The eucharistic crib

The Christmas night during the apparition the Mother of the Eucharist thanked the community for realizing a very particular crib: "Baby Jesus has to bless you all, one by one, for what you have done in this thaumaturgical place. What fascinates us is what you have done. Bear in mind that I suggested all this to little Marisa, in no part of the world there is a crib conceived like that: a hut over the altar, on which in a few moments Jesus the Eucharist will be present, and over there the little Baby, the angels and the shepherds" . Also during the apparition that took place the following morning, Our Lady spoke about our crib: "I repeat what I said this night: all over the world you can't find a crib like this. God gave an order, you obeyed and did what you could; you were good" .

A very simply structured hut was built over the altar and the thaumaturgical crucifix of our basilica and before the altar was placed the thaumaturgical statue of Baby Jesus. The young people of the community and the visionary, who were dressed with white or coloured albs, represented the different characters. In the middle of the scene was placed the altar, where the bishop celebrated the holy Mass. In this way, by God's will, for the first time in the world was realized an "Eucharistic crib" that represents a marvellous and deep theological reality in which both the Mystery of the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Eucharistic Mystery are present.

Jesus is true God and true man, so all his actions can be considered from both the human and the divine point of view. Each human action begins and ends and Christ, as a man, does his actions with a temporal succession. But if we think about the definition that God gives of Himself: "I am the one who is" (Gen. 3,14), we understand that for God neither past nor future exist; every moment is present in God and He is always himself. So from the divine point of view Jesus acts out of time and space. If God's actions were restrained by time and limited by space, we should affirm that in God there are a beginning and an end, that is a becoming, but this is absurd, it is a theological aberration.

Applying this truth to Christ's birth, we can affirm that Jesus, as God, "is born perennially". If we extend the stated truth to all Christ's actions we can understand why Jesus can appear to men in the semblance of a little child, as happened many times to Marisa, of the young twelve year-old boy, of the teaching adult, of the one who dies on the cross. From the human point of view, the birth, passion, death and resurrection take place in different moments, but from the divine point of view, Jesus Christ is always present in the Mystery of Incarnation, of his passion, death and resurrection. As a matter of fact the Mass is actualisation of events which are far away in time, but through God's power they are present for us, so we can really celebrate Jesus' passion, death and resurrection.

In the Mystery of Incarnation and in the Eucharistic Mystery is present the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, so we can affirm that Jesus Christ is born, suffers, dies and resuscitates in every moment of the human history. As a consequence every day is Christmas and every day is Easter. The Mystery of the Incarnation and the Eucharistic Mystery are present and current for every man, while with the passing of time the centuries that outdistance us from his birth and Easter become more numerous.

We have to consider that in God is present a so immense and infinite reality that, to understand it a little, we are obliged to split it up. This year the Lord wanted to make us understand and live the marvellous reality that we can celebrate at the same time Jesus' birth, passion, death and resurrection. This is also an invitation to live the holy Mass with more and more participation, to receive the Eucharist with more and more robust faith and greater and greater love, because only God can allow the man to lift himself up to understand Him, otherwise it would be absolutely impossible. In John's Gospel is written: "But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1, 12-13). We were generated by God and brought to a height that we would have never reached only with our strength; is a God's gift being his children and we must remind this gift in every liturgical celebration, from Christmas to Easter and vice-versa.

At this point we must conclude that everything is Eucharist, because through the Eucharist we have everything: the grace of God, the sacrifice of Christ, not only the presence of Christ, but also of the Most Holy Trinity. If we love the Eucharist, we are on the right path that leads us to the Paradise.

We can conclude with our bishop's words: "Understanding God is difficult, loving Him is much easier. If we won't be able to understand Him, let's commit ourselves to love Him more and I can assure you that if love increases, comprehension increases too".