The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
“This is my body,” says Jesus in today’s Gospel. “Take it; this is my body.”
I inherited my tendency to hang around adoration chapels from my mom. She often brought my siblings and I with her on her brief visits there. When I left for college, I took the habit with me. I vividly remember one experience during my freshman year when I was sure I had bombed an important test. I was terrified. Without thinking, I raced to the adoration chapel, stumbled into a back pew, and began praying what amounted to a breathless inner meltdown. Then finally, I started to calm down. Just like at home, Jesus was there on the altar.
“Everything is ruined,” I told Him.
“But I’m still here,” I felt Him assure me.
Yes. He was still there.
When I left the chapel a few minutes later, I left the fear too. I had discovered the same thing that my mother had tried to convey to me with all those childhood adoration visits: He was there. Actually, tangibly there. And if Christ was there - if even at what felt like rock bottom I could still find Him - then nothing could ever be quite as bad as it seemed.
My visits to Jesus in adoration became regular and sincere. Through ups, downs, joys, and sorrows, one constant always kept me grounded.
He was still there.
Jesus is there now - there always - in a unique way because of what happened in our Gospel today. He knows our humanity. He understands the immeasurable comfort of physical presence. So He took bread, said the blessing, and continues to give Himself to each one of us today.
“How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me?”, we read in today’s psalm. Standing before the Lord, the psalmist wonders aloud in a familiar, conversational tone that beautifully reflects the kind of relationship that God invites us all to. Jesus wants to hear our thoughts, our fears, our questions, and our thanks. He wants to meet us in each of those places and respond in the deepest quiet of our heart. That relationship is built in the same way any relationship is built: by spending time together.
Praise God for giving us a way!
He is always there, waiting for you. Go to adoration and you will find Him.
Paula Golbabai is a sourdough-baking wife, mother, and former auditor living in College Station, Texas with her husband, four children, and a flock of chickens. She loves reading everywhere, smiling always, drinking coffee during early morning prayer time, and hanging around adoration chapels. She relies on her favorite devotions, the rosary and the divine mercy chaplet, to keep her connected to Christ all day long!