Eucharistic Reflection: Go to Jesus
by Diocese of Des Moines | July 14, 2021
By Father Jake Epstein
When I was a sophomore at Iowa State University, I was invited by a good friend of mine to go hear a speaker hosted by a large evangelical group on campus.
I remember the seats in Stephens Auditorium in Ames being mostly full as the man built a cross on stage and spoke about our need for Jesus. Again and again, he spoke about our need to go to Jesus, and every time he said those words I felt more and more how right he was. I felt the pull in my chest; that I did need to go to Jesus.
The climax of the night came when, with the cross standing up in the middle of the stage, the whole auditorium was invited down one row at a time to attach a piece of paper with their sins written on it to the cross. The speaker emphasized again and again that we could go to Jesus with anything, that we could go to Jesus with our flaws and insecurities, that nothing should stop us from going to Jesus. Every time he said those words, I felt more and more convicted that he was absolutely right: I could feel the physical pull to go to Jesus.
When it came my row’s turn, I got up and went to Jesus. I left the auditorium, ran all the way down Lincoln Way to St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, and I knelt down in front of the tabernacle, to be with Jesus.
Our Lord has always called his people to come to Him, to stay with Him. In the exodus from Egypt God called His people to follow Him through the desert in a pillar of cloud and of fire, and God’s pilgrim people followed after the cloud wherever it led them. In Jerusalem God’s glory filled the Temple at its dedication, and God called His people to come to Jerusalem to sacrifice and pray to the Lord, present in a special way in the Temple. When God fulfilled all His promises through the ages and came definitively to His people in Jesus Christ, he called those He wanted to come to him, and they came and became his disciples. In Jesus’s ministry great crowds of God’s people flocked to him, to listen to him, to be healed by him, and they went with him wherever he traveled.
God does not change His ways. Even more than in the pillar of fire in the desert, and the glory of the Lord in the Temple, today God dwells in the midst of His people in the Blessed Sacrament in every tabernacle. Our Lord calls us to come to Him, to follow Him, to pray in His very presence. Let’s go to Jesus.
Reflection Questions:
- Do I make time regularly to go to Jesus, and spend time with him in prayer?
- Are there ever times when I doubt that I can go to Jesus with anything, and instead try to hide myself, or parts of myself, from his loving gaze?
Petitionary Prayers:
- For a greater confidence in our ability to bring all things to Jesus, so that he can heal, transform, and sanctify every aspect of our lives, we pray…
- For our Diocese, that the Holy Spirit will stir up in us a greater desire to go to Jesus in the Eucharist, we pray…