The Emmaus Moment

When I was in high school, I really struggled to believe that Christ was present in the Eucharist. I’m not alone, I know that based on a pew research study only about 30% of Catholics believe in the real presence. The question is, what do you do with that? I took it to prayer, and every day I prayed to have faith and to understand. I didn’t walk away and I didn’t mock, but I sought to understand and presumed that there was a truth beyond my knowing. One day at Mass, after several months of prayer, as I was kneeling down and the priest held the host in the air and the bells were ringing, two crosses of light appeared on either side of the priest and a shiver ran through my body. And I knew that was my sign that God was present in that moment. I had been getting shivers each time the priest would hold Jesus in the air, but I didn’t make the connection until I saw those crosses, one to the right and one to the left.  The shivers continued for quite some Masses, until eventually, they came no more. It wasn’t until I was in my pastoral ministry masters program several years later that I learned that that moment is called the epiclesis-an epiclesis is when the minister of the sacrament invokes the Holy Spirit to come upon the matter of this world and infuse it with divine grace. So at that moment, when I had that shiver and I saw those crosses, it was the moment the Holy Spirit was coming into the gift and becoming the gift. Later while I was in summer residency at my masters program, another youth minister and I walked out of the building where our classrooms were being held, and looking up in the sky that was covered in clouds.  There was a circular opening with three perfect crosses, the center one a little higher than the other two. We looked at each other in amazement, and we ran across campus to share what we were seeing with the other students. When there’s a teaching we don’t understand we have a choice—we can walk away and say forget it, or we can lean in to the confusion and listen for God to respond.  This is the year of the Eucharistic revival and today in the Gospel it wasn’t until the breaking of the bread that the disciples recognized who Christ was. What’s your Emmaus story? When did you recognize Christ presence in the Eucharist?