When I was in junior high, I gave up video games for Lent. It wasn't nearly as difficult or horrible as kids today may think it is. While it is permissible to have a slight reprieve from our penances and sacrifices on Sundays in Lent, my parents wouldn't allow it, so as Easter approached, I was ready to get back to playing video games. The closer Easter was, the more I wanted to play video games. On Holy Saturday, I had enough, and knowing that the days of the Triduum weren't technically part of Lent, so I decided to sneak into the basement to play NBA Live on either Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis. Deep down, I knew I was selling out. How often we desire and want most the things we can't have—I think of how I especially want a bacon cheeseburger on a Friday in Lent.
“The whole of the spiritual life is the education of desire,” so stated one the great Church Fathers. What was Jesus' desire on this night? We're given an indication: “Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.” Jesus loved them to the end. This was His desire to love His people to the end, and He lives out this desire most powerfully by being lifted up on the Cross. This night begins His Passion and His loving us to the end. However, His love for us did not end on Good Friday on the Cross. It is brought to us still to this day because of what Jesus did on this night.
It is on this night that Jesus instituted and gave us the Eucharist, His Body and Blood. It is on this night that He instituted the priesthood so that the Eucharist may be brought into the world for all the ages. It is on this night that by washing the feet of His disciples Jesus gave us the example of selfless fraternal charity. It is in the Eucharist, Christ's Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, that Jesus remains present with us. He is present in a true way, in a real way, in a substantial way. He loves us to the end by remaining with us in this preeminent gift.
At the same way, Christ can be made present—not in the same manner as the Eucharist—through selfless acts of charity. Mother Teresa worked with the poorest of the poor in Calcutta. As she attended to a dying man who had never heard of Jesus, she spoke about Jesus and about baptism. The dying man asked Mother Teresa why she was taking care of him; she responded that she wanted to be like Jesus. The man's response was profound: “If Jesus is anything like you, I want to be with Him too.” Mother Teresa made Jesus Christ present to this man. While the Eucharist is the Real Presence of Christ, nevertheless, through living charity, we can, in a sense, make Christ present in the world.
In this difficult time, the desire to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament has increased; there is a pain in not being able to receive the Eucharist. Allow this distance and separation from the Eucharist to help your devotion, desire, and love for the Eucharist grow and deepen in your lives. Fr. Walter Ciszek spent 23 years in the Soviet Union as prisoner, accused of being a spy. He was first in prison, in solitary confinement, and then he was later sent to a labor camp in Siberia. In his long term absence from the Mass and the Eucharist, he realized the immense treasure both are (I highly recommend reading his book, “He Leadeth Me”). May we never again become apathetic, indifferent, unconcerned about the Mass and the Eucharist. At the same time, while we can't be close to Christ's Eucharistic Presence, may each of us—through selfless charity—make Christ present in our homes, places of work, and communities. Jesus Christ has loved us to the end, and His love is still poured out for us now.