Bernard of Clairvaux's famous sermon on the meeting of Christ and Mary Magdalen in the Garden highlights the theme I have here and in the previous post on the Presence of Christ within us. Bernard states that Mary was looking in the wrong place. Christ was in her, with her, in her heart, and in her soul. Why was she looking for Him?
The heart of Mary Magdalen was full of the love of Christ. Her heart, notes Bernard, was a garden for Him to be in with her, like the garden in the Song of Songs.
There is a mystery about Christ being in us, which the new agers, in their perversion, have said loudly to the modern age. But, the Christ of the new agers is not the Christ in the Garden, the Resurrected Christ bearing the signs of His passion, the wounds in the Sacred Hands and Feet, as well as Side and Head. No. They want a Christ without suffering.
Sorry. The Resurrected Christ Who comes to us when we humble ourselves and allow suffering to carve out our hearts to make room for Him, this Christ, had suffered for us, and with us, and in us. This is the scandal of God's Love for us.
The Eucharist is the daily reminder of this diminishing of the power and the glory of God. I call the Eucharist the Vulnerable God.
The horses of the visitants at Fountains Abbey were forced to stomp on the Eucharist, thrown from the Nine Altars. I have written many long poems on the desecration and lost Love caused by those men, who in their arrogance, wrote back to Thomas Cromwell and bragged of their duties. I am the poet of the honour of Fountains, a numinous place for me.
Over and over again, the Christ in the Eucharist has been abused.
We abuse Him with our selfishness and sins.
But, He desires to forgive us and go even further into a love relationship which is stronger than death, as the Scripture states.
So, Bernard says, look into yourselves and find Christ, find the Father, find the Holy Spirit.
You will need the strength of this relationship in days to come, if not now.
