Behold, I Am With You (Rebroadcast)

In this week’s podcast, Fr. Leo Agustina shares a reflection on the treasure of Christ, present in the Eucharist, and how we can become a living tabernacle in the world today. Fr. Leo draws our attention to the moments prior to the Ascension as Christ shares with his disciples the Great Commission: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, … teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:19-20).

This powerful message is an invitation from Christ to participate in his salvific work, drawing all men and women toward Heaven. Christ humbles himself to become bread so that he may dwell fully within us, as a living tabernacle, and gives us the opportunity to participate more fully in his mission to share the gift of faith with future generations to come.

As you pause and reflect today, how will you continue to mold your life of faith and prayer to draw closer to our Eucharistic Lord?

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Transcript

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My Lord amegad, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my Father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. Any time is good for prayer. Any time is an opportunity to talk to you, my Lord. And as usual, I pray with the gospel, because in the gospel I have your life, which is always a treasure to rediscover. And during the year, I have the liturgical calendar. And it's also very helpful to go through the year in the church and like in a family tree to discover the traditions of my family, the church. Traditions that have been passed to me by my brothers and sisters in faith throughout centuries. And to know that I'm holding in my hands such a legacy gives me reassurance and joy and connection with people from all over the place, all over the world, from any time in history. It's such a powerful experience to think that we are praying with the same Jesus that early Christians prayed, and later on, all the traditions in every country have followed. So, anyway, in this time of the year, after Easter, we have the chance almost every Sunday to have different mysteries, to consider mysteries of our faith. The Blessed Trinity or Pentecost or as today, Corpus Christi. Like a little pearl, a joy, a reality that permeates my faith. And as usual, I was saying, I go to the gospel to understand better, to put myself in the shoes of the apostles, to the early Christians, the same thing. And we read in the last words that uh Saint Matthew has recorded, uttered by you, my Lord, that the eleven disciples went up to Galilee, up to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them to go. So they were excited after the resurrection. They knew that you were alive, and uh, and at the same time they were more mature in their faith. Three years with you, seeing miracles, uh teachings, seeing you as a person, and then the very dark and intense moments of the crucifixion and your resurrection, the joy of your resurrection. And then when they saw him, the gospel says in Matthew says that when they saw you, some worshiped, but some of them doubted. They were still saying to themselves, Is this for real? Is he really alive? Wonderful, right? Because it shows the reality of your resurrection. It was not easy to accept such a big news, obviously. Sometimes it happens to me as well. Can I be so happy as to know that God loves me? Is this for real? So then Jesus approached them and said, All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And I want to stop for a second. He doesn't say some power, a lot of power, he says, all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. I have overcome death. I have a tremendous good news to tell you that I want you to help me to bring to all nations this joy of my resurrection. Go. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, talking to them about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And uh just pause for a second again. All the miracles, but also all the teachings. Go to other countries. Go to neighbors, to friends, to co-workers, and explain to them the beauty of the Trinity. Explain to them the beauty of the parable of the prodigal son. Explain to them how my father in heaven is preparing like a wedding feast. Explain to them what you have seen, how I washed your feet, or my conversations, or when we prayed together at the sea. Explain to them everything, the catching of the fish, all the great moments that we had together. 11 apostles on top of a mountain with some women, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, most likely, maybe 15 people, 20 if you want. And then at the end, our Lord, the last words, the very last words of Jesus Christ in this world. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of age. I am with you, I am with you until the end of time. Behold, I'm sending you, we will change the world. You have in your hands the future of mankind. And the good news is that I am with you always. Thank you, my Lord, for being with me, with being for being with us. I think it's very fitting that today in Corpus Christi we meditate, we pondered on these last words. Behold, I am with you always. There is nothing you should fear. I will accompany you in this adventure, in this revolution of love that is Christianity. We don't know exactly what happened that morning after that, but you can picture the apostles going back home and maybe grabbing a map or I don't know, a compass or whatever, and saying, Where do you want to go? And it is wonderful to think that throughout history we are linked to one of those 11, or maybe to one of the women. So you, wherever you are right now, maybe you're driving, maybe you're in the living room or walking or