Cardinal Van Thuân

Ave Maria! The Vatican has announced that the cause for the canonization of Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuân was officially opened this week. I have a great love for Cardinal Van Thuân and previously blogged about him here and here. He suffered for 13 years in Vietnamese prisons without trial, nine of them in solitary confinement. I never tire of re-reading his few books, which always fill me with great hope and renewed gratitude for the Holy Eucharist. Cardinal Van Thuân said over and over again that the Eucharist was his secret strength which kept him alive and sane during his captivity in prison. With three drops of wine and one drop of water, he was able to celebrate Mass daily and thus always carry the Blessed Sacrament on his person. Having our Eucharistic Lord with him at all times was an immense joy for him, and he prayed repeatedly, "Jesus, You in me and I in You".

At the 49th International Eucharistic Congress which was held June 2008 in Quebec, Elizabeth Nguyen Thi Thu Hong, Cardinal Van Thuân's youngest sister, gave an address about her brother's message of faith and devotion to the Eucharistic Jesus. She noted how Cardinal Thuân's daily celebration of the Eucharist was not limited to those moments of the Mass itself but extended to every moment of the day and night:

"He points out to all of us that Christ offered his sacrifice with immense fervour, as in the hour of His passion and crucifixion, when He obeyed the Father; and this, even to the point of His humiliating death on the cross to bring back to the Father a redeemed humanity and a purified creation. In prison with the Eucharistic Jesus in their midst, Christian and non-Christian prisoners slowly received the grace to understand that each present moment of their lives in the most inhuman conditions can be united with the supreme sacrifice of Jesus and lifted up as an act of solemn adoration to God the Father. Together each day, Thuân would remind himself and encouraged everyone to pray: 'Lord, grant that we may offer the Eucharistic sacrifice with love, that we accept to carry the cross, and to be nailed to it to proclaim Your glory, to serve our brothers and sisters.'"

For Cardinal Van Thuân as for our Lord Jesus whom he loved so much, the Eucharist and the cross were inseparable. Through his intercession, may this always be true for us as well.

"Jesus, You in me and I in You!"