By Fr. Francis Ma. Tiquia, OATH, STHL, MA
ADVENT is from Latin advenio, meaning to come to. Parousia is its Greek term. Advent is preparing for Christ’s coming on His birthday. Christ came on earth more than 2,000 years ago. He was born of Mary in Bethlehem. But Christ also comes to us in the sacraments.
For Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, it is in His coming to us in liturgy, especially in the Eucharistic liturgy, or Holy Mass. He comes to us in a very special way, most particularly in Holy Communion.
In the Eucharist, we have our Lord with us truly and really present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, according to Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The late Fr. John Hardon, SJ, calls the Eucharist as the Totus Christus, or the total Christ, said in With Us Today.
We might ask, as do many of our brothers who don’t share our belief on the real presence of Christ in the White Host: “How can a bread become Jesus Christ Himself?”
Well, it is by God’s will and design that that bread becomes Jesus, our Lord and King.
In Matthew 26:26-28, it is said that the Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist. This was the first Mass or Thursday of the Lord’s Supper in anticipation of the sacrifice that Christ would accomplish on the following day, Good Friday.
When Christ holds the Bread and says, “this is My Body,” and in the Chalice, “this is my Blood,” we have to take note of the fact that that body, or corpus, means person. This was the prevailing meaning of the term body during the time of Christ. Body means person.
In effect, the Lord was saying to the Bread: “This is my person, this is Me.” Of all the things that He can be, He decided to become Bread.
“Bread of Presence,” transliterated from the Hebrew lehem ha panim, is one of the types of the Eucharist in the Old Testament. It was worth noting that the word panim can be interpreted either as “face,” “presence” or “person,”said Roy Gane in Bread of the Presence and Creator in Residence, in Vetus Testamentusm 42, No. 2 (1992), 180.
The show-bread which was placed on the table mediates to the people of Israel as the presence of God. In the New Testament, our Lord calls Himself the “Bread of Life.” He said, “I am the Bread of Life; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world,” according to John 6:51-52.
Incidentally, Christ was born in Bethlehem, from the word bethel which means “house of Bread.” Christ became man in Bethlehem but in His Divine decree, He would also become bread. Hence, He opted to be born in Bethlehem as also foretold by the prophets of old. The logic and connection was obvious. Jesus, our Lord, would become the “Bread of Life.”
The Bread, which is the Eucharist or the White Host that the priest lifts up after prayer of consecration in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is none other than our Lord Jesus, true God and true Man.
Every time we attend and participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and when we receive Him worthily (in the state of grace or free from mortal sin) in Holy Communion, we can say it is Christmas. Christ comes to us, He is the Emmanuel—God with us, according to Matthew 1:23.
Every day can be an experience of Christmas if we receive Him in the form of the Bread in Holy Communion. Visiting Him in the Perpetual Adoration chapel where the monstrance (from Latin monstrare, which means to expose) is located and inside of which is the White big Host, is, likewise, an experience of Christmas.
In the monstrance, our Lord is exposed for us so that we can pray to Him, worship Him, thank Him and ask for any graces and blessings we need.
According to Saint Pius X, Eucharistic devotion, especially by attending Mass and visiting Jesus in the Adoration chapel, is the most profitable, the sweetest and the noblest of all the devotions because it contains Jesus Himself, the author and source of all graces.
He further said that Eucharistic devotion is the fountain head of all the other devotions. For us, Catholics, the greatest treasure that we have in our Church is none other than Jesus Himself, who is inside the Tabernacle where the Sacred Hosts are placed. Those White Hosts is Jesus truly and really present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, according to Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1374.
Hence, for us Catholics, every day can be an experience of Christmas if we become Eucharistic-centered by always going to Holy Mass and receiving Him in Holy Communion and by visiting Him in the Adoration chapel.
May Mother Mary and Saint Joseph teach us and help us to recognize Christ truly present in the Sacred Host, the Blessed Eucharist. God bless.