Presence of God

1. The Hidden Presence of God in the Eucharist by Raneiro Cantalamessa
Capuchin Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, Preacher to Papal Household, preached homilies for 40 years in the
presence of the last 3 popes: Pope John Paul II from 1980- 2005, Pope Benedict XVI 2006-2012, and Pope
Francis from 2013 till date. Recently at the age of 88 he preached homily cum meditation on Good Friday 2023
to Pope Francis and Cardinals . Pope Francis raised him to the rank of Cardinal on November 2020
The Eternal Word, in taking flesh, hid his divinity and appeared as a man on earth ;
but in abiding with us in the Blessed sacrament, Jesus hides his humanity too.
As humble bread, God shows the depth of His love.
Behold each day he humbles himself as when he came from the royal throne into the
Virgin’s womb ; each day he comes down from the bosom of the Father upon the
altar in the hands of a priest ! (St Francis)
As we receive Christ ,live out His life in our daily activities in His memory , as we
serve Him in the poor , the needy, the suffering, the bondaged in sin. As we do this
we listen to His gentle imploring voice “ You did it unto me “
Adore His Eucharistic Presence, with an immobile gaze , and establish a heart-to-
heart contact with Christ.
Contemplation is always two-way, where two gazes meet : He looks at me, I look at
Him. “Look at the One who is looking at you” . Everything melts in His Presence
as “you lose yourself in Him” . Forget everything, focus on Him ( Heb 12:1-2 )
It is noted that one reflects , at times. even physically, what one comtemplates.
Long exposure to the sun does show traces on one’s face..
Remaining long in Presence of Blessed Sacrament and with faith, not necessarily
with fervour, one assimilates the thoughts and feelings of Christ in an intuitive way.
“We with inveiled face, beholding the gloty of God, are being changed into his
likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the
Spirit ( 2 Cor 3:18)
Eucharistic contemplation also has extraordinary healing power. Jn 3.14
Whenever we are afflicted by venomous bites of pride, sensuality,and other illnesses
of the soul, we need to run to Blessed Sacrament to look at the Host and let the
healing pass through the same organ through which evil so often passes: eyes, ears,
tongue.
Distraction should not discourage our commitment to be with Jesus hidden in the
Blessed Host.The only thing Holy Spirit asks of us is that we give him our time.
Recounting an incident , when I asked God: “ Lord, give me fervour and I will give
you all the time you desire in prayer”. And the Lord said “Raneiro, give me your time
and I will give you the fervour you want in prayer “
Touch Christ not only with your body, but also with your soul. Lk8:45ff. Just as the
woman touched the hem of his garment, we can hope to be healed from our frailties,
afflictions and spiritual haemorrhages.

2. From faith and the “sentiment” of the real presence, reverence must spring
spontaneously, and, indeed, a sense of tenderness for Jesus in the Sacrament. This
is such a delicate and personal sentiment that words might even destroy it.
As St Margaret Alacoque said, Jesus did not lament much the sins of atheists as to
the indifference and coldness of the souls commited to Him. He says “ It is not an
enemy who taunts me, but it is you , my friend Ps 55: 13-14
In Christ it is God who becomes victim. It is no longer human beings who offer
sacrifices to God to appease him and make him favorable; it is God who sacrifices
himself for humanity, delivering his only-begotten Son to death for us (cf. Jn 3:16).
Jesus did not come with the blood of others, but with his own blood; he did not put
his sins on the shoulders of others – animals or human creatures – but he put the
sins of others on his shoulders: “He carried our sins in his body on the wood of the
cross” (1 Pt 2, 24)
Offering His body to be eaten Jesus implies His whole life, from the incarnation to
the last moment, with everything that concretely filled it : silence, sweat, toil, prayer,
struggles, humiliations...
Then Jesus says: “This is my blood”. What does he add with the word “blood” if he
has already given us his whole life in his body? He adds death! After giving us life,
he also gives us the most precious part of it, his death. In fact, the term “blood”
indicates an event: death. If blood is the seat of life , its “pouring” is the plastic sign of
death. The Eucharist is the mystery of the Lord’s body and blood, that is, of the
Lord’s life and death!
