Yes, for redemptor omniud,
quellucis anteo.
Sacred Scripture recounts for us the episode of King David
bringing the Ark of the Covenant to the city of David.
And we are told that the Ark of the Covenant
was brought to Jerusalem amid great festivities
and great sacrifices were offered up
and food was distributed to the people,
i.e. a great banquet was held.
And so the people who participated in the festivities
received a certain temporal blessing.
That accompanied the celebration of the coming of the Ark of the Covenant
to Jerusalem, to the city of David.
And so this Ark of the Covenant,
which was established during the sojourn of the Israelites in the desert
when the Lord took them out of Egypt,
this Ark of the Covenant indicating a dwelling of the Lord,
although this was merely a foreshadowing,
of the true dwelling of the Lord, namely our Blessed Lady,
and also all of those places that serve as tabernacles
for our Lord, truly present body, blood, soul, and divinity
in the new dispensation.
So this Ark of the Covenant, this place indicating the dwelling of the Lord,
was an occasion for great joy among the people
who recognized, who acknowledged the Lord,
dwelling in their midst.
And so this brings us to our first consideration,
namely our need to acknowledge the Lord dwelling in our midst.
And in our case, we do not treat of a mere foreshadowing
of the dwelling of the Lord in our midst,
but our Lord truly in our midst,
because our Lord truly dwells, as we said,
body, blood, soul, and divinity
in our midst.
In our tabernacles, the Word of God took flesh
in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
He truly became the Son of Mary.
He truly entered into the world.
And for those who acknowledged the Son of Mary
and the Son of God, for them this was life.
Life for them was acknowledging the One,
the Author of life, who gave them true life.
And this ought to be our life as well.
This ought to be the life of all Christians.
As we know,
there is great confusion today
about the reality
of our Lord dwelling in our midst
amongst Catholics,
not to mention those who are not Catholics.
Naturally, if there is confusion among Catholics
about whether our Lord is truly present,
bodily,
blood, soul, and divinity in the Most Holy Eucharist,
why should it surprise us that among non-Catholics
there is not this acknowledgement either?
So the first point is that we are clear
that our Lord truly has come into our midst
and that he's waiting for our acknowledgement.
If our Lord has come into our midst, he acknowledges us.
He has come to us to distribute blessings to us.
The question is, are we willing to acknowledge the Lord
so that we may receive what our Lord already wants to give us?
So many people fail to acknowledge the presence of our Lord
and therefore are they in a position to receive
the tremendous blessings the Lord wishes to give them?
And so we need to reflect in our hearts
about whether we really appreciate the fact
that our Lord...
is present here
and in any church or oratory
where he is reserved for our Lord
in the Blessed Sacrament remains.
Whether we appreciate the fact
and whether we come to acknowledge that fact,
he is here for us.
He dwells in our midst.
It is not for his own sake, but for our sake
that he dwells in our midst.
And so we need to reflect and ask ourselves
whether we are...
willing in every time and place
to call that presence of our Lord
to acknowledge him
so that we may dispose ourselves
to receive his blessings.
The second point of consideration is
that we have to move beyond mere acknowledgement
but to rejoice in the presence of our Lord.
King David celebrated with abandon, we are told,
in sacred scripture.
And so did all of Jerusalem.
They celebrated...
as the ark of the Lord was processed
through Jerusalem to its resting place
to a tent that David had pitched for it.
And we have to ask ourselves the questions,
is the fact that we can come into the presence of our Lord
an occasion of joy for us?
Does it please us to come
and be before our Lord,
to rejoice in the Lord?
Is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
is it...
Is the celebration of Holy Mass on Sunday
or of any day of the week
is it an occasion of joy?
Is it the high point of our day?
Is it the culmination of our Christian life?
Because that's what the liturgy ought to be for us.
The most holy sacrament,
the sacrifice of the Mass,
is, the Catechism tells us,
the Eucharist,
the Catechism tells us,
the source and summit of our Christian life.
Is that the way?
Is that the way?
It truly is for us.
Is our life of prayer geared toward this source and summit of our life?
Do we draw our strength from it?
Because that's what the Lord intends.
That's why the Lord has instituted this sacrament
whose price we cannot...
whom we cannot measure,
whose price we cannot measure,
who can estimate the price that our Lord...
our Lord paid for each one of us.
And so it is an occasion for tremendous joy
because our Lord paid this price
for our sake,
for our salvation.
