‘Where would you choose to go on a retreat if you could travel anywhere in the world?” This was the question I was asked recently, a question you might ask yourself this Christmas.
At first, I thought of the Cave of Bethlehem where Christ was born for us. How close I would be to the Saviour born for us there. Then my mind went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where our Lord offered Himself on the Cross, His body was laid in the tomb and He rose again on the first Easter morning.
How close I would be there to our Redeemer, kneeling on Calvary or in the emptiness of that tomb. However, I quickly recalled the striking words of St John Paul II who insisted that it is in the Holy Eucharist that “we meet Jesus Christ anew… As it was there so it is here.” And I saw that I had no need to undertake a journey: the living Christ Himself is found in every Tabernacle of the world. It is always in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist that we will be closest to Him. As the Second Vatican Council affirmed: “In the Blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself.”