Imagine a modern parable to understand what happens in the Eucharistic
celebration. Let’s think of a large family in which there is a son, who loves his father
beyond measure. For his birthday he wants to give him a precious gift. Before
presenting it to him, he secretly asks all his brothers and sisters to put their signature
on the gift. This gift arrives in the hands of the father as a sign of the love of all his
children, without distinction, even if, in reality, only one has paid the price for it.
This is what happens in the Eucharistic sacrifice. Jesus admires and loves the
Heavenly Father endlessly. He wants to give him every day, until the end of the
world, the most precious gift that one can think of, that of his own life. In the Mass he
invites all his brothers and sisters to put their signature on the gift, so that it reaches
God the Father as the indistinct gift of all his children, even if only one has paid the
price for this gift. And what a price!
What do we offer together with Jesus, in the Mass? We too offer what Jesus
offered: life and death. With the word “body”, we give everything that concretely
constitutes the life we lead in this world: time, health, energy, skills, affection, maybe
just a smile. With the word “blood”, we too express the offer of our death. Not
necessarily definitive death, martyrdom for Christ or for the brothers. All that in us,

3. right now, prepares and anticipates death: humiliations, failures, diseases that
immobilize, limitations due to age, health, all that, in a word, “mortifies” us.
At offertory, Jesus asks of us “Don’t you have anything to offer? Any affliction, pain ,
humiliation to offer? Any grief, betrayal ? Bring them to Me, your tears, your lost
hope...Bring to me your sins, repeated failures, your struggle with your bondages...”
As drops of water mixed with material of bread and wine,are like drops mingling in
the ocean of Jesus’own sacrifice .
Our signature are the few drops of water that are mixed with the wine in the chalice.
They are nothing but water, but mixed in the cup they become a single drink. The
signature of all is the solemn Amen which the assembly pronounces, at the end of
the doxology: “Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, forever and ever”. “AMEN!”
We know that whoever has signed an agreement then has the duty to honor that
signature. This means that when leaving Mass we too need to make of our lives a
gift of love to the Father and to our brothers and sisters. We too need to say, within
ourselves, to our brothers and sisters, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Take my time,
my abilities, my attention. Take my blood too, that is, my suffering, all that humbles
me, mortifies me, and limits my strength, my physical death itself. I want all of my
life, like Christ’s, to be bread broken and wine poured out for others. I want to make
my whole life a Eucharist.
.
The Holy Spirit at Consecration At epiclesis, we call upon the Father to pour His
Spirit before consecration, to help us imbibe the Body and Blood ( cf Rm8.26 )
The Holy Spirit is the personal love of the Father for the Son; wherever he rests, a
love for Jesus blossoms, which is the only love worthy of him, being a divine love
and not a human love, the same , identical love with which the Father loves the Son
from all eternity
In the Eucharist there is a sacramental replica of what happened historically in the
earthly life of Christ. At the moment of his earthly birth, it is the Holy Spirit who gives
Christ to the world (Mary conceived by the work of the Holy Spirit!); at the moment of
death, it is Christ who gives the world the Holy Spirit (by dying, he “sent forth the
Spirit”). Similarly, in the Eucharist, at the moment of consecration it is the Holy Spirit
who gives us Jesus (it is by the action of the Spirit that the bread is transformed into
the body of Christ!), at the moment of communion it is Christ who, coming into us, he
gives us the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is given to us by the Eucharist . But also it is the the Holy Spirit who
gives us the Eucharist. At the epiclesis (prayer before the Consecration), the Holy
Spirit descends into the bread and wine at consecration and renders them the living

4. and vivifying body and blood of Christ, just as, in Resurrection, he descended into
Christ’s dead body and raised it up to life and immortality ( Rom 8.11)
St. Ambrose wrote: “when it is time for the venerable sacrament to be effected, the
priest no longer uses his own words, but Christ’s. Therefore, it is the words that work
(conficit) the sacrament. How efficacious (operatorius) are Christ’s words. The body
of Christ was not present before the consecration but after it the body of Christ is
present. For he spoke and it came to be, he commanded and it stood forth Ps 33:9.
