“Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “So, could you not stay awake with me one hour?”
– Matthew 26:40
The other day, I decided to make a spontaneous Holy Hour at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish. Throughout that hour, a total of six other people spent time in the chapel with me. To my surprise, one of the six was a homeless man. He acknowledged the Eucharist and presumably went into the washroom. He didn’t stay for too long, but the fact that he came in the first place left an impression on me. First, it meant that he was trusted enough with the code to the adoration chapel. Second, he could have just walked into the chapel and head straight to the washroom, but he took the time to show reverence to our Lord while entering and leaving.
Witnessing this, I was reminded of the readings from the past Sunday. In the first reading, Elijah approaches a widow and asks her for food. She replies that she only has enough for her and her son to eat, and then they will die. He asks her again and promises that the Lord will provide to which she believes and makes some food for him. Thus, her jar of flour and jug of oil does not empty. The Psalms build off on that with lines such as “The Lord … gives food to the hungry” and “The fatherless and the widow He sustains”. The second reading speaks of the temple sacrifice, which I will get into later. Lastly, the Gospel, again, describes a widow who donates two copper coins to the temple. Jesus notes this and says that she had given “all she had to live on.” In the original Greek language, this was translated from the word bios, meaning life. While there is symbolism in the English, the original meaning is what’s important – she didn’t just give what she was living on. She gave her very life, her bios, to the Lord through the temple. As she gave everything, she implicitly trusted that the Lord will give everything she needs.
The first reading and the Gospel exhort us to offer everything to God. The Psalms tell us that if we love and trust the Lord, He will give us everything we need. So how does the temple fit into the picture? Why was it important? In short, the temple was a representation of Heaven. We should already know that to offer sacrifice at the temple was to offer it to God, who resides in Heaven. Devout Jews knew that to properly approach God, they had to go through the temple. However, we as Christians are not so limited. As Christ came to fulfill the law and the prophecies, He became the high priest to offer sacrifice on our behalf. He became the sacrifice because nothing we can offer can truly pay the debt that we owe. Christ did not need the temple, the representation of Heaven, because He is in Heaven! If we want the merits of this sacrifice to be applied to us, we need to accept it – by offering a sacrifice of our own.
So what can we, as youth, offer? It’s true that not all of us are blessed to have jobs, let alone money. However, what we do have is time. We are young! We can give our time to God. Once a week, even for just a few minutes, go to adoration. If you can, make it a Holy Hour. “But I’m too busy!” You would say, but how much time do you spend on your phone? On the internet? If the water heater in your house breaks, you set aside everything else to fix it. You make it a priority. Brothers and sisters, all of you are called to be saints.
Do you truly want to be in heaven? Then make it a priority.
I challenge you – become who you’re meant to be.
Lorenz Somollo – Brother Advocacies Head | CFC-Youth Pacific Region
