Do This in Memory of Me: Friend

By: Laura Worhacz

“How, then, do we act with a friend? Do we always speak to him about the present? Certainly not! We recall memories, we live them over again together.” - Saint Peter Julian Eymard (Eymard Library Volume 7, page 13)

Dearest Eucharistic Family,
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When in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, do you sometimes find yourself in conversation with Jesus about all that has happened in your life?  Sometimes it is like a written testimony on my heart, recalling every detail of so many moments in my life. They flash over and over…it is an act of the will to find God in all that has happened, in all our choices. The past has created us, and when embraced, it sanctifies our being.

Jesus calls us friends. “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father” (John 15:15). Jesus has told us everything; we recall the memories. Trust is found in Jesus’ love for us. Our encounter with the living God in the Eucharist, submitting to His holy will, enraptures us into friendship with the Son of God.

Jesus promises that he has the words of everlasting life. Our suffering is glorified in our charity for another; trust is formed in this. We receive grace from the Eucharist, where genuine friendship is formed and extended into the members of Christ's Body.  In our humanity, we need the gift of God’s life to resemble the friendship of God. Remembering all the blessings we have received will enable us to create a future of love in every experience of life with every precious life we share it with. Moreover, in Saint Peter Julian’s four-way prayer, we take our thoughts in all that has happened, adding them to our adoring, thanksgiving, forgiveness, and intercessory prayer; we befriend Jesus.

As we form friendships in Christ, may the trust we have found in the Eucharistic Lord be made known to others. May memories be made to be cherished. All through our lives, may the presence of our friendship in the Blessed Sacrament be glorified through our relationships, and the security of God’s divine love treasured.