Redirected to Authenticity

As I have attempted to live on more of a budget, one of the "luxuries" I have denied myself is name brand foods. You will never find name brand pasta or rice in my cabinets. I've found that Rice Krispy treats taste exactly the same with generic cereal and generic marshmallows. Kroger brand peanut butter tastes the same as Jif. Meijer brand pretzels taste just like Rold Gold pretzels. For most things, the generic version is so similar that finding a difference is nearly impossible. But though I know this is the case, there is still something within me that desires the "authentic" version of the product. There is still the split second where I consider "splurging" on the name brand product, simply because I can trust that it is the fullest version of it.

I think this is the case for most things in our lives. We are attracted to authenticity. We are people who desire the fullest version of things. And though we sometimes settle for the generic, lesser version of things, we still have hearts that long for authenticity. This is most deeply the case with our desire for love. Our hearts, more than anything else, are desirous of authentic love. And this longing is not an accident; it is a desire infused in us through our very creation. We were formed, sculpted, and brought into existence by Love itself. With hearts fashioned by the source of authentic love, nothing else is truly sufficient for our hearts' longing.

But as we see in our world and in the experience of our own lives, though we have hearts that deeply long for the perfection of love, we often give in to a lesser version. We settle. We compromise. We despair and think that perfection can't possibly exist. We forget that God's intention in creating us was to draw us into the love of the Trinity, to allow us to share in the purest, most perfect form of love. And in this, we see that humanity is facing an amnesia of the heart--a radical forgetting of the love which we were created to receive.

Another word for Eucharist is anamnesis, which means "a radical remembering." About the Eucharist, Blessed Pope John Paul II once said “What more could Jesus have done for us? Truly, in the Eucharist, he shows us a love which goes 'to the end', a love which shows NO MEASURE." In a world that has been made to believe that perfect love doesn't exist, Jesus Christ in the Eucharist teaches us that this isn't the case. It exists. It is readily available. The same Jesus Christ who lived 2,000 years ago meets us in this Eucharist form and says to us, “THIS IS HOW YOU ARE MEANT TO BE LOVED."

In the past few months, I have felt myself "wiggling" my way out of the embrace of the Father. I have put my heart's satisfaction in other things. I have neglected my prayer time. I have chosen anxiety and stress over trust. I have picked anger over forgiveness. I have selected complacency over faithfulness. I have chosen to flee from the authentic love offered to me in Christ Jesus. And what I have been left with is a piercing emptiness. But as I finally approached the Lord in prayer last week, actually daring to bring before him all these things and confessing my brokenness, I heard him give me simple advice: MEET ME IN THE EUCHARIST. Meet me where I come humbly so you can approach with certainty. Meet me so I can strip away the worry and infuse you with my peace. Meet me where unworthiness subsides as Love chooses to abide within. Meet me so I can show your wandering heart where it's desires still are satiated. Meet me so I can love you--PERFECTLY.

Pope Benedict XVI once said that ‎"Jesus desires us, he awaits us. But what about ourselves? Do we really desire him? Are we anxious to meet him? Do we desire to encounter him, to become one with him, to receive the gifts he offers us in the Holy Eucharist? Or are we indifferent, distracted, busy about other things?" In the Eucharist, we are given peace, freedom, goodness, grace, and AUTHENTIC LOVE. But do we really desire peace instead of worry? Do we really desire the freedom of abandonment instead of the feeling of security in our own control? Do we really desire the grace that builds holiness instead of the ease found in sin? DO WE REALLY DESIRE THE LOVE WHICH SHOWS NO MEASURE?

Jesus, we are tired of the generic manifestations of love that plague our world. We are tired of giving ourselves over to lesser things. Jesus, we are famished for your authentic love. We beg for your vision to see the ways we are fleeing from this love. And we ask for the grace to re-direct our lives back to you, our source of authenticity.