Christ's Real Presence in the Tabernacle and in the World

By Adelaide Mary Abraham

The passage from Justin, martyr came from my notes I took from my class at Sacred Heart Seminary in 1992. I asked my sister to bring me my notes I left in her attic; and when I reached into the box to see what I had, the two papers I picked were notes on Justin, martyr; page eight, and William Wordsworth's Ode to Immortality, my favorite poem. I wrote page eight on Justin's paper because it was an essay I was writing. I did not even know I would be running into Justin martyr's notes, let alone use him in my writing on the Holy Eucharist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491839928

Adelaide Mary Abraham

I am a Ghanaian and I had my primary education in Ghana, West Africa at Our Lady of Apostles Boarding School. I then went to Holy Child Secondary School for four years. When young, I spent most of my childhood in the convent with the wonderful Rev. Sisters of O.L.A. with whom I am still in very close contact. In fact, my sister and I were in Dublin, Ireland, this past summer visiting the Mother House where some of the Rev. Sisters now reside for their retirement. I must say, we always enjoy our stay in the Convent. The holiness and tranquil beauty of the Convent is something to behold. I thank God for giving us this wonderful opportunity. I have a B.A. in English and have taught Language Arts for many years in the U.S. I have almost completed a Master’s in English and have written an English Grammar Text Book for Secondary Schools. I feel strongly about literacy empowerment for our youth. My goals in Secondary School instruction have been geared to promoting this passion. In my retirement, I feel God has called me in a more spiritual direction that has inspired me to awaken this world to His Eminent calling. We live in a hasty society that must be prepared for our ultimate destiny. That preparation must consist of observing the teachings of Christ and living by His example.

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© 2014 Adelaide Mary Abraham. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/12/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3988-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3987-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3992-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014903219

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DEDICATED to the MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD of

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

LOGO.jpg

GYE NYAME

(Only God would make such wonders possible)

With God all things are possible

Mark 10:17-30

This book was compiled by Adelaide Mary Abraham

Many thanks to Rev. Father Leo who edited this book at very short notice.

As I was writing about Christ's Real Presence in the Tabernacle and in the World, I saw a magazine that was sent to me by Maryknoll Fathers. I asked myself why is this magazine left here because I took all the Religious magazines to the Living room. Just before then, I had asked Our Lord what the title of His book really going to be. Is it going to be The Real Presence in the Tabernacle or is it going to be The Real Presence in the Tabernacle and in the World? I then said, I love to use the last title, because that's exactly what You really are – not only in the Tabernacle, but also in the world and beyond.

Naturally, I opened the Magazine, and to my amazement, (as usual) I saw the following before me:

SIGN OF CHRIST

IN THE WORLD

Fr. Joseph Donovan, M.M. Associate Director of Maryknoll reports what Sr. Katherine Jones, religious service coordinator for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Calvary Cemetery informed him about her findings as she waits under a shady tree for a religious service. There, while studying the gravestones that surrounded her, she noticed an encircled chi-rho- Maryknoll's logo that symbolizes Christ's Presence in the world She reported that, She had unexpectedly come upon six Maryknoll graves from our early years in southern California."

Fr. Donovan said that he returned with Sr. Katherine to discover, among the graves of two priests and two Sisters, the long-lost grave of Brother Thomas Mc Cann, who died in 1922, and that, his gravestone inscription revealed, First Brother of Maryknoll The report adds, Katherine had unwittingly set in motion the homecoming of Brother Mc Cann's remains to Maryknoll, N.Y., where they now rest near those of our founding Fathers etc. precisely in time for our centennial this year! The amazing thing is I opened the page outright; I say, it is amazing, because the report was towards the end of the magazine. 2005 was the Year of the Eucharist. I found the Prayer for the Year of the Eucharist with Sr. Kathrine's story. I did not even remember 2005 was the Year of the Eucharist.

T he Eucharist that Jesus celebrated at the Last Supper means Thanksgiving. During his homily on the ten lepers who were cured by Jesus, the pastor repeated what Jesus asked concerning the nine lepers who failed to return to give thanks. As Jesus was passing through Galilee and Samaria he was met by ten lepers when he entered a village. The lepers stood at a distance and lifting up their voices they cried out to Jesus asking Him to have mercy on them. Jesus said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they went they were cleansed of their leprosy. Then one of them when he noticed he was cured went back and fell on his face at the Lord’s feet giving thanks. He was a Samaritan. Jesus then said, Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? And Jesus said to him, Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well. Justin Martyr will later say, The Eucharist is Thanksgiving for our redemption.