“Before this moment, the Spirit had not come into the world. Now that Jesus had died
for us, purifying us from our sins, the Spirit was moving over the face of the waters
again as at the beginning of creation (Gen 1:2). Having exclaimed ‘It is finished,’
Jesus ‘handed over the spirit’ (Jn 19:30), which means not only that he drew his last
breath and died, but also that he unleashed his Spirit, the Holy Spirit! The evangelist
intends both. The last breath of Jesus became the first breath of the Church! This
was the realization of the work of redemption, its most precious fruit.”
“Redemption is not relegated to the remission of sins; it also positively entails the gift
of the new life of the Spirit. In fact, the imparting of new life in the Spirit was God’s
ultimate goal, and it is only through the Holy Spirit that the remission of sins itself is
carried out in the Church. While it is true that the Holy Spirit came upon the Church
at Pentecost in a solemn and public way, in his Gospel, John wanted to indicate
where the Spirit had come from — that is, he wanted to pinpoint its source in the
history of salvation. The source is Christ’s body glorified on the cross.”
God the Father at Consecration The Eucharist is the Father's gift to the world. The
mystery contained in the words: “ God so loved the world that he gave his only
Son...” is made present in every Mass. At the very moment of Holy Communion ,
we can see with eyes of faith, the Father in person, who comes to give us, “the bread
of heaven” ( Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven John 6.32 ). Listen to
the heavenly Father saying at the very moment of Holy Communion “ This is My
Body of my only begotten Son which I have given for you”. At Consecration, Christ
declares a new and eternal testament , his last will
Not only our heavenly Father gives us the Eucharist, he also gives us himself in the
Eucharist, because there is only one indivisible divine nature ; in receiving Jesus we
also receive the Father. “Whoever sees me sees the Father” also means whoever
receives me, receives the Father. As often as one receives Holy Communion, one
has the incredible privilege of receiving the Father’s forgiving embrace !
Reflecting on the Eucharist is like seeing ever wider horizons opening up in front of
oneself as one advances, onto a Trinitarian horizon. Through communion with Christ
we enter into communion with the whole Trinity. Jesus says to the Father: “May they
be one as we are. I in them and you in me “(Jn 17:23). Those words: “I in them and
you in me” mean that Jesus is in us and that the Father is in Jesus. Therefore, one

5. cannot receive the Son without also receiving the Father with him. The word of
Christ: “Whoever sees me sees the Father” (Jn 14: 9) also means “whoever receives
me receives the Father”.
The ultimate reason for this is that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one and
inseparable divine nature, they are “one”. We are united with Christ who is
inseparable from the Father
Communion with Christ What kind of communion is established between us and
Christ in the Eucharist? In John 6:57 Jesus says: “As the Father, who has life, sent
me and I live for the Father, so also he who eats me will live for me”. The preposition
“for” ( Greek, dià) indicates that whoever eats the body of Christ lives “from” him,
that is, because of him, by virtue of the life that comes from him, and lives “for” him,
that is, for his glory, his love, his Kingdom. As Jesus lives of the Father and for the
Father, so, by communicating ourselves to the holy mystery of his body and his
blood, we live of Jesus and for Jesus.
In fact, it is the strongest vital principle that assimilates the less strong one to itself,
not vice versa. It is the vegetable that assimilates the mineral, not vice versa;
So now, on the spiritual level, it is the divine that assimilates the human to itself, not
vice versa. So that while in all other cases the one who eats assimilates what he
eats, here it is the one who is eaten who assimilates to himself whoever eats it.
To the one who approaches to receive him, Jesus said to Augustine: “It will not be
you who will assimilate me to you, but it will be I who will assimilate you to me”.
“Participation in body and blood of Christ tends to make us become what we eat” .
In the Eucharist, therefore, there is not only communion between Christ and us, but
also assimilation; communion is not just the union of two bodies, of two minds, of two
wills, but it is assimilation to the one body, the one mind and will of Christ. “Whoever
unites himself with the Lord forms one Spirit with him” (1 Cor 6:17).
