Do This in Memory of Me: Be a Witness of My Love

By: Laura Catherine Worhacz

Dearest Eucharistic Family,
 
As I prepare this reflection, I am on day fifty in the hospital, sleeping bedside by my husband as he heals from an open wound as the result of septic shock. It is quite surreal to think it was planned for me to pick him up from the airport at midnight after his family visit when I received a message about my husband being in the ER. After that, my rapid response was to catch a flight to New York without returning to Florida, for now. And here we are. I am typing, looking out at the East River in Manhattan, while my husband is sleeping in our hospital room.
 
It is all grace to endure the Cross, my sustaining power is the Eucharist. I find myself in constant conversation with Jesus. “What is going on now, Lord?” 
 
A dear friend reminded me to also take time to listen. Quiet time is so essential in our reception of grace. In this God has allowed me to remember the wonders of His love. Time to think of falling in love with Jesus. Praying His Passion, mourning Christ’s death, and finding the gratitude to live in the mystery of the Resurrection, especially through the gift of the daily Liturgy. 
 
Seeing through the eyes of heaven while enduring illness and even death transforms our existence into a living hope. Faith knows that we are living in a Divine plan. God is creating us, purifying us for salvation. In the silence we see and hear most of what the depths of our hearts know is true and holy. The Divine action of the Holy Spirit is our gift to be what we are called to be in Christ amid suffering. 
 
It is a blessing to have a beautiful Catholic Church one block from the hospital and get daily to 7am Mass. I was praying one morning and thought of my life right now like being in a movie waking up in a new land, an island, a new place. Where is my bed, my room, my home? 
 
Then I thought of heaven, and it made me smile. One day if salvation comes to me and you, we will be in heaven. And what must it be like waking up in a new land? A land that was revealed to us upon earth in the Sacred Host. A place that is revealed to us in the Sacraments. A place of belonging we find through our baptism, as children of Our Father. And in Reconciliation, to be free of our vices, to better strive for the good, the virtues of God’s love. The gift of the Eucharist reveals heaven mostly to us now with Christ’s beating heart in our existence through our receiving of His Body and His Blood. In the Sacrament of my marriage at this moment in time, the scriptures have come to greater life; the words promised 36 years ago, “In sickness and in health” are so very tangible.
 
The Kingdom of Heaven is with us now in the love we share. God’s love is revealed in our smiles even through tears. Revealed in our kindness even when we are wounded, and in sharing all we have received with those attracted to God’s Majesty.
 
Today, one of the nurses asked me to pray for her and received a prayer card from me for confession with the direction of the place of where to go, time, and how to... God allowed me to share the power of the sacraments and invite her to the grace she will receive. One soul at a time, one blessing, and the Kingdom grows here and now one heartbeat at a time.
 
 Jesus invites us to reveal the wonders of His love.
 
Obedience to my prayer life conditioned me for this Cross. It is an effort committed to our faith. I am forever grateful for the discipline that has given me the gift to help my husband carry this Cross of suffering. My imperfections are invited to be worked out this side of the heavens.

"In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of [your] faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 6-9)

Laura Catherine Worhacz

Laura Catherine Worhacz is a Lay Associate of the Blessed Sacrament and author of Consecration to Jesus Through Our Lady of The Blessed Sacrament. She is also the director of Mothers of The Blessed Sacrament. She lives in Trinity, FL with her husband and their two daughters.