Jesus, Mercy Incarnate

time as we know it, and are brought to the border of the eter- nal dimension of time (God’s “eternal now” perspective). What is most directly and immediately present to us at the Mass, of course, is Christ’s risen and glorified Body. But in some way, He also makes His eternal perspective on His own human birth, life and death available to us at every Eucharist. That is how it is possible also for the Infancy of Christ, and the sacrificial Death of Christ, which are ever present to God, to be made present for us in a mysterious way at Holy Mass. 20 In short, out of His infinite love for us, and by a miracle we can only begin to fathom, God makes present and available to us at every Eucharist every aspect of His incarnate Son’s life and Death and Resurrection— the whole Christ — so that whatever aspect of Christ’s life we need to draw upon is veiled for us under the sacra- mental Host. This is one way to understand the meaning of the Church’s teaching that through the Mass we can participate in the “mysteries” of Christ. 21 It follows from all this that when the Child Jesus appeared to St. Faustina at Holy Mass, He was not just pretending to make His Infancy present to her. Of course, these visions were filled with profound symbolism as well, but in a myste- rious way God incarnate as the Babe of Bethlehem really was present to her through God’s “eternal now.” The visions she had were only a “lifting of the veil,” so to speak, which enabled her to perceive this wonder of what the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament really means. One more time we can turn to the words of St. Alphonsus Liguori, who seems to refer to this same mystery of the real pres- ence of the Child Jesus in the Eucharist in his “Meditations for the Octave of Christmas”: He is born every day in the Sacrament by means of the priest and the words of consecration; the altar is the crib, and there we go to feed ourselves on his flesh. Someone might desire to have the Holy Infant in his arms, as the aged Simeon had; but faith teaches us that, when we receive Communion, 33 Saint Faustina and Devotion to the Christ Child