Can you love the Eucharist more than Saint Tarcisius did?

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