The Eucharist is the consummation of the marriage between Christ and the Church,
implying marriage between Christ and each believer. “ the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me” Gal 2.20)
At the moment of Communion the celebrant says: “Blessed are those called to the
supper of the Lamb”. Said even more explicitly: “Blessed are those called to the
nuptial supper of the Lamb.” (Rev 19:9) .
According to St Paul – the immediate consequence of marriage is that the body (that
is, the whole person) of the husband becomes the wife’s and, vice versa, the wife’s
body becomes the husband’s (cf. 1 Cor 7: 4). This means that the incorruptible and
life-giving flesh of the Incarnate Word becomes “mine”, but also my flesh, my
humanity, becomes Christ’s, is made his own by him. In the Eucharist we receive the
body and blood of Christ, but Christ also “receives” our body and our blood!
Jesus, writes St Hilary, “assumes the flesh of him who assumes his.” He says to us:
“Take, this is my body”, but we too can say to him: “Take, this is my body”.

6. Let’s try to understand the consequences of all this. In his earthly life, Jesus did not
have all human experiences. He did not experience what it means to be united for
life with another person, to have children, or, worse, to lose children; he died young,
he did not know old age …
But now, thanks to the spousal communion, he has all these experiences. ..in the
sick, the old age, the precariousness in the emigrant, the terror in the bombed…
There is nothing in our life that does not belong to Christ.
What amazement that our humanity becomes the humanity of Christ! But also what
responsibility from all of this! If my eyes have become the eyes of Christ, my mouth
that of Christ, what reason not to allow my gaze to linger on lascivious images, my
tongue not to speak against my neighbor, my body not to serve as an instrument of
sin. “Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a
prostitute?” St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians (1 Cor 6:15).
And, that’s not all yet; the most beautiful part is missing. Our offering of trouble, pain,
failures and sins is only the first act. In Holy Communion we pass on from giving to
receiving. The bride’s body belongs to the bridegroom; true, but the body of the
bridegroom belongs in his turn to the bride. Receive none other than Christ’s
holiness! Where will that “marvelous exchange” (admirabile commercium) of which
the liturgy speaks of will actually take place in the life of the believer, if it is not
carried out at the moment of communion?
There we have the opportunity to give Jesus our dirty rags and receive from him the
“mantle of righteousness” (Is 61, 10). Indeed, it is written that “through the work of
God he became wisdom, justice, sanctification and redemption for us” (1 Cor 1:30).
What he has become “for us” is destined for us, belongs to us. “Since we belong to
Christ more than to ourselves, having bought us back at a high price (1 Cor 6:20),
inversely what belongs to Christ belongs to us more than if it were ours”. We only
need to remember one thing: we belong to Christ by right, he belongs to us by grace!
We can say to God the Father in our prayer: “Father, I love you with the love with
which your Son Jesus loves you!” And we can say to Jesus: “Jesus, I love you with
the love with which your heavenly Father loves you!” And know with certainty that all
this is not a pious figment of our imagination!
Every time, in prayer, I try to do this myself, I am reminded of the episode of Jacob
who presents himself to his father Isaac to receive the blessing, pretending to be his
elder brother (Gen 27:1-23). Issac noticed the voice wasn’t that of Esau, but the
garments he wore led him to mistake Jacob for Esau and he gave him his blessing.
Something similar occurs when we present ourselves before the heavenly Father
after having received the Eucharist He “takes us” as his only begotten Son and
blesses us (cf.2 Cor 5.21)

7. What is required of us in return for all this? Nothing but deep-felt gratitude. It
will be an incentive for us to embrace the cross, thereby embracing our crucified
Spouse Jesus , who paid ransom to set us free and make each one of us His
everlasting bride . And it is not so much as the Father receiving the ransom as the
one who pays the highest price of all, because he has given his only Son.
