THE CHINESE CHILD WHO DIED TO REPAIR TO AN OFFER AT THE EUCHARIST
THE CHINESE CHILD WHO DIED TO REPAIR TO AN OFFER AT THE EUCHARIST
[The testimony that moved and inspired Bishop Fulton Sheen]
A few months before he died, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen was interviewed on national television: “Bishop Sheen, thousands of people around the world are inspired by her. Who were you inspired by? Maybe to some pope? "
The bishop replied that his greatest source of inspiration was not a pope, a cardinal or another bishop, and not even a priest or nun, but an 11-year-old Chinese girl.
He explained that when the communists took power in China, they arrested a priest in his rectory near the church. The priest watched the communists frightened as they invaded the sacred building and headed for the sanctuary. Filled with hatred, they profaned the tabernacle and took the chalice by throwing it on the ground, scattering consecrated hosts everywhere.
It was a period of persecution, and the priest knew exactly how many hosts were in the chalice: thirty-two.
When the Communists retired, perhaps they had not seen or paid attention to a little girl who, praying in the back of the church, had witnessed everything. In the evening the little girl returned and, eluding the guard placed in the rectory, entered the church. There he made a holy hour of prayer, an act of love to repair the act of hatred. After his holy hour, he entered the sanctuary, knelt down and, leaning forward, with his tongue received Jesus in Holy Communion (at the time lay people were not allowed to touch the Eucharist with their hands).
The little girl continued to return every evening, making the holy hour and receiving the Eucharistic Jesus on the tongue. The thirtieth night, after consuming the host, by chance it made a noise and attracted the attention of the guard, who ran after her, grabbed her and hit her until she killed her with the back of her weapon.
The priest witnessed this act of heroic martyrdom, who, disconsolate, looked from the window of his room transformed into a prison cell.
When Bishop Sheen heard that story, he was so inspired that he promised God that he would perform a holy hour of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament every day for the rest of his life. If that child had given a testimony with her own life of the real presence of her Savior in the Blessed Sacrament, the bishop was obliged to do the same. His only desire would have been to draw the world to the ardent Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
The little girl taught the bishop the true value and zeal that must be nourished for the Eucharist; how faith can overlap any fear and how true love for Jesus in the Eucharist must transcend one's life.
Source: Facebook post