Waiting for Us

Last Friday, I went to eucharistic adoration at my church.  When I got there, there were four other people plus the priest.  After almost an hour passed and I was close to leaving, our priest was the only person there.  As I left, I hoped that more people would stop in within the last remaining hour.  Right before I left, I was thinking about how often Jesus in the Eucharist sits on altars exposed in the monstrance and in tabernacles, waiting for us to come sit with Him, and how often we don’t.

As I reflected during my time at the church, a line from a book that I read in college came to mind.  In the book Consoling the Heart of Jesus, by Fr. Michael Gaitley, the author is talking about Jesus’ Sacred Heart and says, “Behold this Heart which loves so much yet is so little loved” (Gaitley 92).  This line is repeated several times throughout the book and has stuck with me as a powerful thought to reflect on throughout the years since I’ve read it.  As Jesus was exposed for adoration Friday night, I thought about how Jesus was there, in a largely empty church.  He loves so much but is often loved very little or not at all in return.

It made me reflect on the times when I fail to love Jesus above all else, the times where I put Him below many other things.  Most of us probably struggle with this at times.  But when we take time for prayer and spend time deepening our relationship with Jesus, it is a step in the right direction, a step closer to where we ought to be.  And I think that is what Jesus wants from us, to keep trying, to keep showing up, and to spend time with Him, so that we can become more like the people He created us to be.

Jesus wants to pour out His love on us.  And as I sat in church on Friday, it made me sad to think of all of the people from the community who have maybe never experienced this love that is found in adoration and in the mass.  A community of people that can fill the pews and pack the church on Ash Wednesday and other certain days of the year, but with many of them not going to weekly mass or taking time to go to adoration.
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We are all busy and we all have a lot of stuff going on in our lives.  But taking time to sit with Jesus is time where we are loving Him, who loves so much.  It reorders our priorities and helps us to return a fraction of the love that He has for us.  This week, reflect on the ways that you can love Jesus and how you will show Him that love.