To say that the Father “did not spare his own Son” is the same as saying that “he
has not spared himself”
The Blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn 1.7 Heb 9.14), As often as we
receive the Eucharist, a sort of spiritual dialysis occurs. The debris of sin that
accumulates in our conscience is dispelled by the Eucharistic presence of living
Jesus in us
As soon as we come out of Mass, do our best to realize what we have said; that
we really strive, with all our limitations, to offer to our others and sisters our “body”,
that is, time, energy, attention; in a word, our life. It is therefore necessary that, after
the words: “Take, eat”, we really let ourselves “be eaten” and let ourselves be eaten
above all by those who do not do it with all the delicacy and grace that we would
expect. St. Ignatius of Antioch, going to Rome to die there as a martyr, wrote: “I am
Christ’s wheat: may I be ground from the teeth of the beasts, to become pure bread
for the Lord”. Each of us, if you look carefully around, has these sharp teeth of fairs
that grind it: they are criticisms, contrasts, hidden or open oppositions, differences of
views with those around us.
Communion with the Poor
This is especially true with regard to the poor, the afflicted, the marginalized. He who
said of the bread: “This is my body”, also said it of the poor. He said it when,
speaking of what was done for the hungry, the thirsty, the prisoner and the naked, he
solemnly declared: “You did it to me!”. This is like saying: “I was the hungry, I was
the thirsty, I was the stranger, the sick, the prisoner” (cf. Mt 25, 35 ff)
Jesus said: “For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me”
(Mt 26:11). This is also true in the sense that we cannot always receive the body of
Christ in the Eucharist and even when we do, it only lasts a few minutes, while we
can always receive it in the poor. We always have the poor at hand. Whenever we
meet someone who suffers, especially if we are dealing with certain extreme forms
of suffering, if we are attentive, we will hear, with the ears of faith, the word of Christ:
“This is my body!”. .
A man seeing a malnourished beggar ,shivering with snowy cold, calls out: “God, why don’t
you do something for him?”.God replies:“Of course I did something forhim : I made you!
The Eucharistic Body and Blood is not only the one that was born, died and pierced
on the cross , but also the risen Christ. The state of Christ in the Eucharist is best
described as that of the Lambof revelation “standing, as though it had been slain”
(Rev 5.6). Immolated, with bleeding wounds still visible, but at the same time
standing on its feet, risen and alive.

8. In the Eucharist , Jesus is still present to us as he was two milleneums ago. In the
Eucharist we can still wash his feet like Magdalen, welcome him like Martha and
Mary, help him carry the cross like Simon of Cyrene...True, we can also serve him in
the person of the poor, but there we minister to him through an “intermediary” but in
the Eucharist we serve him “in person”, as we encounter him as a loving, gentle
Jesus, meek and humble,merciful and compassionate who does not break the brised
reed or quench the smouldering wick (Mat 12.20)
Cardinal Nguyen Van Thaun was one of the greatest Eucharistic witnesses of modern times
.Imprisoned by Communist regime for 13 years, he underwent the most brutal torture and
dehumanization, but Van Thuan always strove to love the very prison guards who abused him. He
was sustained by his living faith in the Eucharist and in the power of forgiveness and the redemptive
value of the cross. In prison, he celebrated daily Mass in secret, , with a drop of wine in the palm of
his hand. His hand became an altar. “These were the most beautiful Masses of my life!” It was
during those Masses that he joined his sufferings to Christ’s on Calvary. As he lapped up the precious
blood consecrated in his hand, he would ask for the grace with Jesus to drink the bitter chalice and to
unite himself to Christ’s shedding of blood.
“Every time I offered Mass with fellow prisoners, I have the opportunity to extend my hands and nail
myself to the cross with Jesus, to drink with him the bitter cup.
And praying the words of the consecration, I confirm with all my heart and with all my soul a new
covenant, an eternal covenant between me and Jesus, through his Blood mixed with mine (cf. 1 Co
11:23-25).
We conclude this meditation on Eucharist with St. Francis of Assisi ‘s sentiments of
reverence and tenderness for Jesus ‘s Eucharistic Presence
“O admirable height and stupendous condescension ! O sublime humility! that the
Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our
salvation He hides Himself under a morsel of bread. Do not therefore keep back
anything for yourselves that He may receive you entirely who gives Himself up
entirely to you.”
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