This
beautiful word called “Love” called love can evoke so many emotions within us.
So today as we end up celebrating our Republic Day. My heart was filled with love for my country, the marching contingents gave me a delight like no
other, and now as Valentine's day draws closer “the “season of love” as the world
says it. Spare a thought to focus on, how much the words “I love you” mean; are
you willing to believe in what you love? What sacrifices are you willing to
make for your love? Can you love God more
than any man? With these thoughts in my mind, I share my article on Saint Tarcisius
Can you love the Eucharist more than Saint
Tarcisius did?
“I will rather die than relinquish
the eucharist”
-
Saint Tarcisius.
How often we feel and
express love to our parents, family, someone in whom we look up to as our
future spouse, but how far would you go for that love? Perhaps we may give our
life for our worldly love but what about our Lord. How often we say I will give
my life for my faith, but deep down in our conscience we know how far we will
go to protect our lord, and here we have a teenager whose conscience was as
clear as his words; he sacrificed his life for the love of eucharist.
It
is easy to love someone whom our eyes can see, whose voice our ears can hear,
whose heartbeat we can feel when we hug them, it’s difficult to love someone
more than our own lives. However, the purest and exemplary form of a love of
which my fragile body cannot even conceive is to give my life for someone whose
voice I will hear, whose heartbeat I will feel, whose presence I will see but
only if I have “FAITH”
In the early days of Christianity, before
Emperor Constantine had adopted Christianity as the state religion, and before
the Council of Nicaea had taken place. Early Christians throughout the Roman
Empire faced severe torture and persecution. It was in this era, when Emperor Valerian
ruled over the Roman Empire Saint Tarcisius was born.
In
those early times, Christians were thrown into dark and dirty prisons, from
which they were only taken out in order to be Martyred. Christians were often
beaten or burnt to death. At times they were thrown to lions or leopards in
large open spaces surrounded by rows of seats, for the entertainment of Roman
aristocracy and citizens. To protect themselves from Romans, the Christians dug
deep underground chambers and made long tunnels between them. The openings to
these chambers were made in lonely spots outside the city, and only the
Christians knew about the entrance to these chambers. These underground chambers were known as "catacombs," and Holy
Mass was offered there, here the early Christians were instructed in the faith by the
bishops and priests and received the holy communion.
But in spite of every attempt to maintain secrecy, the Romans sometimes found
the entrance to these catacombs; the
early Christians there were caught and put in dungeons or sentenced to death. A
great many Christians had been captured and put in jails, every day in these
dungeons our early brothers and sisters spent great hours praying and singing psalms
as they awaited their certain death.
One
day these captured children locked in prisons sent a message to the Bishop asking him to
send them Holy Eucharist, for they knew that just as food nourishes our bodies,
and Holy Eucharist nourishes our souls, and they believed that if they could
only receive the body of our Lord, into their hearts so that they could be able
to bear any pain or torture for the love of our Lord.
When
this message reached the Bishop, he was in one of the catacombs ready to say a
mass, he asked all present in the catacomb to pray that he might choose the
best messenger to carry the Blessed Sacrament to the brothers and sisters
languishing in prison. He could not send a priest to do this, and most of the
other Christians were well known too. because they would be at once seized and put
in one of the many prisons. At the end of the Mass, the Bishop turned around
again and asked who would be willing to risk his life to carry Holy Eucharist to
the prisoners. A couple of men offered to carry out this perilous yet sacred
task, but since they were grown-up men suspected of being Christians, the Bishop
was afraid, they would be caught and put to death. Then a Twelve-year Tarcisius
came up to the Bishop and kneeling at his feet begged to carry out the task of taking Our Lord in the Holy
Eucharist to those who needed him the most.
He reasoned with the Bishop that, "I am so young, the guards will think I am only a messenger boy, and let
me pass."
Tarcisius
may have been an orphan and was either an acolyte or an altar server. He was well
known to all the Christians for his great love of the Holy Eucharist At first
the Bishop thought he was too young, but Tarcisius pleaded so fervently to be
allowed to carry the Eucharist that the Bishop at last and obliged to place our
Lord to his care.
The
Sacred Hosts were placed inside a white cloth within a little box which
Tarcisius put inside his tunic, just over his heart, and then with his hands
clasped over his Sacred hosts, he started off, with our Blessed Lord close to
his heart! He did not spare a thought for the people and places that he passed
by. His thoughts were focussed only on Jesus, whom he carried so close to his heart.
Along the way, he whispered, "Oh, dear Jesus, how I love you,".
"How much should I praise you to have chosen to be your little messenger. I
would willingly suffer and die for you. Whispering words of love like
these he sped quickly on his way.
As
he was walking along the Appian Way, he passed a group of his schoolmates, who
were not Christians; asked him to join their games
Tarcisius politely refused. One of them seeing how tightly Tarcisius
held his hands across his chest questioned him "What have you there?
Another one ordered him to show what he was carrying. Tarcisius cried "No,
no," struggling to free himself from their hands.
His anxiousness made them all the more curious, and together they tried to pull
away from his hands.
Under his breath, Tarcisius began to whisper "Lord, strengthen me," But
one of the boys heard the words and
cried out to the others: "He is a Christian and is hiding some Christian mystery."
This made the boys even more curious. Determined to see for themselves what he
was carrying, they began hitting him and kicking him, they did their best to
pull away his hands, but they were unable to move his hands. The commotion
attracted a mob of pagans and on realizing that Tarcisius was a Christian the
mob’s fury knew no bounds and they began lynching him simultaneously trying to
retrieve what was in his hands.
It
is believed that a soldier named Fortunatus who also happened to be a
Christian, stumbled upon the lynching scene and chased the crowd away
He
possibly recognized the Tarcisius from the catacombs and lifted his battered
body, but the boy died from his injuries in the arms of Fortunatus as he was
being carried away to the catacombs. He was buried in the cemetery of St.
Callistus, where he was revered and venerated as a martyr.
Tarcisius is honored as the patron saints of altar
boys and first communicants. He has always been an example of youthful courage
and devotion to the holy eucharist.
St.
Tarcisius Feast Day is usually forgotten as it falls on the feast of Assumption
of Mary into heaven (August 15)
Prayer
Saint
Tarcisius,
You
who are the model of courage and faith,
Bless
us and grant us your earthly brothers and sisters who humbly intercede before
you;
The
gifts of faith, courage and strength to embrace our sufferings and love our
lord more
and
more each day.
Teach
us to love and honour our lord in the holy eucharist and may we always yearn to
receive
him every day.
Be
with us, guide us and keep us pure as we were on the day of our first holy
communion.
Strengthen
our resolve so that we may never receive the holy eucharist with the stain of
sin
on our souls.
We
make this prayer through our intercessor Saint Tarcisius to Christ our Lord,
Amen.
Written by: Prajval Albuquerque
If
you like this article or find it burdensome to read it please watch this 2
minute clip on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9q4KIFpnIw