To do away with pagan suspicion concerning the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, Justin Martyr argues in favor of Baptism as signifying the remission of sin just as we believe today. In the case of the Eucharist, giving an account of the dilution of wine with water mistaken as Christian inebriation, Justin affirms just as Christ did, that The Eucharist is Thanksgiving for our redemption.

It was only yesterday I wrote about Justin and I said to myself again that it was Justin, martyr. This morning I went to open my window and I saw as usual one of the Most Holy Redeemer Church brochures. Guess what? When I opened it, there he was, Justin, martyr. I did not even know that his feast day was June 1st. The column was recording Mass intentions for the month, and the intention for June 1 was for the Society of Our Lady of the Trinity (SOLT) priests and seminarians of Holy Redeemer, which happens to be his feast.

The passage from Justin, martyr came from my notes I took from my class at Sacred Heart Seminary in 1992. I asked my sister to bring me my notes I left in her attic; and when I reached into the box to see what I had, the two papers I picked were notes on Justin, martyr; page eight, and William Wordsworth’s Ode to Immortality, my favorite poem. I wrote page eight on Justin’s paper because it was an essay I was writing. I did not even know I would be running into Justin martyr’s notes, let alone use him in my writing on the Holy Eucharist.

It was indeed consoling to hear the pastor of St. Alphonsus on the Feast of the Exaltation or the Triumph of the Holy Cross says that, Through the Holy Cross was our redemption worn. It was such a beautiful homily which continues to reverberate in my soul especially whenever I see the Holy Cross, and especially now that the feast is approaching, which is September 14. There was no Mass in Detroit in any of the churches nearby on such a wonderful Feast Day so I went to Windsor for Mass.

Talking about The Holy Cross, here is a meaningful story from the Pope entitled On the Job with John Paul II. It is reported that His Holiness John Paul II was writing a beautiful encyclical on work entitled Laborem Exercens, which he had wanted to publish on May 15, 1981, but, the Pope was shot two days before that, and so he was not able to finish this work until September 14th which was a very important Feast, the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, and the reporter adds, a truly meaningful date to talk about the value of work which can sometimes be a cross. The point the Pope is making here is to invite us to find meaning in the difficulties of work precisely by discovering the meaning of the (Holy) cross."

The story actually begins with a rich man who wanted to help with the unemployment in his community by hiring a group of men to dig an enormous ditch on his property only to have it refilled after completion, which required filling the ditch again with dirt; in other words the men had to repeat the entire process again and again, which to us does not make sense. Though the wage offered them was considerable, none of them was willing to complete the work, because the job had no meaning. Brother Juan Villagomez, SOLT, of Most Holy Redeemer Church who wrote the article emphasizes that, We Catholics are a priestly people dedicated to offering our daily crosses, that is, our difficulties, our works and our pains to God on behalf of the whole world thus participating in a very special way in Christ’s saving work. He adds, appropriately, "By ‘tuning’ into the frequency of the Redeemer we can see how our work can turn into a loving prayer to the Father, through which God is saving people!"

Brother Juan ends his article by asking the following question, and that is, Who would have ever imagined that you can help save a soul with a pick and a shovel, with a broom and a mop? He answers, in whatever place, in the home, in the workshop, on the construction site, in the office or in whatever place you carry out your daily work.

Brother Juan makes his point very clear by saying that, The Cross of Jesus Christ, when accepted in faith, has the power to give a tremendous richness of meaning to every aspect of our lives, no matter how difficult, no matter how lowly.

The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is the holy day designated by the Catholic Church to exalt or honor the Holy Cross in which our Savior died to save mankind from their sins. I read that, In the Holy Church we have twelve master feasts, which include Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, Epiphany, so named because they are related to the Master. Here, it also says, The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross is an occasion where we reconfirm that we have inherited Christ—we became victors with Him; adding that, We express our faith in the Crucified in various manners, that Wednesdays and Fridays are dedicated to the remembrance of the Holy Cross."

