You know, if God puts a desire in you, trust him. He will do it. He’s faithful to his covenant. If he says, “I will do it,” he will do it.
During this jubilee year, the church is asking us for conversion of heart… most especially a deeper encounter with the with the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist. As the pope proclaimed it, this year is a pilgrimage of hope. Our hope is all of us will come to know and recognize Jesus in the Eucharist.
Some of us, maybe we have strong faith in the Eucharist. That’s good. Some of us may be in between. Some of us maybe we have weak faith in the Eucharist. No matter where we are, our hope is this year the Lord Jesus will help us to recognize him in the Eucharist.
So last Tuesday, at the Chrism Mass, priests… all of us we renewed our promises, our priestly promises. If we renew our promises as priests and all of you as Body of Christ, all of us, we can renew our commitment to Christ, right, especially our devotion to and our love of the Eucharist
Life – spiritual life – is a continuous restoration, a continuous renewal of our faith. There’s no one who is perfect in faith. It’s ongoing process. As we receive the Eucharist, it transforms us, it makes us in union with the Risen Christ. So, let’s take it serious this jubilee year. I will do the same thing. I will take it very seriously. Lord Jesus, help me to recognize you in the breaking of the bread.
One of my friends – she’s my very good friend; she lives in Florida – Patricia. She has two PhD degrees and two Masters degrees and three Bachelors degrees. She spent all her life studying. Her husband is also a medical doctor, so when they graduated, they made a decision, “We don’t want to live here in the United States. We want to go to another country, the poorest country in the world and we want to evangelize the poorest country.”
So, they were researching where is the poorest country in the world they found Ethiopia. So, they went to Ethiopia as Lutherans. Both of them, Patricia’s family, all of them are Catholic. Strong Catholic! But for some reason, she became Lutheran and the husband was Lutheran. They went to evangelize Ethiopians to make them Lutherans. She didn’t know what she was dealing with. Ethiopia is one of the ancient Christian countries. Monasticism started there and in Egypt. Especially Ethiopian Orthodox monks… you don’t joke with them about the Eucharist!
So, she went there and then she was evangelizing. She built a little clinic in the northern part and she was evangelizing people to make them Lutherans, and one day she met on her way, she met an Ethiopian monk. Ethiopian Orthodox monk. Literally, an Ethiopian orthodox monk will literally die for the Eucharist. You can’t discuss with them! So she said to this monk, “You must be born again, you need to receive Jesus as your lord and savior.” This is a monk coming from the monastery.
“What did you say?”
She told him, “You must be born again.”
You know, he didn’t reject her. He didn’t argue with her. He told her, “Do if you have faith? If you really believe, I’m going to show you the face of Christ.” So, she was so surprised. The Ethiopian Orthodox monk was going to show her the face of Christ. “Just have faith, I will show you the face of Christ. Okay?”
“I will believe, show me the face of Christ.”
He invited her to the monastery for Sunday Mass. After the Consecration, he invited her to the altar. He told her, “If you have faith in the eucharist… if you really believe, see in this Eucharist the face of Christ.”
You know that was her conversion experience. As she looked after consecration at the host, the Holy Spirit took over from her mind to her feet, the whole thing changed. She said “What a waste I lived my life. Oh, what a waste. I spent my life leaving the Catholic Church becoming Lutheran, evangelizing people to be Lutheran. She repented and then she stopped living there in Ethiopia.
She came to Florida she started a ministry evangelizing every parish to see the face of Christ in the Eucharist.
It is the face of Christ! What we see in the Eucharist, if we believe, this risen lord who is at the right hand of the Father… in body, blood, soul, and divinity is here. He is truly present, but we need faith. You know, faith is not something abstract… something out of space. Faith means I truly believe this Jesus, who is at the right hand of the Father, he is here in the appearance of bread and wine. So that faith is what we need to really pray for each one of us.
What is the difference between Jesus in the Eucharist and Jesus at the right hand of the Father? In the Eucharist, he’s in the appearance of bread and wine, but that same Risen Jesus, we are receiving the Risen Body of Christ. But when we die one day, when our time comes to go home to heaven, we’re not going to receive Jesus in the Body and Blood of Christ. It’s not in the appearance of the bread, we’re going to see him face to face! But until that day, we’re going to see that same Christ in the Eucharist.
What humility! Talking about humility, last Sunday he rode a donkey and then tonight he’s going to wash our feet. You know the absolute humility? It’s not riding on donkey. It’s not really washing our feet. Absolute humility is to give himself in the form of bread… that’s ultimate humiliation. He is broken to pieces for us. Can we say thank you? Really, that’s what Eucharist means. Literally, Eucharist means we give thanks to God for the gift of the Eucharist and the gift of priesthood.