running, or maybe you're in a chapel. You and I have a straight link with one of those 11 or 15 people that were there that morning on that mountain. And I will love when I go to heaven, I will do it for sure. Who brought me the faith that I have in Jesus Christ? Of course, my parents, and then my grandparents, and then you go down the line throughout the centuries, and at the end it was James, or maybe John, or maybe Mary Magdalene, that the following morning went to talk to a neighbor and in the marketplace or to a relative at a party, and they grabbed their faith and they said, Wow, this is interesting. Let me tell me more. And they got baptized and they transmitted what they have received to the next generation. And someday, somehow, the Holy Spirit guided someone to talk to you, to bring you that faith that has a connection with the first apostles and with Jesus Christ. Now, the question is how? How did they do it, my Lord? They were 11, they were not very influential, they were not rich, they were not powerful. They did it because they believed in these last words. Behold, I am with you. Behold, I'm staying here, hidden in the Eucharist. In a way that uh is not easy to understand or to believe or to see the consequences of my actions, but is those actions or those graces are for real. I am with you in the Eucharist, and you has you have been here for more than 2,000 years, accompanying every mom, every dad, every friend, every neighbor through your beautiful hidden presence in the Eucharist. And the other thing that I want to consider today, my Lord, is that I want to continue this tradition. I want to pass on this legacy, this treasure to the next generation. And for that to happen, I want to be very devout to the Eucharist, obviously. Saint José Maria, the founder of Opus Dei, commenting on this idea of Jesus living this world and at the same time staying, says something really remarkable, beautiful. I'm reading now a quote by Saint José Maria in his book Christ is Passing By. And he says, like the apostles, we remain partly perplexed and partly saddened at his departure. It is not easy, in fact, to get accustomed to the physical absence of Jesus. He has gone to heaven and at the same time, he gives himself to us as a nourishment. Still, we miss his human speech, his way of acting, of looking, of smiling, of doing good. We would like to go back and regard him closely again, as he sits down at the edge of the well, tired from his journey, as he weeps for Lazarus when he died, as he prays for a long time at night, as he feels pity for the crowd. End of the quote. And it is so true. It is not easy to get accustomed, it is impossible, I would say, to your physical absence, Jesus. In a way, I'm envious of the apostles, they saw you. And uh, it would be just uh so wonderful to make eye contact with you, just to see can you imagine Jesus Christ asking you something? Like you're walking or or you receive a phone call, and then Jesus calling you, hey, how are you doing today? And then the voice of God, it would be so awesome, or just to sit down at a table and Jesus looking at you, hey, how's your day? And then looking at you and saying, My oh my gosh, it's like the second person of this of the Blessed Trinity is just right now looking at me. So we miss that part, obviously. And your human speech, your Jesus laughing. Can you imagine Jesus laughing or or making a joke to you or to someone else, and then just laughing, or Jesus crying at the funeral, or when you know Jesus crying when he sees, I don't know, pornography in the world, and then Jesus crying, or when he sees someone dying, or and then our Lord moved with pity. So any aspect of the humanity of Jesus Christ is a treasure, and at the same time, knowing that uh you are not here now with your human body is a gift in a way because I can grow in my faith. It's a gift that helps me to develop my friendship with you at a deeper level. You planned the Eucharist. Someday, in your prayer, in your relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the three of you, my Lord, decided something spectacular beyond telling to stay here. And then among the possibilities that you had, you chose the best one. God always chooses the best because He can do that. So, in their wisdom, in their eternal kind of a seeing everything, the three of them decided, you know what? The best way to help them, to help humans after the incarnation, after the crucifixion and resurrection, is going to be being hidden in bread, transforming bread into my body, allowing myself to enter inside them would be the best way to help them. And you did it. And uh, my lord, in the Eucharist, I have you. In the Eucharist, I can hear you, I am with you always, until the end of the world. So thank you so much. I want to be very grateful for this treasure that I have. I was reading recently some writings by Pope Benedict. He's Pope Benedict is so sharp, is it simple, easy to understand? And then he said, I copied this sentence because it's very again, very simple, but so reassuring. And he says, Jesus himself is what we call heaven. I'm gonna say it again. Jesus Himself is what we call heaven. That's it. That's what we need. Heaven is not a place, it's not just uh it's Jesus Himself. It's more than a place. It is you. And uh good news is that you are present in the Eucharist, and I can adore you, talk to you, and you can come to me, and it is nothing I can fear I should fear. It's just uh it's beyond telling. It's disarming to kneel down in front of you. It gives me so much peace, and that's how Catholics have transformed the world in history. Being close to you in the Eucharist. The other day I had a chance to go to a hospital to ICU to visit uh someone uh struggling