My Advent Miracle: Each Year, I Am Replenished

“Replenished by the food of spiritual nourishment,….you may teach us to judge wisely the things of earth and hold firm to the things of heaven.”

 

During early morning Mass, sometime in early December, I see a “miracle.” The priest raises the host for consecration. Sometimes the host lights up; the priest’s hands and head look normal, but the sun rays shining through the stained glass window and seem to brighten the Host so it glows. No one else sees it.

“My Advent miracle,” I say to myself, “Here I am, Lord, I come to do Your will.”

Christ, the Light of the World, has come to brighten my day. It is the same as the divine splendor of light which descended when God visited His people in Exodus 16.

After seeing the lighted Host, I am more charitable, more gracious in speech, more loving toward my family. A reminder to me, this miracle is; a reminder of the way to act for the rest of the day, the rest of the month, the rest of the year.

Reason and human knowledge explain the angle of the Earth’s axis and the projection of the sun’s rays.

Yet, each year I anticipate “my miracle.” It is then I recognize another truth.

At every Mass, the truth of faith believes the natural bread on the altar is changed into the body of Christ. The words of the anointed priest echo the words of Christ at the Last Supper:

…He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying:

Take this, all of you, and eat it,

For this is my body

Which will be given up for you. 

 

My faith is as ancient as elderly Abraham and barren Sarah, who believed in the promise of Yahweh. It is as present as the day my parents presented me at the baptismal fount. It is nourished by His grace through the years of communion. Yes, I believe in the miracle of consecration! The Host is a sign of His real presence, a miracle Host, that is Christ. I can receive Him, eat Him, and digest Him in my heart.

It is then I become the sign of Christ’s love to all.