By the grace of Christ, I was ordained in 2008, now years ago when I was ordained. I said after my first Mass – it was the Feast of Corpus Christi – so I said, “Lord thank you, it’s not by chance that you allowed me to start my first Mass on Corpus Christi, on the Feast of Corpus Christi.” So the only thing I said when I thanked people after Mass, I just turned back to the tabernacle and I said, “thank you Jesus for choosing me to be a priest.”
I couldn’t choose any life than being a priest. When I was a little boy, I didn’t know what priesthood means. I was sixth grade when i applied to seminary then they told me I was young. And I went to seminary when i was ninth grade, but that desire was in me. I don’t know how it’s going to be fulfilled, I don’t know how God will fulfill his promise, but this desire was in me. When I was these altar service kids’ age, every day I used to go to Mass to serve Mass. And you know, what really moved me to choose to be a priest so that I pursued it? I always desired one day I want to dress like a priest. This is what moved me. So, when I went home after the morning Mass, I used to put my mother’s skirt and I was incensing my house.
You know, if God puts a desire in you, trust him. He will do it. He’s faithful to his covenant. If he says, “I will do it,” he will do it. I had no idea… there was no transportation to the capital city. I was born 5 to 6 hours away from where seminarians are. We don’t have mail communication. We don’t have phone communication. I had no idea how I’m going to join the seminary, but his heart is in me.
So anyways, one day I went to serve Mass this priest came to celebrate Mass in my parish. He’s originally from Holland. After I served Mass, he told me, “Young boy, what do you want to be in the future?” I really told him, “I really want to be a priest, but I don’t know how to apply. There is no transportation to capital city.” He said, “Do you really want to be a priest? I said yes. He said, “I am the director of the seminary, I will take you.”
God’s providence! If God says he will do it, you know the promise might be delayed. It’s okay. It took century after century, right, for the birth of Christ. But God fulfilled his covenant. He established the new covenant; he established the priesthood according to the line of Melchizedek.
You know, one time I left a voice message on my answering machine, “You are the priest forever in the line of Melchizedek.” I really want people to know about me, so I wanted to know also how people are going to answer that. So I asked them and that after I chanted it, I told them “Please research about Melchizedek and if you know about his origin let me know.” One of my friends, she works as a flight attendant in Boston, she kept calling me and I was busy. I didn’t answer the phone, and she kept calling, she kept calling amd she keeps listening you are a priest forever according to the line of Melchizedek. She was very upset one day! Stop asking about Melchizedek and answer my phone.
This is according to the line of Melchizedek our priesthood is not according to Levites, but Jesus didn’t replace old covenant. When I was in Boston, in some progressive universities, they were teaching theology students replacement theology. The Catholic Church doesn’t teach us replacement theology. Jesus fulfilled it, not like replace the whole old covenant. Actually Jesus was for them, to make that covenant the perfect covenant, the new covenant. We don’t need to offer lamb after lamb for every Mass. The once and for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ… Jesus entered to his heavenly banquet. The families who have gone before us, they are celebrating the heavenly banquet. We are joining them from here. But there is no one sacrifice after one sacrifice.
But you know, sometimes God is working for us, but we think he’s against us. He was working for them with the promise he gave to Abraham, brought it to fulfillment in the new covenant. But they thought Jesus was a change for them. Like tomorrow’s first word, “Forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” They don’t know what they were doing really.
Sometimes we don’t know what we are doing, but Jesus Christ in body, blood, soul, and divinity chose to be with us, wants to be with us. Can you imagine! Can you imagine if Jesus, let’s say for example, if Jesus said, “Guys, I came here to save you. I loved you. I served you, but now I’m going to my Father, bye-bye.” No, he chose to remain with us in the form of bread and wine.
Jesus Christ didn’t come primarily heal the deaf or the blind. Those are the finger of God to expand the Kingdom of God. But primarily he came to establish the Eucharist, die and rise again. He has a clear mission, a clear goal, and a clear vision, mission, and goal. He knew what he was doing. He came to give us himself in the form of bread and wine, the next day to die and rise again… mission accomplished. The Holy Spirit is now helping us to change the bread and wine to the body and blood of Christ. No fear, he is with us – Emmanuel – for eternity. Isn’t that wonderful? What amazing love, what amazing grace! Jesus brought us, but sometimes we don’t recognize him. So, I encourage you, this wedding feast is here, the king is inviting us. People are refusing because, “I’m busy, I’m busy.” The parable of the wedding feast. But this year I challenge you, let’s pray to recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread… we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Hosanna to the Son of David!
Isaiah 61:1-3, 6, 8-9 | Psalms 89:21-22, 25, 27 | Revelation 1:5-8 | Luke 4:16-21
Image credit: Photo by Matea Gregg on Unsplash
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About the author:
Father Tamiru Atraga is a Catholic priest serving in the Archdiocese of Atlanta. He previously served in Boston and is originally from Ethiopia.
He blogs at Hosanna to the Son of David here on ICL.
Check out Father Tamiru’s reflections and presentations on YouTube.
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