This article is a continuation of another article that was published under the title of "Eucharist: the personal encounter with Christ". The truth is that although the title is very correct, it was not the one initially proposed, which was "Eucharistic Christocentrism" as the present one is titled. For this reason, I proposed to write a second article that would take up the notion from its title in order to insist a little more on these ideas.
In the first text it was already said that both Christocentrism and the Eucharist are not new themes in the Church and that both have received much attention from theologians and pastors. However, they are not usually treated together, which seems to me could help a better understanding of both.
I would also like to recall that something that was at the origin of these articles has been the scarce presence of Christians in the temples outside of liturgical celebrations or other community pastoral practices. This is not to say that attendance at these events is wrong, or that they should not be convened, but that, in addition to them, there is also a need for a more regular accompaniment of God in the Eucharist, who has remained there to be with us.
In this line, we insist once again on these two notions so that they invite us to draw closer to the Eucharist. The reflections will be brief because it is not a question of supporting them with great arguments, but only by way of appeals, which, in the end, is what Christ does when he seeks us out.
1. Christocentrism
Christcentrism, as we saw in the previous article, seeks to place the person of Christ at the center of the Christian religion. But can it be otherwise? Of course it can.
A relatively easy way to understand Christianity is through the actions of its followers. For example, Christianity is the religion in which you have to go to Mass because it is there that the death of the God-Man is celebrated where he obtained the salvation of the whole human race. To this we could add many other actions that may have more or less importance.
Another way of understanding Christianity could be through the Decalogue that binds Christians. Christians would then identify themselves by obeying the commands given by God. All this is understandable because when someone of good will comes into contact with Christianity he usually asks himself what one must do to be a Christian. A normative type of answer is then expected.
However, when asked what is the center of Christianity, looking at the New Testament, the short answer is to believe in the gospel. And what is there to believe? That Christ, the man who gave his life for us, is God. Christcentrism tries to put this reality in the focus of our religion, putting order over other themes that may have their relevance, but must always be in second place to this most nuclear truth.
The Christian religion is the hope in the coming of a savior messiah who brings us forgiveness and joy. Faith tells us that this messiah died and rose from the dead, never to die again. Therefore Christ lives, and if one day he gave his life for us, now we cannot think that he is indifferent to our lives. Christ lives and wants to be with us, by our side. Now there is nothing to prevent Him from doing so except our will.
Unfortunately, we may think that Christ expects something from us, but we do not know that what he expects is ourselves. Christ has a will and an understanding, and a tongue to speak, and also a heart that desires a lot of things, among them ours. It is a lack of faith to think that Christ cannot communicate with us, and even more to think that he does not. That is false because Christ does not abandon any of his creatures for whom he gave his blood.
It may be true that in our days it is more difficult for us to discover where Jesus is. This is a barrier that is probably very widespread and may seem imposing to us, but we should not fear it in the least because we overcome it as soon as we place ourselves in the presence of God, addressing ourselves directly to Him. But don't I feel anything? Perhaps there is nothing to feel. If we judge our relationship with God from our feelings, it is quite possible that it is a bit deteriorated because it will understand many things from where it should not. Christ does not seek to fill our feelings, but to reach our heart, or what is the same thing, that we reach His heart.
Moving in this direction helps to rebuild our relationship with God. To go towards God, we need her grace which means in itself to be pleasing in the eyes of God. The Virgin Mary is full of grace. And this grace can only be given to us by God. Christ does not ask us to be able to go to Him, nor does He ask us to have the strength, or even the desire. He simply asks us to come to Him sincerely, from the heart, because He does the rest.
Perhaps we make an effort one day, or several, and then we think that later it must be easier because we have already been generous for a more or less long time. These kinds of thoughts eventually decay because Christ wants us to come to Him again and again, and to leave everything else in His heart. I am not saying that going to the heart of Christ is easy, but it is an open and welcoming place as long as we move towards Him. Christ's heart closes only when we give up, and only as long as we leave Him abandoned. That this moving towards Christ is not easy also tells us that we must go to Him little by little, according to our strength. Christ is not in a hurry because he has our whole life ahead of us. He only asks us to come to him with the intention of meeting him personally, of seeking his face.
2. Eucharistic
The second term is Eucharistic. When we discover that Christ has a heart that loves us, we ask ourselves where we can find Him and the answer is in the Eucharist.
We cannot forget that God can be addressed everywhere, and so can Jesus. Certainly, we do not need any special circumstance or a specific place to address God, but Jesus wanted to remain with mankind until the end of time, and this he has concretized in a material presence in the Eucharist.
Jesus is in the tabernacles waiting for us to come, not to watch the time pass. Jesus in the Eucharist wants us to meet Him. When someone enters a church, He longs for us to look at Him, to say something to Him. It may happen that many times we pass by indifferently as if the tabernacle were just another stone in the temple, but this does not leave His heart indifferent. Jesus, the great lover, has remained materially on earth for us to feel His love. Truly no one can say that today God has forgotten mankind because that only means that he has not understood what the Eucharist is.
On the other hand, the Eucharist is the great remedy for all our needs. If we notice that we are sad, or that life is not going well for us, or so many things that can make us suffer, our solution is to go to the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle comes to fulfill a great desire of Jesus to be with us, and also comes to resolve all our needs, physical, moral, personal, family, professional, etc. The Tabernacle is the best place where we can be because it is where God gives Himself to us in the fullest way, according to His will.
Perhaps we may notice that going to the Tabernacle is costly, something that should not surprise us because we have been allowing indifference to this divine reality to creep in more and more. For this reason, sometimes we may approach the Tabernacle and feel like leaving His presence, or of thinking about things that have nothing to do with Him, distracting our mind. As we said before, we must know that He only asks us to come into His presence and turn to Him. The rest we leave in His hands. We only have to persevere in that intention and rectify it when we see that it goes wrong.
The Tabernacle should not be reduced to the place where we go to pray. That may be fine, but it is insufficient. The Tabernacle is the place where we go to address God, to invoke Him in order to access His Presence. From Christ-centeredness, the Eucharist is the place where we can discover the face of the Man-God. In the Eucharist, Jesus wants a true relationship of intimacy with us, not simply that we pass the time by saying a few prayers. We must know that discovering the face of Jesus, or being intimate with Him, requires going again and again in the spirit of meeting Him.
When we go to the Tabernacle with the sincere desire to be close to Him, Jesus changes our hearts, but little by little, according to His times, not according to what seems to us because of the effort we have put in. To demand something from God is not a good practice because He is the One who really knows what we need. We easily allow ourselves to be deceived by so many trifles because we are so ignorant about the things of God. We must go to the Tabernacle with the intention of giving, without wanting to receive anything in return, because otherwise we immediately find too many reasons to leave, not the least of which is the uneasiness that invades us. However, and this is within the reach of everyone, going to the Tabernacle with the sole idea of pleasing Him changes our life.
3. Conclusions
The conclusion of this article is simple. It is only intended to encourage us not to leave Jesus cornered in the churches. It is enough to go as much as we can, better if it is every day, as long as our generosity and strength suggest.
It is not a matter of spending many hours a day, but of spending as much time as we can with the one we know loves us, and who loves us to be by his side.
