J.M.J. This is one of my favorite articles that I have published--and most of it doesn't come from me!
Please read on.
During this last day before Christmas, our hearts turn more than ever to Jesus and His Coming among us.
He is still present among His brothers and sisters two thousand years
after His initial appearance. We know that Christ is with us in several
ways: through His Word proclaimed, by the ministry of His priests,
whenever two or more gather in His Sacred Name and in a most unique and
exalted fashion in the Most Holy Eucharist.
These final Advent days afford us an excellent opportunity to reflect
well on the Most Blessed Sacrament and to ask ourselves how we reverence
the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the God-Man, Jesus Christ.
Jesuit Father Segundo Llorente (1906-1989) was an outstanding missionary
to the faithful of Alaska. A brilliant and humble priest, Father
Llorente spent himself in the service of the indigenous of Alaska for
decades.
Years ago, in a meditation entitled "Strange Things Happen on the Night
of Christmas," this Spanish religious offered his thoughts on the
adoration due the Most Holy Eucharist. This powerful essay, which was
published in the February 1998 newsletter of the Catholic Society of
Evangelists, seems more pertinent now than when it first was penned.
--- --- --- ---
"Strange Things Happen on the Night of Christmas"
"A priest told me what happened to him once in his first parish.
"After
the Midnight Mass on Christmas Day he personally locked the church. With
the keys in his pocket he went to his room and had a good sleep.
"At
7:30 in the morning he got up and went back to the church intending to
have one hour of prayer all to himself. He opened the side door leading
to the sacristy, turned on a light and then turned on the lights for the
church. As he opened the sacristy door and walked into the church, he
literally froze. Strange people clad in the poorest of clothes occupied
most of the pews and all were in total silence. No one so much as
wiggled and nobody cared to look at him. A small group was standing by
the Nativity Scene contemplating the manger in total silence.
"The priest recovered quickly and in a loud voice asked them how they got
in. Nobody answered. He walked closer to them and asked again. 'Who let
you in?' A woman answered totally unconcerned: 'Strange things happen
on the night of Christmas.' And back to total silence.
"The priest went to
check the main door and found it locked just as he had left it. He was
now determined to get the facts and turned his face to the pews; but
they were empty. The people had vanished.
"He kept this puzzle to himself for some time. Unable to hold it in any
longer, he told me just what I have told you. Could I help with any
plausible explanation? Let me hurry to say that the priest in question
is a model of sanity and is as well educated academically as most of the
priests I know, if not better.
"My explanation was and still is as follows. Those were dead people who
were doing their purgatory, or part of it, in the church.
"It is safe to
assume that we atone for our sins where we committed them. Those people
were immersed in total silence. Why? Consider the irreverences committed
before the Blessed Sacrament; how many people act out in church:
chatting, giggling, and looking around. After Mass some people gather in
small groups around the pews and turn the church into a market place
with no regard for Christ's Real Presence in the tabernacle. Why did
they vanish? They did not vanish. They simply became invisible; but they
remained tied to their pews unable to utter one single word to atone
for their disrespectful chatter while living.
"The Blessed Sacrament is no laughing matter. There is a price tag to all
we do or say. In the end it is God Who gets the last laugh--so to
speak. Those people had to give the Blessed Sacrament the adoration and
respect that Christ deserves. For how long? Only God can answer that.
Why did the priest see them? So he could pray for them and for all other
Poor Souls detained in other churches. Why other priests do not see
these people? Well, perhaps they already know in theory that souls can
be detained in churches as well as anywhere else, so they do not need a
miracle.
"Why were they clad in such poor clothes? To atone for their vanity while
living. People often use clothes not so much to cover their nakedness
but as a status symbol to impress others. But God is not impressed by,
say, mink coats. Also people walk into church with hardly any clothes.
In the summer months it is not unusual for people--mostly women--to go
to receive Holy Communion in the most indecent clothing. The pastor may
or may not put up with it; but God will have His day in court about
this. Rags could be an appropriate punishment for these excesses."
--- --- --- ---
Absent an official declaration from the Church that the above episode
recounted by Father Llorente is true, one may dismiss it. But the deeper
meaning cannot be summarily rejected, namely, that the Sacred Heart of
Emmanuel, Who comes to us, is really, truly and substantially present in
the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar and is to be "praised, adored and
loved with grateful affection at every moment in all the tabernacles of
the world, even until the end of time. Amen."
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