The public veneration of the Holy Cross began in the fourth century with the miraculous discovery of the True Cross on September 14, 326 AD, by St. Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor, Constantine, during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The discovery was made on the same day that the Emperor was dedicating two churches he had built at the site of Calvary. The Church was consecrated on September 13, and on September 14, the Holy Cross was brought outside the church to be venerated by the clergy and the faithful. The observance of the Triumph of the Holy Cross is the same as that of Good Friday.

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

Because by thy holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

The following is put explicitly, which proves our ties with the Risen Lord; The Cross, (as it is said before) is our pride, by which we accept the death of the Master as the way to Resurrection from all sin. The baptism which we undertook was described by Paul as the participation with the burial and in the Resurrection. With this in mind, we know that our old man was crucified with Him, that the old might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin ( Rom 6: 6).

Listen to the Good Lord Himself. Remember that the crucifixion is the prelude to the resurrection, that is, to all joys. Be crucified with Me. To be crucified is to be stretched against your nature, desires, against the love of self in poverty, obscurity, and obedience to the Father." Incidentally, the miraculous Head of Jesus crucified appeared at Most Holy Redeemer on Christmas Day 2010.

During the consecration of the Eucharist, the following words are pronounced, "On the night He was betrayed, He took bread in His sacred hands and looking up to heaven, to you His Heavenly Father, He gave you thanks and praise. He broke the bread, gave it to His apostles and said: Take this, all of you, and eat it: this is my body which will be given up for you.

When the supper was ended, He took the cup. Again, he gave you thanks and praise, gave the cup to his disciples and said, Take this, all of you, and drink from it; this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in remembrance of me."

Jesus said to the Jews that the Eucharist, which is His own body and blood, is real food and real drink unlike the manna your ancestors ate in the desert which you claim was given to you by Moses, but they died nevertheless in the end. Jesus corrects the Israelites by saying it was His Father who gave them the manna in the desert. And now He offers you the true bread from heaven, referring to Himself. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. The Jews said, Sir, Give us this bread everyday of our lives. Jesus replied, I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. After Jesus had fed the 5,000, after which they had collected twelve baskets of fragments, the multitude followed him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias. When the crowd found Jesus, they asked Him when He got there. Jesus answered them saying; Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. He added, Do not labor for food which perishes but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give you; for on him has God the Father set his seal. Jesus said that because they wanted more signs and a sign would not be given them.

The Catholic Church truthfully defines the Eucharist thus: The Eucharist is a sacrificial meal, a way of remembering and making present, here and now, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. She goes on to say, We are transformed by this meal which deepens our union with God and builds us up as one community. Regarding the Real Presence, it is said in Catholic Update, Recent years have seen a growing concern about Catholics’ understanding of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Some surveys have shown that a number of practicing Catholics are not very clear about the doctrine of the real presence. Some believe that the consecrated bread and wine are only symbols of the Lord’s presence instead of a genuine change of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, the long-standing Catholic understanding.

In yet another Catholic magazine, Source and Summit, it is said that, over the centuries, theologians and artists alike have tried to depict in words and colorful representations the mystery of what we live, share and celebrate, i. e., the Eucharist. The Bishops put it very well when they said that, Truly, the Eucharist is a mystery of faith, something that far exceeds the level of appearance and limitations of human language. They added that, It is a great gift of the presence of the Lord Himself which has renewed, nourished and fed God’s people for over 2,000 years.

In another Magazine entitled Catholic Update, John Bookser Feister, managing editor of Catholic Update beautifully explains Christ’s presence in the Eucharist while including key themes, such as, And he who believes in me shall never thirst. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, referring to the water in the well of Jacob as opposed to the water He shall give. He added, The water that I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. I said out loud that all that the Lord is telling me—all this talk about the spring of water—indicates that the Lord is pointing out to me that His water leads to eternal life. After saying that, my eyes met with a church brochure that I brought home from Corpus Christi Church with the heading, Liturgy of the word prepared for the ‘Feast of the Supper of the Lord’, followed by, I am the living spring of eternal life; you that drink from me shall not thirst again. I was going to refer to the Samaritan woman at the well and suddenly I spotted these words, On the last day of the Feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes, as the scriptures has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’"

The