Of the Chief Fruit to Be Gathered from Holy Communion, Which Is Our Union with and Transformation into Christ

ONE of the principal effects and ends for which Christ our Redeemer instituted this Divine Sacrament, or indeed the main end of all, the saints tell us, was to unite us and incorporate us and make us one thing with Himself. As when this Divine Sacrament is consecrated, by virtue of the words of consecration, that which was bread is converted into the substance of Christ, so by virtue of this Holy Communion, he who was man comes to be in a marvelous way spiritually transformed into God. This is what Christ Himself teaches in the holy Gospel: My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed: he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and I in him (John vi. 56-57). Thus, as food by virtue of the natural heat is converted into the substance of the eater and becomes one thing with him,.so he who eats this bread of angels is united and conjoined and made one thing with Christ, not by Christ converting Himself into the person to whom He gives Himself as sustenance, but by His converting and transforming into Himself him who receives Him, as the Lord Himself said to St. Augustine: “I am the food of the full-grown. Grow and thou shalt eat Me; but I would have thee know that in thy dealing with Me thou shalt not change Me into thyself, as thou dost with thy other food, but thou shalt be changed and transformed into Me”’—Cibus sum grandium. Cresce et manducabis me: nec tu me mutabis in te sicut cibum carnis tuae, sed tu mutaberis in me (“Confessions,” x. 10). So St. Thomas says that the effect of this Sacrament is to transform man into God, making him like Him. For if fire, as being such a noble element, converts into itself all that it comes in contact with, first destroying all that is in them contrary to itself, and then communicating to them its own form and perfection, how much more will this abyss of infinite goodness and nobility destroy all the evil that it finds in our souls and make them like to itself!

This is that real and true union of Christ with the communicant, which He wished to signify by those words: He is in me and I in him (John vi. 57)—the union which the saints explain by many striking comparisons. But leaving aside this union, and coming rather to practical applications, the fruit that we should endeavor to draw from Holy Communion is spiritually to unite ourselves to Christ and change and transform ourselves into Him. That means making ourselves like Him in life and manners, humble as Christ, patient as Christ, obedient as Christ, chaste and poor as Christ. That is what the Apostle means by these words: Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. xiii. 14). In the consecration the substance of bread is changed into the substance of the body of Christ while the accidents remain entire. In Communion it is the other way about;

the substance of man remains, and the accidents are changed, inasmuch as the man from being proud becomes humble, from incontinent chaste, from passionate patient, and in this manner is transformed into Christ.

St. Cyprian on those words of the prophet: My cup that inebriateth how goodly it is! (Psalm xxii. 5), which he understands of this Most Holy Sacrament, says that, as inebriation estranges a man from himself and turns him into another man, so does this Divine Sacrament estrange a man from himself and makes him another, causing him to forget the things of this world and henceforth wholly occupy himself with the things of heaven. How did the disciples at Emmaus become other men after having received this Divine Sacrament! (Luke xxiv. 35). Of doubters they became believers; of timid, strong. So we should come from Holy Communion altered and changed into other men. St. Basil says the same, quoting the words of St. Paul: That he who liveth should no longer live for himself, but wholly for God (II Cor. v. 15).

A holy woman, St. Angela of Foligno, says a thing very solid and spiritual to this effect. Treating of the conditions and signs by which we may know a soul transformed into God, one of them, she says, is when a man desires to be underrated, put down, and flouted by every creature, and that all should believe him worthy of flouts, and none should have compassion on him; and he desires not to live in the heart of any creature, but only with God. And not only does he desire to be accounted a negligible quantity, a nobody, but he takes it for a great honor to be positively run down, so as to be made conformable to Christ our Lord, to follow Whom is a great honor; and says with St. Paul: Far be it from me to glory save only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. vi. 14). In this way we should be transformed into Christ, and this is the fruit we ought to gather from Holy Communion.

St. Chrysostom, setting forth the obligation contracted by the reception of so high a Sacrament, says: ‘When we see ourselves assailed by anger or by any other vice or temptation, let us consider what a great boon has been vouchsafed to us, and let this consideration serve us for a bridle to keep us out of all sin and all imperfection.” The tongue that has touched Christ should in all conscience be sanctified, and not talk frivolities or profanities any more. The breast and heart that has received God Himself, and been a sort of pyx to hold the Most Holy Sacrament, should in all conscience not be used for a receptacle of the dung of vain desires, or converse or think now of anything else but God. Here amongst us, when a man eats a lozenge, he breathes all day long the odor of it. You have eaten this divine lozenge which contains heavenly ambergris, the odor of all virtue and Godhead; what in all conscience should be the odor you exhale! We read of a holy virgin that she said: When I go to Communion, all that day I keep my thoughts with extra diligence, imagining the Lord in my heart, as reposing there in His house. Therefore I endeavor to observe all possible modesty, in speech, look, and gait, and in all intercourse with others, like one who puts his finger to his lips, asking them to keep silence and not make a noise, for fear of awakening the sleeper.