Serratelli on the sacred, part 3

The Most Reverend Arthur J. Serratelli continues his four part series on the sacred reflecting on the Eucharist as the "sacred adventure of life." Says His Excellency:

Christ who will come again at the end of time comes to us in every Eucharist. This eschatological aspect makes the Eucharist an event that draws us up into heaven. Thus, the Eucharist fills our life journey with hope. In every Eucharist, we enter the Holy of Holies, the Body of Christ, and we are sanctified (cf. Heb 90:11-14). The Eucharist is the privileged place where life becomes sacred. The Eucharist makes our life a sacred adventure of ever-deepening communion with God.

Five Things I Love About Jesus

A Catholic Mom in Hawaii has tagged me for the Five Things I Love About Jesus meme.

Here are the Rules:

Those tagged will share 5 things they "love" about Jesus.
Those tagged will tag 5 other bloggers.
Those tagged will provide a link in the comments section here with their name so that others can read them.

1. His great humility.

2. The depth of his love.

3. His presence in the Sacraments.

4. His gracious invitation to follow him.

5. His strong and gentle arm guiding us always.

I hereby tag Thom of Ad Dominum, Ellen From Across the Net, DilexitPrior of Letters from a Young Catholic, Daniel at Ride of the Rohirrim and Peter at Utter Muttering.

The contemplation of Christ

During the Angelus address earlier this week the Holy Father offered for the faithful yet another brilliant, dazzling gem for prayerful reflection:

Contemplating the Crucified with the eyes of faith, we can understand profoundly what sin is, its tragic gravity, and at the same time the incommensurable power of the Lord's forgiveness and mercy. During these days of Lent, let us not distance our hearts from this mystery of profound humanity and lofty spirituality.

On contemplating Christ, let us feel at the same time that we are contemplated by him. He whom we ourselves have pierced with our faults does not cease to shed over the world an inexhaustible torrent of merciful love. May humanity understand that only from this source is it possible to draw the spiritual energy indisepensable to build that peace and happiness for which every human being is ceaselessly searching.

His Holiness has a unique gift for offering profound truth in just a few sentences. May the Lord bless him with many years to come!

Simply magnificent

But has the world become brighter, happier, or freer since it got rid of God? Has not this stripped man of his dignity, damning him to an empty freedom in which he is ready to do any kind of cruelty? God’s eye is frightening only when one regards this as dependence and servitude instead of recognizing that the love expressed in his eyes is that which makes our existence possible, that which allows us to live. “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” says the Lord to Philip and to all of us (John 14:9). The face of Jesus is the face of God. That is what God looks like. Jesus, who suffered for us and forgave his enemies while dying on the cross, shows us how God is. This eye does not threaten us: it rescues us.

Yes, we are entitled to rejoice that God exists, that he has shown himself to us, and that he never leaves us alone. It is a comfort to know the telephone numbers of friends and good people; this means that they are never very far away from us, never completely absent. We can phone them, and they can phone us. God’s incarnation in Christ tells us that God has written our names in his address book, so to speak. We can call him, without needing money or technology. He is always within reach of our voices. Thanks to baptism and confirmation, we belong to his family, and he is always on the line: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Taken from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI, Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, 6 June 2004, in Values in a Time of Upheaval, trans. Brian McNeil (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2006), 163.