Exploring the Meaning of Being “Fully Present”
By: ROBERT J. MATTHEWS
Catholics believe that Jesus Christ is “fully present” in the consecrated host and wine of the chalice – that these are not symbols of Jesus, but are, in fact, through the miracle of transubstantiation that is reenacted in every daily Mass said around the world, the actual body and blood of Jesus.
Recalling the words of the consecration, “This is my body… This is my blood,” the bread and wine are not symbols of Christ’s body and blood, nor reminders, but His true presence.
What might it look like for a person to imitate Christ, in His fullest personhood, by being “fully present” in the here and now of our lives? Not a spiritual or theoretical, but a tangible and real presence.
Full Presence would include being fully cognizant to the realities of a person’s faith and personal relationship with God, and that that of the men and women we share our lives with, but may or may not know personally. Full presence would include sustained devotion to the poor, and consciousness of the fact that every individual endures poverty in some aspect of life, materially, spiritually, emotionally, bodily or otherwise. The Full Presence of other members of the mystical living Body of Christ would be the answer to Christ’s call to honor our obligations to the poor.
Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago, writing the in the Summer 2013 edition of “Extension,” commented on the relationship between faith and charity: “Faith without love is dead. It’s just a set of ideas. But, love without faith is undirected [as it is with those who love but do not love Christ]. It’s just a feeling or maybe it’s generosity, but it has no focus. You need faith and charity together – that’s what the Church has always been about. It’s about a living faith as opposed to a dead faith, because even Satan has faith, and he knows the truth, but he has no love. And there are people who have a generosity and a love, which is admirable, but it might be directed toward the wrong thing.”
Continuing, the Archbishop wrote, “You need faith and love to go together, and that’s what we do in preaching to the world about who Christ is. He tells us who He is, which is a matter of faith, and then He shows us who He is by going to His death on the cross out of love for us.” Love, then, is the manifestation of the Full Presence of God.
One way to model the perfect love of Jesus Christ is for a person to be Fully Present to his neighbors, because in so doing, he serves as a conduit to Christ’s true presence, will then become fully present to the rest of humanity. In this way, individuals become “living stones,” instruments of the peace of Christ. Like St. Francis of Assisi, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace!” Help me to be Fully Present to God and to all of creation.
