“Jesus Christ instituted the Blessed Sacrament so as to stay with us until the end of the world.  What a love! For the sake of love and gratitude we must go to Mass, visit the Sacrament and receive communion with fervor.  Love is paid with love” (Clock of passion, in EE p. 198).

LOVE WITH LOVE IS PAID

Prophet Isaiah sees the presence of God in the midst of his people through Emmanuel; the evangelist Matthew sees fulfilled in Jesus the “God with us” (Mtt 1, 23), the one who will accompany us till the end of the world (Mtt 28, 20).  From this point of view the Eucharist should be understood, the lively presence of Jesus: “Do this in memory of me” (Lk 22, 19) is a call for us to celebrate this His presence among us.  This is how Claret lives it in his strong Eucharistic spirituality that began in his infancy and had its highest point in the “great grace” of the continuous conservation of the sacred specie in his heart (Aut 694).

A deep human encounter leads to mutual knowledge and love.  Presence in love is the deepest. The Eucharist is for us the lively presence of Jesus only if we live in an intimate relationship with Him through knowledge and love.  Father Claret described it like this in his experience as a child: “I alone had good understanding with the Lord…What a confidence and what a faith and love I was discussing with the Lord, with my good Father” (Aut 40). Then as a grownup I would say that from the presence of Jesus the Eucharist has to be withdrawn “from violence” (Aut 767).

Claret speaks of Eucharistic “fervor”; the word means etymologically “hervor”: something related with heat, fire, and passion, “effervescent”…It will mean the consequence of having experimented in the Eucharist this presence and lovely devotion of Jesus; it will be the natural recognition for giving it to us and for having stayed with us. The manifestations of this fervor can be in various forms: strictly from the point of view of cult (the Mass with communion, adoration visit…) to the burnt exercise of charity with the brothers, reflex of the love of Jesus.

How is our love and reverence to the Eucharistic mystery?  Do we have the experience of silent adoration before the Blessed Sacrament?  What predominates in your communion, the contemplative silence or the dialogue with the Lord who is present in you?