Exile and return

Blessed be God who lives for ever! This is the response to the Canticle today (Tb 13). Blessed be God who lives forever! It is a response to Christ's miraculous work of bringing Israel out of exile in Babylon back to the promised land. And what an unexpected turn of events! A new king, Cyrus, makes a sudden proclamation that the Jews can return home to build their temple, and even provides funds to do so (cf. Ezr 9:5-9). It would seem nothing less than a miracle to the faithful remnant in Babylon.

A model of the Herodian Temple.

Do we need a miracle in our lives? Are we in a spiritual exile, distant from God and yearning for communion? We can renew our trust in the living God, the God who lives forever, by going to him in the Blessed Sacrament. Here is the greatest miracle Jesus wrought--God's eternal presence among us.

The Heavenly Jerusalem, with the Lamb of God at the center:
here is Christ, who gives himself to us in the Eucharist

Here  God has the power to deliver us from our exile and return us to the promised land to build another temple, the eschatological temple of which the Jerusalem temple was a mere shadow. To be with Christ is already a foretaste of heaven; it is already to be in the eternal promised land, to be in the Heavenly Jerusalem (cf. Hebr 11:10). And in his presence of Christ in the Eucharist we enter into the Christic temple, the temple of his body. Let us become living stones (1 Pet 2:5) of that spiritual temple of which Christ is the cornerstone (Eph 2:20). Let us live in that spiritual house as priests of the New Covenant, offering continual sacrifice. Smiling at that person who bothers you. Writing a note to someone who needs encouraging. Offering our work to God. In all these ways we build up the spiritual temple that is the Mystical Body of Christ.

The MC charism

Mother Teresa, inspired by a call within a call from our Lord, founded the Missionaries of Charity (MC). The aim of the religious congregation is to labor for the salvation and sanctification of souls. The ultimate end of the society is to satiate the infinite thirst of Christ on the cross (Jn 19:28).

What was Christ thirsting for? Water, yes. But infinitely more for souls.

He thirsts to love and be loved. We satiate his thirst by loving Him.

But how to satiate Jesus' burning thirst? Where is his presence in the world today? Mother Teresa found an answer in the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel: whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me (Mt 25:40). You did it to me. We love Christ by loving Him in the least and the lost.


Who are the poor? Yes, those who hunger and thirst. But more than that--I am the poor. You are the poor. We find the poorest of the poor in the peripheries, and the peripheries are within us. As Mother Teresa would say, Calcutta is everywhere. It is a place of great beauty and a place of great suffering. Just like our heart. And so we come to know that there is a spiritual third world in every human heart.

Christ thirsts to be loved. And we can love him in the poorest of the poor. But what sustains such efforts? How do we learn to love? For we cannot give what we do not have. Of course, the answer is in another presence of Christ--the true presence in the Eucharist. It is at adoration that we encounter Christ's burning love for us that we share with others. Christ feeds us with the bread of life, that we may become that bread for others. When we recognize that we can love the poor and that the poor are the presence of Christ's love for us, all becomes prayer. All becomes grace.

No longer is there interior life and exterior apostolate. They become one. Working with the poor becomes adoration of Christ, and adoration of Christ in the Eucharist becomes the means of working for the salvation and sanctification of the poor.

In sum, Christ loves us so that we may love others. And in loving others, we become more open to sharing the love of Christ. It is an infinite cycle of love begetting love.

This is the life of an MC.