for years with cancer. A mom was there, is still there, you can pray for her, and then the dad asked me to go for anointing her, and just in case something would happen. So I entered the room with the dad, with the husband, and uh the kids weren't there. But uh we saw her lying on the bed, intubated, um a little groggy because of the drugs, right? And um, and then when the husband introduced me, uh she knew me already, but anyway, Father Leo is here, and then she opened the eyes uh peacefully, and then grabbed my hand, and then with the other hand grabbed her uh husband's hand, and uh and then we talked for a while, and then I gave the anointing. The three of the three of us, sorry, were crying because it was a powerful moment, but it was beautiful. From the very beginning, entering into that room, there was something beautiful, peaceful, um serene. And I wondered, how do you do this? It's a Eucharist. Jesus Christ is transforming lives, and then anything that happened in our lives filtered through the Eucharist is meaningful, it's still painful many times, or it could be dark or difficult to accept, but has some beauty because our Lord doesn't abandon anybody. Actually, it was funny because leaving the hospital that same day, we were walking with the husband, getting to the entrance to the parking lot, he was accompanying me, and in front of us it was a narrow kind of a hall, and there was this couple, I don't know how old, but maybe '90s. And they were walking very slowly and then very slow. And uh and they were blocking a little bit us, so they were creating a little bit of a line behind them, and we but nobody dared to say anything, like go to the side or whatever, because it was wonderful, they were holding hands. I don't know how many years had they been married, but a lot, I guess. And uh and they were holding hands, walking in very slow motion, and then we were behind them at the beginning. We were talking, but then we started looking at them like this is so remarkable. It is so easy to hold hands when you are dating someone first weeks or whatever, first night, or but after 50 years, to still hold hands, to love each other. That's something different. And I don't know if they were Catholics, but I'm sure they were at least Christian. Because when when we see dignity, when we see respect and beauty, there's a connection with God, there's a connection with the Eucharist, that's what it is, and it's a fountain that eternally giving us clear water, eternally inspiring us, eternally renewing us. So, my Lord, I want to discover, to rediscover the treasure of the Eucharist. I want to be sent like the apostles to all the corners of the world, to the last corner, to the most abandoned person, to the most far away person from you, and to tell him or tell her, God loves you, you are not alone, you have dignity, recover your hope. There is something wonderful inside you, available for you. And if I know that, it's not because I am better, it's because you and your wisdom that I don't understand, you gave me, you gave it to me, the possibility of knowing you right now, when I'm young or when I was young. But many people are waiting for that, and I want to, I don't know how, but I want to share with them this good news. Right now we can pray for all the people in the world that don't know you. I'm not better than them. I was just given the grace of knowing the Eucharist, the Holy Spirit, and the Hail Mary, and the truths of our faith. I was given that. I'm not better, but I have a treasure, and I wish that right now, Jesus, through your Holy Spirit, through the Father, through yourself, you would reach out to every single heart in this world. And I want you to help, I want to help you to knock at those doors and to say, Come here. There is light, there is strength. Pope Benedict continues. Human life is a journey. Life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. It's not easy. You get in darkness sometimes, you get wind waves. So we need stars, we need guidance. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They inspire me. Good people, people in the hospitals, in the streets, friends, moms, dads, neighbors. They are lights of hope. They shine, they tell me without words. Many times just with their presence, with their joy, with their serenity, they tell me life is meaningful. Life can be wonderful if you are generous, if you forgive. They are telling me that. Certainly, continues the Pope, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. I mean, there is one light that makes other lights possible, is Jesus Christ. You are the light of the world. But, says the Pope, to reach Him, we also need lights close by, people who shine with His light, and so guide us along our way. That is so interesting in our Christian faith, in our Catholic faith, to know that there's this combination between God in His providence using secondary causes to bring the benefits of salvation. That is so God, I mean, so Christian, so Jesus, to say, okay, I don't want to do it by myself. I have the power, all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. But I don't want to use it by myself. So go and help me. Let's do it together. That's the promise and that's the gift of Jesus Christ that He wants us to not only to save us, but to help us save in people. And today, thinking about the Eucharist. Thinking about what we have in our hands. The real Jesus. Heaven. Jesus Himself is what we call heaven. I want to be light for the world. Again, not because it's my light, it's because I'm reflecting you. I'm just the last rag of this world. I'm like the moon. With all my respects, an ugly stone. No water, no nothing, no vegetation. It's so beautiful at night when it reflects the sun. It is