“Feed my sheep.” The words penetrate deep into me. Something powerful shivers within me, from the depths of me–yet not me, surely. Surely it is You, Lord, Your Holy Spirit, moving. What are You trying to say to me?

Many months ago, I wrote in my journal about these mental images I received during prayer, meditating on these words of Christ from the Gospel of John (21:17). And today I feel compelled to finally share this with you: a powerful image of how the Lord will preserve and protect us–even if the world may seem to be crumbling down.

In the Scriptures, Christ asks Peter to feed His sheep; He is asking Peter, if he truly loves Him, that he would lead and care for His Church. He thus named Peter the first Pope as He said, “You are Peter [meaning rock], and on this rock I will build my Church” (Matthew 16:18).

So you can imagine my confusion and slight anxiety as to how this passage applies to me. Evidently, I am not called to be a Pope nor a priest, but there are multiple layers to Scripture. What is God asking of me through this passage?

Feed My Sheep

“Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

“Feed my sheep,” He says to me. If we truly love Him above everything, He asks each of us to care for His Church in our own way. But who am I to feed Your Church? How? What are you asking of me?

Another image comes as I close my eyes–the sheep are now children, gathered around Him: “Let the children come to me” (Matthew 19:14).

What does this mean for me? Am I meant to guide your children, or… am I not just a child myself?

“Yes.”

Shivers within me. Yes. I am Your child. It’s not all on me–I can trust You to take care of me. I am Your little child, like St. Therese.

“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14).

Closing my eyes again…

Mary: The New Temple

Mother Mary–Madonna and Child–overlays the image of a temple, collapsing. Yes, collapsing, as she bends down and kisses her child–the child Jesus.

I open my eyes. What does it mean?

In the Bible, Mary is a known symbol of the new Temple: the Temple of the Holy Spirit and of God incarnate.

She does not collapse along with the temple behind her–only bends and kisses the child’s head.

The old temple–the physical temple, and symbolically the temple of this world–will come to an end. But she, as the Temple of Christ, will always stand. She will love and stay intimately close to Christ unto the end. She will stay with us–God’s children whom she adopts as her own–unto the end.

And to endure until the end, we too must cling closely to Christ; even amidst suffering, we must embrace and tenderly kiss the head of Christ in child-like surrender, saying as Our Lady did:

“I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

The 3rd Temple: The Universal (Catholic) Church

But Our Lady is also described as a parallel symbol with another Temple: the Temple of His Universal Church (the literal meaning of Catholic), within whom He dwells.

Closing my eyes again: I see Christ as a young boy, running. He is running through the temple hallways as it collapses around Him.

And yet He is smiling.

Holding up the Eucharist in His hands.

He runs past me, and I turn and see… a priest. A bishop.

The Christ Child holds out the Eucharist to him to receive.

The new Temple–the Church–is given His very Body to eat.

Ah–now I understand: “Feed my sheep.” Feed them the Living Bread.

The Church, united especially through His True Presence in the Eucharist, is thus the Temple of Christ’s very own Body. It is His very own Presence–Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity–which sustains (is the very life of!) His Church:

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. … unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.

“For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. … This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:51-58)

It is this very Bread of Eternal Life which the Bishops of the Church receive from the Christ Child in the midst of a collapsing world–it is this very Offering which, along with all of the Sacraments and teachings of Christ, has been passed down from the Apostles in a direct line through every Bishop of the Catholic Church.

It is this very Bread of Life which has sustained the Church since Christ ascended into Heaven.

I feel Him saying to me:

“Let the children come to me and eat.”

“Come and receive Me.”

“The temple of this world will fall, but ‘I am with you always, until the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:20).

There will be times when the world around us seems to be falling apart–even sometimes within the Church, because it is made up of imperfect human beings. But unlike the world, it will always be ultimately sustained by Christ.

What Does This Mean for Us?

So then, what are You asking of me? Who am I to guide your children? Am I not just a child myself?

“Yes.” Yes to both.

“Feed My sheep–My children–with the Living Bread–with Me. You are one of those children, and you are the shepherd: not on your own, but because I live within you.

“Therefore, be fed and allow me to multiply the bread. Be fed by My Word, then you may feed others; be fed by My Love, then you may feed others; be fed by My Presence, then you may feed others.

“It is not you who will save them–simply draw them to Me. Draw them to the Eucharist. Let My children come to Me. It is I who have been healing you: it is I who will heal them too.

“It is I–and I alone–who will sustain you, even as the rest of the world collapses around you. It is I–I alone–who am God who took on flesh, became a human child alongside you, and offer myself to the Father on behalf of all human kind.

“It is I alone in the Eucharist–the Bread of Life, My Body offered for you–which will sustain you.”

A Eucharistic Revival

Now, more than ever (as the now Saint Carlo Acutis would agree!), we must continue to foster a Eucharistic Revival–starting within ourselves.

Let us renew our dedication to the Eucharist: to the Mass and Eucharistic Adoration, to being with Our Lord and allowing Him fill us up, to sustain us, to guide us, and to help us draw others to Him. 

Then whenever we may come to the end of our life, or even the end of this world, may we cling to Christ and His Church, resting in the peace of knowing:

Even if the whole world around us crumbles, His Church will always stand–because she has (she is) the Body of Christ.