WE WERE MADE FOR marriage, a holy marriage, a marriage with God. God, who is love, has loved us from all eternity. He created humanity in His image and likeness (Gn 1:26-27) with marriage in mind and communion at heart.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16)
God, the Father, gifted humanity with Jesus, who founded the Catholic Church. As high priest, Jesus instituted the Sacraments to establish His bride in a life of holiness. He did this to prepare His bride for the eternal wedding feast of the lamb so that she will reign with Him in the heavenly Jerusalem as a gift for the heavenly Father. God’s love, mercy, graces and gifts flow out upon humanity from Jesus’ humble, hidden and living Presence in the Holy Eucharist. All of whom Jesus is, from all eternity, is truly present in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist.
All of humanity is called to enter into the New Covenant with God through Baptism, First Holy Communion and Confirmation and to live a sacramental life within the Catholic Church through a specific vocation.
Jesus instituted the holy priesthood and the Holy Eucharist so that His presence would remain here on earth in order to transform sinful mankind into the children of God by giving them “a new heart and a new spirit.” (Ez 36:26)
We must cooperate with God’s plan of salvation and strive to become a holy bride of Christ, a saint and encourage others to do so “that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Eph 5:27)
“[The Church’s] structure is totally ordered to the holiness of Christ’s members. And holiness is measured according to the ‘great mystery’ in which the bride responds with the gift of love to the gift of the bridegroom.” Mary goes before us all in the holiness that is the Church’s mystery as “the bride without spot or wrinkle.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 773)
The Blessed Virgin Mary is our humble model who we can imitate. She is the surest way to enter into a deeper relationship with Jesus, as His bride. The more time we spend in prayer and meditation in Jesus’ Eucharistic presence, the more we will be able to ponder and contemplate, so as to emulate the Life of Christ and to be transformed by the Holy Spirit.
Every Holy Communion we receive on earth prepares us for our communion with God in heaven and our eternal contemplation of His glory. In heaven we will contemplate God for all eternity and even in an eternity of beholding His almighty magnificence we will never fathom the totality of who God is because He is incomprehensible.
To benefit from the Holy Eucharist, it is spiritually advantageous for all Catholics to attend Mass every Sunday and on holy days of obligation, and to receive Jesus in Holy Communion in the state of grace. Spend time in quiet prayer in Eucharistic Adoration a few times a week until you can go daily. Go to weekly Confession. Pray the Divine Office. Meditate on Holy Scripture and pray the Rosary daily. Read the about the lives of the saints and pray for their intercession.
The transforming power of the Holy Eucharist is to bring about the transformation of the bride of Christ, who lives, moves and has her being in her bridegroom, for the one goal of redemption, the salvation of all souls.