DAILY MEDITATION (FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25)

MEDITATION OF THE DAY

The One We Believe In and Adore

Revelation does not present us merely with the truth of who God is, thereby releasing us from wrestling with an ultimate mystery. The exposure of the truth of God to us in Jesus Christ has intensified the mystery of God. By allowing us to see his divine love in the face, the words, the acts of a particular historical man, Jesus of Nazareth, God has only deepened our encounter with his transcendent mystery as infinite love. The experience of this paradox is available primarily in two encounters: by showing us his infinite love in the crucifixion of Jesus and, then, once again in the concealed sacramental presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Who can look upon the hours of that dark day at Calvary and not find God more inexhaustible and unfathomable in his reality? And who can gaze on the appearance of Bread in the Eucharist and not find him beyond words?…

Drawing closer to God will always demand the search for him in the swirling dust of Jerusalem on that last Friday of his short life and on our knees before a tabernacle or monstrance. The presence of our God in the disfigured, bleeding man undergoing a horrible Roman crucifixion, his identity as God, is an ultimate mystery…. The Eucharist, too, fragile and concealed, presents him blindly before our eyes. His silence at Golgotha, his marred face, his brief words, submerge us in a dizzying, imperceptible place of direct encounter with God. Direct, also, is his gaze on us from a tabernacle or monstrance. His hour of darkness at Calvary exposes to our love the face of God. Can we ever love him enough while looking upon this mystery of his crucified divine presence in the Eucharist?

Father Donald Haggerty

Father Haggerty, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, is currently serving at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. [From The Contemplative Hunger. © 2016, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA. www.ignatius.com. Used with permission.]