so awesome to see a you know a full moon or half moon in the middle of the night, it's so wonderful, and it's just a stone there, but it's reflecting the sun. The same with me. I want to reflect you in my life in order to help people to have hope, to rediscover how meaningful their lives can be. And the Eucharist will give me this daily nourishment, this daily encounter with you. I don't know if it's true, and quote unquote, I don't care with all my respects, but there is this story that someone told me about a woman, I think she's from Colombia, that uh had a car accident or something like that, and then she was dying, and apparently she was falling to hell, according to herself. And then uh halfway through this falling, the blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her and grab her by her hand and lift her up, so to speak, and then told her you were dying in this car accident. But there was another driver passing by when he saw you, or the whole mess with the cars, and uh, he prayed a Hail Mary for you. So uh that Hail Mary gave you kind of a second chance to go back and uh now take advantage of this experience to talk about what you you have gone through and and tell the world how beautiful it is that we saved each other or that we help each other in praying for for other human beings. And then the person came back and she's talking about this again. I don't quote unquote, I don't care if this is true or not, because uh it doesn't change my my faith or my I don't need that, all right? The gospel is enough for me, but uh but still I'm sure that things like this happen all the time, that our Lord is moved by you praying for others. Of course, he does the all the job for so to speak, but at the same time, he wants us to really be protagonists. And the best way to pray, the shortcut for anything is is the Eucharist, because we have Jesus. It's not that we are talking to him or we are him coming to me. I can be so close to God. I have heaven in my hands, and I want to bring all the souls, I want to enlarge my heart when I go to mass. Even in many times I get distracted or I'm thinking about my job, or but I have you, and I say, Jesus, all the souls in the world that don't know you, all the sinners in history myself, souls in purgatory, people that are having are having a hard time in their marriages, with their jobs, whatever. I want to pray for them. And then in our hearts, we will receive people that we don't know. And your heart will be a shelter for many people, maybe millions of people, if you want to. Our Lord is not limited by anything. If you ask to have billion people in your heart, sheltering there from the storms of history, from the confusion of our age, whatever our Lord will allow those guys to be part of your life, and you will be so happy to be Jesus for them, or to be with Jesus, doing the tremendous, the wonderful dream of redemption. Some years ago, there was this game. I never played, I tried, but I it didn't work in my phone. So, but I want to share something. There was this game, I think the name was Pokemon Go or something like that. And it was about, I thought it was an interesting idea because it was kind of a going through sort of a scenarios like Google Maps, so to speak, that you would move through your city or whatever for real. But on the screen, some like uh different um characters would appear and they will give you points if we would point at them or or or reach out to them in the screen. And I think it was too dangerous because people were uh mixing up reality with fiction, and uh, I don't know if it uh at the end if it was uh a good game for people, but I thought it was a great idea anyway. And I think we can play Pokemon Go in a Christian way, so to speak. When we're walking on the streets, when we're driving, we're surrounded by souls, by each one of them is a tabernacle, is a house of God. If our Lord came to this world, if you, my Lord, came to this world, it's not because you wanted to be in tabernacles made out of gold. They're wonderful. And it's how we express our faith. So it's fitting that we put a lot of money and and cleanness and details in in building wonderful churches, and this is great. It shows our affection to you, so it's good. But you didn't come to be in buildings or in boxes, you came to be in hearts. That's your place where you want to be, right? So when you are in the tabernacle, you want to get out of there in order to get inside us, which is your destination as a Eucharistic bread. This is what you meant when you created the Eucharist. So when I go around in the streets, in my neighbors, uh my neighbors or in my family, or just at home, every single person I see is a tabernacle created by God. You want to be manifested to that person, to enter into dialogue, into friendship. So I want to help you in doing that. I want to light up all those tabernacles with my prayer, and uh and then to help them to rediscover or discover for the first time the beauty of your presence. Speaking of tabernacles, the first one in history is the Blessed Virgin Mary. The first communion in history was made by our wonderful mother. So if uh today we are celebrating Father's Day and also the Corpus Christi, let's ask our Lady to be aware that we have God the Father revealing himself to us, and for us men to be good fathers, both physical and spiritually speaking, and then for that to happen, to receive Jesus with the same purity, with the same humility, with the same devotion that the Blessed Virgin Mary had in her heart when she received Jesus for the first time. I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me in this meditation. I ask your help to put them into effect. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.