I can take down my mask, pt 1

Published on: Jul 30, 2013

(Columnist’s Note: The following is a journal reflection that flowed from time spent in Eucharistic Adoration. As a Catholic, my life is deeply immersed in the riches of our faith; but may all faiths and denominations glean from this an encouragement to seek God as they know Him, with their whole heart, mind and strength.)

Jesus I love you! Jesus I am in love with you! Thank you so much for allowing me to be with you! For allowing me to recognize your presence in the Holy Eucharist! The reason I love to be with you so much is because I experience your very tender, unconditionally loving and accepting Heart. I thank you for the grace I have received through the years to share my heart with you so vulnerably.

I know it is because of this grace that I have been able to be so real with you about who I am… and that you have accepted and loved me in just who I am. This is why I am so abundantly blessed in your presence. I don’t need to put on airs… I have been able to take the masks down through the years and just be free.  Free to be who you have created me to be. Free to get in touch with what really stirs in my deepest heart. For this is where I truly live. This is where I truly “have life to the full” (Jn 10:10).

It is as I’ve shared with others at times; when I am in your presence, among many other graces, it is like looking into a mirror and coming to know my true identity, my true dignity in you. And, this is where I come to know who I really am created to be -- nowhere else but in your Heart; nowhere else but in the loving embrace of my Heavenly Father, which flows through your sacrificial love for me; nowhere else but in the living flame of the love of the Holy Spirit, that pours forth from your presence.

How few realize that this is truly where you have set up your throne here on earth, to be substantially present among us as you are in Heaven.

How few realize that your presence in the Eucharist is the porthole to Heaven. And yet, all of humanity long for your unconditional love and acceptance, and most are constantly grasping for created things to fill that insatiable void.

 This is why I so long that others come to know this “pearl of great price.” My heart aches for humanity who doesn’t realize where the source and summit of fulfillment lies.

And, so, Lord I pray now before your presence as I so often do… Reveal to hearts the truth I have come to know. Permeate hearts with the graces I have received that all will be drawn to you, the fount of life, love and fulfillment.

All hearts hunger for you, but most seek to be sated with trash and scraps from the dumpster, rather than eating from the banquet of your presence in our midst… not only to be with you but to receive you into our bodies.

"Jesus waits for us in this Sacrament of Love." (Pope John Paul II, Dominicae Canae)  (pt. 2 next week)