MARIANNE SERVAAS, from Protestant to Catholic
THE EUCHARIST GIVES US STRENGTH TO BE PRESENT
MARIANNE SERVAAS, Belgian by birth, born to an outspoken anti-Catholic evangelical Protestant family, narrated her moving experience of choosing to be a Roman Catholic. By her recollection, her grandfather came from the Netherlands to Belgium in order to convince
Catholics to leave the Church and be evangelicals. However, through time, she began to have a basic question: what does it mean to be church? Her experience of church in Belgium was one that lack the “joy of the Gospel,” as Pope Francis would say. Instead, evangelical groups would split at the slightest difference in the interpretation of a single bible verse!
Living in the Philippines with her husband, they began to see the beauty of the Eucharist, and of “Eucharistic living.” They were particularly touched by the sacramental life of faith that Filipinos practice. She remarked: “The way Christ is present in and among you is almost touchable.”
The Eucharist for the Easter Vigil — the apex of the Eucharist as celebration of Jesus’ Passion, Deach and Resurrection (the Paschal Mystery) — where the host is lifted in consecration after the Eucharistic silence of Good Friday struck her as an encounter of “Christ… really present… Not only spiritually or emotionally, also concretely, materially, in the flesh and as fully as possible.” He is not an idea but a Person. Therefore, the Eucharist as the “beating heart of the Church” frees from nonsense, ideology, talk about talk that lock in ourselves. Christ in the Eucharist is therefore our medicine, our hope in glory against burn-out, depression, extreme loneliness, poverty in relationship, and hidden suffering.
“Whatever darkness rules,” Marianne stressed, Jesus the Victim that is in the Eucharistic Host teaches us to live thankfully. Trying to find the words to express her sentiments, Marianne went on to say– “Through the Eucharist, we are called day by day to live the concrete paradoxes like “lose to find”, “receive by giving”, “live by dying.” Beyond words, and beyond even symbols, the Eucharistic Jesus, free from interpretations and ideologies, is unconditionally present so that we can be like him: peacemakers, pure in heart, poor in spirit, empty of self… and so full of Him that it spills out in deeds of pure goodness.
Marianne ended therefore with a passionate plea: do not follow Europe on the road to secularism and unbelief . . . backward moves. She left these words for us to ponder: if we have lost the ability to kneel, it makes us unfree… we have lost humility and it makes us decrease our humanity. The Hostia raised and adored is the One Christ who saves us.
Her testimony ended with a confessional statement that resounded through the plenary hall: “I became and remain a Roman Catholic dues to the Eucharist.”
— Fr Domie Guzman SSP
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