“Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.” – Psalm 72:11
One of the greatest blessings in my life over the last few years has been the experience of Eucharistic Adoration. This ancient practice of the Church is steeped in beauty.
Imagine a few hundred young adults filling the pews of an ornate sanctuary. Candlelight flickers through the darkness as incense wafts overhead. Traditional chants and contemporary songs of praise raise our hearts to heaven. This scene plays out every Wednesday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Cor Jesu.
The name is Latin for “heart of Jesus,” because indeed our Lord is at the heart of it all, present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist and displayed for the world to see in a golden monstrance upon the altar. He is the one we come to worship. He is the one we come to adore, just as the three Wise Men once sought him beneath a star in a Bethlehem stable so long ago.
It’s awesome to think that like those three Magi, we can gaze upon Love Incarnate and pay Him homage. On Epiphany, the night of the first Adoration, the Wise Men brought Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These gifts were rich in symbolism. Gold was the only thing fit for a King. Frankincense, traditionally burnt by the temple priests as an offering to God, represented the divinity of Christ and His role as the High Priest. Myrrh was an ointment used for embalming, and thus it foreshadowed his suffering and role as Saving Victim.
These gifts of the Magi should make us ask this question: What gifts can we give to Christ our King, our God, and our Savior?
Perhaps we could share our treasures with a poor child, as the Wise Men did with the Infant Jesus. Perhaps we could journey out of our comfort zone, as the Wise Men did, to visit with Him among the elderly in a nursing home or the poor in a soup kitchen. Perhaps we could simply spend an hour of our time on bended knee like the Magi in Bethlehem, adoring Him in the Eucharist.
In the end, the best we can do is thank God for the Gift He revealed to us and the whole world on Epiphany: His love for us through His Son, Jesus.
Sweet Sacrament, we Thee adore. O, make us love Thee more and more! O, make us love Thee more and more! Amen.
