Catechist Know-How:January 2010

You Complete Me

By Mary Lou Rosien

One of my favorite lines in a movie is (when the hero declares his love by saying), “You complete me.” I thought about this the other day during the Consecration of the Eucharist.

I was feeling very damaged that day at Mass. Not whole at all. I wanted to cry and I really didn’t even feel like being there.

Then…it happened. Transubstantiation. Jesus was there, present in the Eucharist!! Nothing seemed to matter at that moment. I didn’t need to be perfect, or even happy, I just needed to be there.

As I received Communion I felt myself thinking, “You complete me.” He can be with me and fill up everything that is lacking. Jesus alone can give me the grace to take the next step, even when my weary soul doesn’t really want to. He can accomplish works through me that I didn’t think were possible. What a gift we Catholics have in the Eucharist!

To instill this love of the Eucharist in our students, we have to remind them frequently that Jesus really is there. It is so easy for us to get complacent and forget that He is present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. If you are like me, your mind wanders to what I is for dinner or why my kids are being so squirmy. I am so easily distracted during Mass, but when I remind myself that my King is present it is easier to refocus.

Teaching our students stories about Eucharistic miracles and Saints who love Jesus in the Eucharist may make the experience more real for them too. Many (Church approved) Eucharistic Miracles have been documented.

[In Italy, the Eucharist turned into visible flesh and blood during the Consecration.

This miracle has undergone extensive scientific examination and can only be explained as a miracle. The flesh is actually cardiac tissue which contains arterioles, veins, and nerve fibers. The blood type, as in all other approved Eucharistic miracles, is type AB!

Or consider St. Tarcisius, he was a 12 year-old boy who lived during the third century in Rome. He was given the task of secretly bringing Communion to Christian prisoners sentenced to die. Tarcisius was attacked by a group of boys and killed trying to protect the Holy Eucharist he was carrying. ]

As Catholic Educators of the Faith, we can point out to our students the gift we have been given in the Eucharist. The gift we have as Catholics, in receiving the fullness of the Faith.