Behold the Lamb of God
“Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb”
A few months before his death, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen was asked who had been an inspiration to him, “Was it a pope?”
“ No, it was the true story of a young girl from China who was about 12 years old. As the Communists were in the process of taking over, soldiers entered a church in a predominantly Catholic village where inside the church the priest was praying . The villagers heard the commotion and rushed to the aid of the priest. The commandant saw the people filling the church and he took the opportunity to mock their Catholic faith. He broke open the lock of the Tabernacle door, took the ciborium into his hands and sent it with its consecrated contents rolling across the sanctuary floor. Then the commandant with his soldiers proceeded to step upon the hosts. The commandant pointed to one of the villagers who had his young daughter with him and said, “Do you really believe that this is God under my feet?” The brave man replied, “Yes sir, I do.” The man was arrested that day and was never heard from again. Before the soldiers dispersed the crowd, they locked the priest in a small room adjacent to the church where the coal for the furnace was stored. There was a small window that allowed him to see into the sanctuary. Later that evening, the priest saw the brave man’s daughter slip into the church undetected by the soldier standing guard. She crept up to the communion rail and knelt there in silent prayer for about an hour. She then proceeded into the sanctuary and fell to her knees and with her mouth pressed to the floor received her Eucharistic Lord. After making a short thanksgiving, she left the church, once again, slipping past the guards standing post in the front. The next evening she returned once again slipping past the guards and after silent prayer, pressed her mouth to the floor and received the desecrated Lord. Every evening for 31 days the young girl returned, receiving the Lord in the same manner. Since his 1st day of captivity, the priest had counted the # of Hosts that had been thrown on the sanctuary floor (32). He knew that only one Host remained. On the 32nd evening the young girl arrived and after prayer arose to enter the sanctuary just as a guard burst through the church doors, and shot her. The young girl crawled across the floor and consumed the last Host. The priest watching from his cell was a witness to all that happened. When Archbishop Sheen heard the story of this young Eucharistic martyr he thought to himself, “if this child under the daily threat of death could make time to adore her Lord’s presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament, then he could too.
He resolved to make a Holy Hour every day for the rest of his priestly life. He said that the daily hour spent with the Lord changed his life and would change the life of anyone who did the same. We should ask ourselves, “How much time do we devote to the Lord every day? How much time should we devote to Our Lord in prayer every day? And from today on, how much time will I devote to our Lord every day?
“ The Eucharist is source & pledge of glory, not for the soul alone, but for the body also...In the frail & perishable body that Divine Host, which is the immortal body of Christ, implants a principle of resurrection, a seed of immortality, which one day must germinate.”
Pope Leo XIII
