God acts in total self-emptying love in eternity. Thus, His self-emptying love is present to us in every moment of time. We were created by God in time for the purpose of freely choosing to love Him back. God reveals Himself to us in time, because He wants us to joyfully recognize Him when we meet Him outside of time at our death. This is why the Word became flesh and lived among us (John 1:14). He revealed the Father’s love for us, showed us how to love the Father back, and gave us the Holy Spirit who is the Advocate or Helper.
Jesus gives us access to the Father through Himself. He gives us access through sacred scripture as the Word of God, through the Church, the Body of Christ in which He is the head and we are the members, and through the Eucharist. In the Word we learn about God and it conforms our will to Him. In the Church, we act as one with Christ in worship, healing, and charity. In the Eucharist, we enter into our Lord’s disposition, receive the grace to have His total, self-giving heart for God and all people, and enter into the eternal heavenly liturgy.
When Jesus ascended into heaven, He left as the Son of God returning to the right hand of the Father. Most importantly for us, He left as the Lamb who was slain set to reign in heaven as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In the book of Revelation, we see what many believe to be the heavenly liturgy centered around the Lamb who stood as though slain. It is the Lamb who is the shepherd to God’s faithful. It is the Lamb’s blood that washes clean the robes of the multitude who worships God and defeats Satan. It is the Lamb who is worthy to break open the scroll. And it is the Lamb who reigns on the throne in the New Jerusalem.
The Lamb who was Slain is the connection from the heavenly liturgy to every Eucharistic celebration on Earth. In the mass, the same Lamb who sits on the throne in heaven is made present on all the altars of the world. The slain nature of the Lamb brings forth the self-emptying love of God. We receive that love everytime that we receive the Eucharist. We contemplate that love every time we sit in His Eucharistic presence. We learn love from Love Himself. We, the multitude from every nation, see the worthiness of the Lamb to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing (Revelation 5:12), and in His total self-emptying love, the Lamb offers us His worthiness to be received in consuming Him at His heavenly banquet of the Eucharist. We receive the Lamb who was Slain in time so that when we exit time and meet God, He no longer sees fallen humans who were too absorbed with self preservation and worldly comforts that we failed to love. Rather, He will see His beloved Son who poured out His love on the world, and we will be welcomed through Him, with Him, and in Him as adopted sons and daughters. Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), blessed are those called to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).
Originally published in Prime Soil Magazine | Vol. 1 No. 2
Originally presented at The 10th National Eucharistic Congress in July 2024
