Good Friday

The moment of the Crucifixion shows us our true selves, in that left to ourselves, we see only ourselves. We cried out for Him to save Himself.  He cried out to save us.  We thought only in terms of saving one's self.  We understood so little of the reality of love; that only after looking out from the self, can one begin to be saved.  Only upon the Cross with Him can we look out upon others, instead of on ourselves.  We taunted Him to come down. He challenges us to take up. In what could we believe, if He had descended from the Cross?  In failure?  In selfishness?  We show ourselves ready only to believe in sin, in the triumph of evil over good.  If God gave in to sin, then we would believe in Him, and that means in truth only in ourselves.  When we stood before the Cross, we showed how little we really trusted in God, even when we have lived our whole lives in supposed obedience to Him.  Only after mounting the Cross can we trust in God, for the Cross is trust, just as it is love.

Monstrance

This night, alone of all nights, the altars stand stripped, the tabernacles empty and barren.  Every bit of Christ present in the Eucharist, in every church throughout the world will be consumed.  He will disappear in His Real Presence from this world.  All that will be left of Him will be you.  You who have partaken of His Precious Body and Sacred Blood, you are all that is left of Him in this world.  You might be tempted to think of yourself as a living tabernacle, holding quietly in the still, small hours of the night a burning presence, but you are not.  You are a monstrance.  Your heart must now become His Heart.  Your life, His Life.  Your hands, His Hands.  Your voice, His Voice.  For this world has no Christ but you, nowhere to go for Him but you, nowhere it can see Him but you.

Simile of Light

Set up within your heart a little monstrance, and there enshrine the Sacred Heart of Christ, which you have received in the Eucharist, that your heart might always adore Him who is its Lord.  In so doing, you will set up a lamp within your heart, and your eyes, opening from interior meditation and adoration of God, will see Him in all, and become full of light.  And this light shall burn so that all might see Him.

Theology

Theology is faith seeking understanding.  It seeks it through the exercise of reason, applied to Sacred Tradition, Scripture, history, philosophy, and other disciplines.  But what it needs most is a teacher.  And Christ is the best teacher, because He is the Way, the Truth, and the life.  Spend one hour a day before the Blessed Sacrament, and you will learn all the theology you need, from the One who knows all.