absorbed and transformed in the life of Christ and more willingly and effectively become bearers of this life to others.