Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have spent time with a canonized saint. I know people who met St. John Paul II and I’m super jealous of them. I bet the friends of the soon-to-be St. Carlo Acutis are very excited for Divine Mercy Sunday, as he will be canonized on that day. Those who grew up with him are my age. All of us, though, can probably think of at least one or two good examples of holiness in our own lives, people whose words and example have made a profound impact on our lives and the lives of others.
I have to imagine that people who lived and worked with St. Teresa of Calcutta, also known as Mother Teresa, were profoundly moved by her example of holiness and dedication to service of the poor. Imagine with me, for a second, that you and I are among those who got to meet Mother. Imagine you are there in Calcutta at the mother house for the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s order. You have heard that they start their days early, so you sleepily walk into their chapel at 4:30 in the morning for Mass. You see the slight form of the five foot tall Mother Teresa kneeling in stillness before the simple tabernacle.
In speaking about the poor, Mother Teresa often said that they were Jesus in His most distressing disguise. I believe Mother was able to love and serve them so freely because of the insight that the Holy Spirit gave her, that ability to see the image of God in all people, especially the marginalized. Mother Teresa honed this ability to see Jesus with the eyes of faith in the hours that she spent in prayer before Jesus in the Eucharist. She said, “If we recognize Jesus under the appearance of bread, we will have no difficulty recognizing Him in the disguise of the suffering poor.” She trained herself to lean into the vision that faith gives, that vision that penetrates deeply to see what is really going on in the world.
So often, we allow ourselves to become blind to spiritual realities all around us. We come to Mass not expecting to encounter the risen Son of God, because He humbles Himself so much as to come to us disguised under the simple appearances of bread and wine. How much we allow the eyes of our hearts to be covered in scales! Come, Holy Spirit! Open the blind eyes of our hearts.
There is so much power in seeing Who we truly serve and encounter here in Church! I pray that our eyes are opened like Mother Teresa’s so that we recognize Jesus as He comes to us under the appearances of Bread and wine! This will allow us to become people who see Jesus meeting us in all kinds of disguises in our daily lives. What if we saw that poor person in need as we would see Jesus? How would we treat that person differently? What if we recognized Jesus in our co-worker or relative who is an extremely difficult person? Who knows how they might be changed by having someone treat them as we would treat Jesus?
If we are indifferent to Jesus when He hides Himself under the appearances of the Eucharist, it will be that much easier to miss encountering Him in those people whom Jesus identifies Himself with: the poor and the least, the difficult, the downtrodden. Let’s ask that our eyes be opened by the Holy Spirit. This isn’t something we can do on our own. We need the Spirit to give us the insight to look below the surface, to constantly see how Jesus is with us and inviting us to love Him: both in His substantial presence with us in the Eucharist and in His spiritual presence with and in other people in our lives!
Think about the blessing that Simeon received in the temple as He held that baby in His hands who was the Light of the world. What was it that allowed him, among all the other people in the temple that day, to receive Jesus with joy and recognize Him as Messiah, even as a baby? The Gospel today tells us: “He came in the Spirit into the temple.” Do we come in the power of the Holy Spirit into Mass, do we come home in the Spirit, do we go to school in the Spirit, do we head to work in the Spirit? This is the answer, brothers and sisters! We don’t pray the prayer, “Come, Holy Spirit,” at the beginning of Mass for no reason! It is the Spirit who will open our eyes to see the Risen Jesus among us in the Eucharist! It is the Spirit who will allow us to recognize the Risen Lord in those people we encounter every day, the ones whom the Lord has joined to Himself explicitly as members of His Body, and those He identifies Himself with in their sufferings whom He desires to join His body. The Spirit can give us those eyes like Simeon, the eyes to see the Messiah in the humble ways He comes to us.
Every Thursday we have the opportunity to do what Simeon did, to draw close to Jesus and experience the joy He brings, to gaze upon His face and say, with Simeon:
“Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.”
Thursday evenings from 5 to 6, we expose Jesus on the altar for Adoration. Come and experience the goodness of sitting in His presence, looking at Him hidden under the appearance of bread, and allowing Him to look back at you in love. I promise if you come in the Spirit into this temple on Thursdays, Jesus will fill up your heart with countless graces to love and serve Him well, to recognize Him more deeply under those humble appearances both in the Eucharist and in others whom you encounter.
+ Come, Holy Spirit, open our eyes to see Jesus in those humble and hidden ways He comes to us, above all in the Eucharist. Father, thank you for sending us your Son to save us and bring us back to You. Jesus, help us to lean into the power of the Holy Spirit so that we might recognize your presence more and more in our lives. In Your Holy Name we pray. Amen. +