And that's the occasion for joy.
That's the cause for joy.
That's why we ought to celebrate
and realize that
in nothing else
will we find our true joy.
We can look elsewhere,
in an attempt to satisfy our hearts,
to find a bit of temporary joy.
But all of these other things pass
and only our Lord remains.
And He wishes to remain in our hearts.
And the more we open our hearts up to the joy
that comes from above,
the more we will realize
all the other joys are nothing at all.
And so we ought to seek that joy
and we ought to find that joy.
And we ought to rejoice.
Be willing to rejoice
in the presence of our Lord.
Let Him fill us with
that joy that no one can take away.
And the final consideration is
related to
the one I just made.
And that is
the subject of sacrifice.
Because joy
in this life is intermingled with sacrifice.
Indeed,
we are called to give a sacrifice of praise.
Sometimes we have to, what,
deny ourselves
in order to
give to the Lord
what it is that He is asking of us.
But the great saints of all times
have come to understand
that
the more generous we are
in sacrificing ourselves,
there we will find our true joy.
Joy.
Joy is found, indeed, true joy
is found in sacrificing
oneself for our Lord.
Not sacrificing in any way,
but for our Lord.
It pleased our Lord
to offer up His life for us.
It pleased Him.
It was His joy
to do the will of the Father
and therefore
to offer up His life for us
who were estranged from God.
Could it not be our joy
to console our Lord
so that,
in our case,
the sacrifice our Lord offered up
for us
would not be in vain?
Could we not then unite
our own paltry sacrifices
to that of the Lord?
Is that what we are not called to do
at this holy sacrifice of the Mass?
To, first of all, acknowledge
not only the presence
but the sacrifice of the Lord,
that sacrifice which is
represented at Holy Mass,
that same sacrifice of Calvary,
represented in an unbloody manner.
And we,
privileged as we are
to participate in this sacrifice,
are called to unite
to that sacrifice.
And the more that we dispose ourselves,
the more that we
remove from those things,
excuse me,
remove from ourselves those things
that keep us from fully uniting
to our Lord in sacrifice,
the more that we will find
that joy,
that we were just talking about.
Yes, indeed,
true joy
is found
in uniting ourselves in sacrifice
to the sacrifice of our Lord.
St. Maximilian Kolbe once said,
the true religious,
the true religious is not truly happy
unless he has some sacrifice
that he can offer up,
that he can unite
to the sacrifice of our Lord.
That's the true religious,
St. Maximilian said,
and that's the true Christian.
The true Christian is not truly happy
unless he has something
that he can generously offer to the Lord,
something that he can deny.
That's how we can tell
whether we are walking forward or backward.
Are we willing to?
Is it hard?
Yes, of course it's hard.
Sacrifice, properly understood,
is not the easiest thing.
But in our Lord,
all things are easy.
He can make all things easy.
And following this plan of our Lord,
then blessings will come.
In the Old Testament,
it came in the form of material blessings.
And so,
at the end of this celebration,
every man and woman
in the entire multitude of Israel
received a loaf of bread,
a cut of roast meat,
and a raisin cake.
Now our Lord has prepared for us
something better
than a loaf of bread,
a cut of roast meat,
and a raisin cake.
Now, I don't know about you,
but it's nice to have a loaf of bread.
It's nice to have a cut of roast meat.
Maybe, maybe not nice to have a raisin cake,
depending on whether it's your taste or not, right?
Maybe you prefer something else.
So it's okay to enjoy the temporal blessings
that our Lord gives us.
How much better is it
to come into the blessings of our Lord
that redound to eternal life?
Those are the blessings
that we ought to be seeking,
and those are the blessings
that our Lord wants to give us,
which He will certainly give us
if we acknowledge Him,
if we rejoice in Him,
and we are willing to be generous
in our sacrifice for His sake,
for love of Him,
uniting to His sacrifice,
which was for love of us.
And who knows better
than the Blessed Virgin Mary
what it means to
acknowledge the presence of the Lord,
whom she carried in her womb,
to rejoice in the Lord
so eloquently expressed in the Magnificat,
and to unite in sacrifice to the Lord,
which she did perfectly,
not only on Calvary,
most perfectly there, of course,
but throughout her whole life,
being as she was,
co-redemptrix,
united to the Redeemer.
And she did all this
in union with our Lord for our sake.
She loves us tremendously,
and she can help us
to do all these things most perfectly.
Praise be Jesus and Mary.