THE HOST OF SELF-GIVING | KAIROS GLOBAL | SEPTEMBER 2022

Author: Fr Shoji

Intro: A session by a Eucharist-loving Hindu stirred his heart and formed the seed to his vocation, says Fr Shoji. 

I was ordained as a priest 12 years ago, when I was 36. One of the reasons for my joining the seminary was my love for the Eucharist. It started with a Jesus Youth Campus Meet programme I attended when I was a student. One of the sessions was a sharing by Dr Sindhu who told us, ‘How fortunate you all are, you can receive Jesus in the Eucharist. My eyes fill up with tears every Eucharistic Celebration because I can’t receive him in the Holy Host for I am not a Catholic. So I will sit close to somebody who received the Eucharist so that the presence of God may pass to me.’ I was deeply moved by that and all those occasions when I missed the Eucharist willfully came to my mind. She continued, ‘Suppose you are invited for a marriage function and you attend the whole function but you do not participate in the reception, how bad the host of the marriage may feel? This is also how Jesus will feel when you attend the whole liturgy where he prepares a feast of his own body and blood and you become a mere spectator without receiving Communion.’ From that year onwards I tried my best to attend daily Mass. Gradually it became a part of my life. Even though I had to live alone in a rented house very far from my home from the age of 22, my ‘daily Manna’ kept me safe from so many evil ways. 

Spending an hour every day before the Eucharist was an inspiration I got after reading Treasure in Clay, the autobiography of Ven. Fulton J Sheen. It was on such an occasion that I first got the inspiration to join the seminary. After joining for priesthood also this practice was continued. Sometimes I may not be capable of praying, but still simply sitting in the presence of the Lord really consoles and rejuvenates me and many of my friends. One of my priest friends was asked by another friend, ‘If we are tense in the workplace, we are rejuvenated when we go back to home and spend time with the wife and children, how would you manage your tensions?’ His answer was sitting before the Eucharist. I have some priest friends who go out for any ministry only after spending a few minutes before the Eucharist. When they come back also they do the same. This may be the reason Mother Teresa was ready to send her sisters to any country provided there was the Eucharist. 

Sometimes my Protestant friends ask me why we give so much importance to the Eucharist. It deserves a lengthy answer. God the Father’s nature is to give himself to the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Son’s nature is giving himself to the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s nature is giving himself to the Father and the Son. God created us in his own image and likeness. So, the self-giving nature is inbuilt in every human being. This is the reason we call a person who does charity a real human being; we don’t attribute this to people with great muscle power or intelligence. 

Adoration to God and wholehearted free service to human beings or giving oneself to a noble cause are the best ways for expressing this self-giving thirst in our heart. Also, if the nature of God is self-giving, the best way to communicate with him is also self-giving. Most of the mystics in the world (whatever be their religion, culture or faith) did the same. In the New Testament, this self-giving is truly manifested in the life of Mother Mary, the poor widow, sinner woman who anointed the feet of Jesus with ointment, St Stephen, etc. Also, there are people who failed in this self-giving like Judas, Ananias and Saphira, the rich young man, etc. 

The best self-giving in history is that of Jesus. The Holy Eucharist is the best way to offer our attempts in self-giving (even though they are not complete) with the perfect self-giving in all of history. 

Fr Shoji Vechoorkarottu is a parish priest of two parishes in the Archdiocese of Trivandrum. He also teaches at St John’s College, Anchal, India.