During this “Year of the Eucharist”, as do many people, I find myself revisiting what the Eucharist means to me and Its place in my life. As we moved through Holy Week, I couldn't help but think about two of the most poignant and powerful commemorations in the Catholic Church, that of Holy Thursday and Good Friday. It’s not just the Church’s gift to us in that it reminds us of what Christ lovingly did for us during those most holy and painful hours, but it’s also a special reminder because of how the Church helps us to revisit that time so effectively... an empty tabernacle. During the hours when the Eucharist is removed and the doors and curtains of the tabernacles are open, never more do I feel the power of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  Like most people, I tend to take so many things for granted and painfully, one of them is Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, but during this holy time of the Church year, we are reminded never to take the Eucharist for granted because for a time, It isn’t there.

I am about to take my first vows as a religious sister with the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and as an Oblate, the Eucharist becomes the center of my life. Our foundress, Venerable Maria Teresa Casini was devoted to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and her words are a constant reminder of how precious a gift is the Eucharist:

Reflect on the hidden life of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Oh, what a mysterious state is that of Jesus concealed in the Eucharist. If you look at the holy ciborium for a sign, for a trace to show you where Jesus can be found in his lovable attractiveness, you will find nothing. He, the Son of man, the most beautiful, the most beloved of all who have ever lived on earth, has sacrificed his external attractions, hiding everything under the veil of a fragile Host.

Only by faith do you find Jesus, that lovable Jesus, who with his loving gaze enraptured the crowds and with his kindness invited sinners, attracted them, fascinated them and made them holy. And what is left now of all this? Jesus, hidden in the Host.

In the face of such love, we rest in rapture. God makes Himself our food. He gives everything to us. And to give Himself to us each day, to remain in our midst until the end of time, He institutes the Priesthood. The love of God does not just look at the misery of humanity, He puts his very self in the middle of it!”

What a tremendous gift He has given us. He has especially given it to me by calling me to serve Him as an Oblate Sister. Here, I am learning more and more to appreciate exactly what Jesus did for me, and what our priests do for all of us at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Still, despite being suffused by the reminders given by our foundress and the example of our sisters to appreciate, love and adore the Eucharist unceasingly, each year when the Eucharist is removed from the tabernacle on Wednesday of Holy Week and that tabernacle remains empty until the Easter vigil on Holy Saturday, I feel as if I receive an extra “gift,” His Eucharistic absence. For in that brief absence, I’m reminded of how empty is my life, my heart... which is His tabernacle, when He isn’t there.

Wendy Wheeler

Novice with the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus