Of a More Particular Disposition and Preparation Wherewith We Should Approach This Divine Sacrament

dl base enjoy completely the admirable fruits which this Divine Sacrament carries with it, the saints and masters of spiritual life say that we should endeavor to prepare for it by another more particular disposition, which is actual devotion. So we will declare here what this devotion ought to be and how we are to awaken it in ourselves. We must approach Holy Communion, they say, first, with the greatest humility and reverence; secondly, with the greatest love and confidence; thirdly, with great hunger and desire of this heavenly bread. To these three things may be reduced all the varieties of sentiments with which we may awaken actual devotion, as well before receiving this Holy Sacrament, as also at the time of Communion, and likewise after Communion. There are books full of considerations to this purpose, very good and very well drawn out. We will here only touch upon some of the most ordinary, which are often the most profitable, opening the way so that upon this foundation each may enlarge the subject for himself; for that method will be more moving and more profitable, according to the doctrine that we have in the Book of the Spiritual Exercises.

In the first place, we are to approach this Most Holy Sacrament with very great humility and reverence, which will be awakened in our soul by the consideration on the one hand of the sovereign majesty and greatness of God, Who is truly and really in this Most Holy Sacrament—the same Lord Who by His mere will created, conserves, and governs the heavens and the earth, and by that same will could annihilate them all; in Whose presence the angels and the highest seraphim fold their wings, tremble and quake with profoundest reverence; on the other hand, turning thence our eyes upon ourselves, looking at our lowliness and misery. At other times we may approach with the heart of the publican in the Gospel (Luke xviii. 13), who dared not draw nigh to the altar or raise his eyes to heaven, but standing afar off beat his breast with great humility, saying: O God, be merciful to me a sinner. At other times we may come with the words of the prodigal son: Lord, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am not worthy to be called thy son: receive me as one of the hired servants of thy house (Luke xv. 18-19). At other times, with those words of St. Elizabeth: Whence is this to me? (Luke i. 43), as we have said above. It will also be very well to consider attentively those words which the Church has made an institution for the time of Communion: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof, but speak only the word, and my soul shall be healed (Matt. viii. 8). Lord, I am not worthy, but I come to this intent that Thou mayest make me worthy. Lord, I am weak and infirm, but for this I come that Thou mayest heal and strengthen me; for, as Thou hast said: They who are well have no need of a physician, but they who are sick (Matt. ix. 12), and it is for them especially that Thou hast come.

Eusebuis, writing of the death of St. Jerome, at which he was present, being his disciple, says that, when he was on the point of receiving this Most Holy Sacrament, he broke out into exclamations of wonder, on the one hand, at the majesty and goodness of the Lord, and on the other hand turning his eyes upon himself, he said: “How dost Thou, O Lord, now humble Thyself so much as to wish to come and descend to a man who is a publican and a sinner, and not only to eat with him, but to bid Thyself be eaten by him!” In the Second Book of Kings Holy Scripture relates that David said to Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan: Thou shalt eat bread at my table. He answered: Who am I that thou shouldst set eyes on me, who am but as a dead dog! (II Kings iv. 7-8). If Mephibosheth said this on being invited to the table of a king, what might a man well say on being invited to the table of God! Now since we cannot approach this Divine Sacrament with the disposition it deserves, let us make up for it by humility and reverence, and say with the Royal Prophet and with holy Job: What is man, O Lord, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou dost visit him (Psalm viii. 5; Job vii. 17), and magnify and honor him so much! With reason does the Church express her wonder and sing: “O wonderful thing! <A poor lowly servant receives in his mouth and in his breast his God and Lord”—O res mirabilis! Manducat Dominum pauper, servus, et humilis.

In the second place, we should approach this Most Holy Sacrament with the utmost love and confidence; and to awaken that sentiment in us, we should consider the infinite goodness and mercy and love of the Lord, which shines forth so brilliantly here. Who, then, will not love One Who has done so much for us! What will He not give us, Who gives us Himself! St. Chrysostom says very well: “What shepherd feeds his sheep with his own blood! And why speak of shepherds? Many mothers there are who, after the labors of childbirth, hand over their children to other women to nurse and rear. But His love would not suffer that, but He nourishes us with His own blood, and unites us with Himself, and raises us and ennobles us and in every way makes us grow.”

The third thing that this Most Holy Sacrament requires is that we should come to it with great hunger and desire. “This bread,” says St. Augustine, “requires hunger of the inner man.” As bodily food then seems to be doing us good when it is eaten with hunger, so also this divine food will do us great good if the soul goes to it with great hunger, desiring to unite herself with God and to obtain some particular gift and favor. He hath filled the hungry soul with good things (Psalm cvi. 9). And the same said the most holy Queen of Angels in her Canticle. To excite this hunger and desire in our souls, it will help us much to consider on the one hand our great need, and on the other the wonderful effects that this Most Holy Sacrament works. When Christ our Redeemer walked this earth, He healed the infirmities of all who approached Him, and we do not read of anyone’s ever asking for a cure and meeting a refusal. The woman suffering from a flux of blood approached Him, touched the hem of His garment, and was cured at once. The sinful woman in the Gospel threw herself at His feet and was pardoned (Luke vii. 37-48). There came to Him lepers, and they were cleansed; there came to Him possessed persons, the blind, the palsied, and all were made whole and sound, because virtue went out of him and healed all (Luke vi. 19). So also will He work in this Most Holy Sacrament if we approach with this hunger and desire, for He is the same now as then, and has not changed His nature.