Although He was a tiny Child, His majesty penetrated my soul
During these days of Christmas I have had the opportunity to see different statues of Baby Jesus. In Malta, my beloved country, we are famous for the different artistic statues which represent the Holy Child of Bethlehem.
However, these statues, beautiful as they might be, can never equal the beauty of the real Jesus, especially in the Most Blessed Eucharist. St Faustina had the grace of beholding the Child Jesus in the Eucharist. In entry 182 of the Diary she recounts:
+Christmas Eve. Today I was closely united with the Mother of God. I relived her interior sentiments. In the evening, before the ceremony of the breaking of the wafer, I went into the chapel to break the wafer, in spirit, with my loved ones, and I asked the Mother of God for graces for them. My spirit was totally steeped in God. During the Midnight Mass [“Pasterka” or Shepherds’ Mass], I saw the Child Jesus in the Host, and my spirit was immersed in Him. Although He was a tiny Child, His majesty penetrated my soul. I was permeated to the depths of my being by this mystery, this great abasement on the part of God, this inconceivable emptying of Himself. These sentiments remained vividly alive in my soul all through the festive season. Oh, we shall never comprehend this great self-abasement on the part of God; the more I think of it, [unfinished thought] (Diary, 182).
This wonderful experience which Faustina had on Christmas Eve of 1932 in Warsaw made me remember what St Francis of Assisi wrote in his First Admonition about the Holy Eucharist. He said:
The Lord Jesus said to His disciples: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” · “If” you know “Me,” you would know “My Father as well; and from now on you shall know Him and have seen Him.” · “Philip said to Him: Lord, show us the Father, and that suffices for us.” · “Jesus said to him: So much time I have been with you, and you do not known Me? Philip, he who sees Me, sees even” My “Father” (Jn 14:6-9). · The Father dwells “in inaccessible light” (cf. 1 Tm 6:16), and “God is spirit” (Jn 4:24), and “no one ever sees God” (Jn 1:18). · For this reason He cannot be seen except in spirit, “since it is the spirit which vivifies, the flesh is good for nothing” (Jn 6:64). · But neither does the Son in that, which He is equal to the Father, seem to anyone to be otherwise than the Father, otherwise than the Holy Spirit. · Whence all who saw the Lord Jesus according to the Humanity and both did not see and believe according to the spirit and the Divinity, that He Himself is the true Son of God, have been damned; · so even now all who see the Sacrament, which is sanctified by the words of the Lord upon the altar by the hand of the priest in the form of bread and wine, and do not see and believe according to the spirit and the Divinity, that this is truly the Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, have been damned, since the Most High Himself testifies, who said: · “This is My Body and” My “Blood of the New Testament [which is poured forth on behalf of the many]” (Mt 14:22,24); · and “He who eats” My Flesh “and drinks” My Blood, “has life eternal” (cf. Jn 6:55). · Whence of the Spirit of the Lord, who dwells in His faithful, is he who receives the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord. · All others, who do not share this same Spirit and presume to receive Him, eat “and” drink “judgement upon themselves” (cf. 1 Cor. 11:29).
Whence: “Sons of men, how long with a heavy heart?” (Ps 4:3) · Why is it that do you not know the truth and believe “in the Son of God?” (cf. Jn 9:35) · Behold, every day He humbles Himself (cf. Phil 2:8), just as when “from royal thrones” (Wis 18:15) He came into the womb of the Virgin; · every day He comes to us Himself humbly appearing; · everyday He descends from the bosom of the Father upon the altar in the hands of the priest. · And just as to the holy Apostles in true flesh, so even now He shows Himself to us in the Sacred Bread. · And just as when they gazed at His very own flesh they saw only His flesh, but contemplating with spiritual eyes believed Him to be God, · so we too seeing bread and wine with bodily eyes, are to see and firmly believe, that they are His Most Holy Body and Blood, living and true. · And in such a manner the Lord is always with His faithful, just as He Himself says: “Behold I am with you even to the consummation of the age” (cf. Mt 28:20).
Lord Jesus, a tiny Child present in the Holy Eucharist, penetrate my soul by your majesty. Amen.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
