V — MYSTERY OF HOPE

Presence of God. — Grant that I may hunger for You, Bread of Angels, pledge of future glory.

Meditation

1 — Jesus said: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.” This discourse did not please the Jews, who began to dispute, contesting the Master’s words; but He replied with even greater force: “Amen, amen, I say to you: unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink his Blood, you shall not have life in you” (Jn. 6:51-54). These words are peremptory and admit no doubt: whoever wishes to live must eat the Bread of life. Jesus came to bring life to the world, the supernatural life of grace that was given to our souls through Baptism, and it was given precisely because this sacrament grafted us into Christ, so that from Him, from his fullness, we have received this life. But this life must be nourished, and our insertion into Christ must become ever deeper. Precisely for this purpose Jesus Himself willed to come into us with all his substance as God-Man and willed to become the bread of our supernatural life, the bread of our union with Him. “Many mothers,” says St. John Chrysostom, “entrust to other nurses the children they have brought into the world. Jesus did not do so, but He Himself nourishes us with his own Blood and wholly incorporates us into Himself.” As Baptism is the sacrament that grafts us into Christ, so the Eucharist is the sacrament that nourishes in us the life of Christ, that makes our union with Him ever closer and more intimate, indeed, that transforms us into Him. “As when melted wax is poured upon other wax, one necessarily mingles completely with the other, so he who receives the Flesh and Blood of the Lord is so united with Him that Christ dwells in him and he in Christ” (St. Cyril of Jerusalem).

2 — By nourishing in us the life of Christ, the Eucharist nourishes in us a life that has no end; by uniting us to Him who is Life, it frees us from death. In fact Jesus said: “He who eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn. 6:55). Let us note that He said has eternal life and not will have, because the Eucharist, increasing grace in us - and grace is the seed of glory - becomes for us a true pledge of eternal life. And this not only for the soul, but also for the body: “The divine Host communicates to it the germ of the future resurrection; the immortal Body of Christ,” says Leo XIII, “infuses [into our body] a seed of immortality that one day will rise up and bear its fruits” (Enc. Mirae caritatis). Considered under this aspect, the sacrament of the Eucharist is truly the sacrament of hope: hope of heavenly glory, of the beatific vision in which our “communion” with Christ will never end. Eternal “communion” begins here below precisely with Eucharistic Communion, which is its prelude, pledge, and even a little anticipation. But also for the present life, particularly with regard to our spiritual progress, the Eucharist is a great motive of hope and trust. In fact, by increasing grace in us, it also increases charity, and as charity grows, the passions are repressed: “the increase of charity,” says St. Augustine, “is the weakening of passion, and its perfection is the absence of passion.” If at times the struggle against some defect or temptation becomes more violent and difficult, if despite our efforts we do not succeed in completely overcoming nature, let us trust in the Eucharist: Jesus, coming into us, can calm every storm and give us the strength to win every battle. “The most chaste flesh of Jesus,” teaches St. Cyril of Alexandria, “restrains the insolence of our flesh; indeed Christ, being in us, extinguishes the law of the flesh raging in our members.” The Eucharist is therefore our hope both for the present life and for the future life: it sustains us in adversity, strengthens us in the struggle for virtue, preserves us for eternal life, and leads us to it by supplying the provisions needed for the journey (cf. Mirae caritatis).

Colloquy

“O heavenly Father, You have given us your Son and sent Him into the world by your own will. And You, my Jesus, by your own will did not wish to abandon the world, happy to remain with us for the greater joy of your friends. This is why, O divine Father, You have bestowed on us this most divine Bread, and have given us for perpetual nourishment the manna of Jesus’ most sacred Humanity: we can now find it whenever we wish, so that if we die of hunger it is solely our own fault.

“My soul, you will always find in the Most Blessed Sacrament, under whatever aspect you consider it, great consolations and delights; and after beginning to taste the Savior, there will be no trials, persecutions, or sufferings that you will not bear easily. Let those ask for material bread who wish. As for me, O Eternal Father, I ask You to grant me to receive the heavenly Bread with such dispositions that, though I do not have the happiness of contemplating Jesus with the eyes of the body, because He is too hidden, I may at least contemplate Him with those of the soul. This is a Bread that gathers in itself every sweetness and delight and sustains life!” (T.G. Cam. 34, 2 and 5).

“In You, O Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, heavenly Food, all goods are enclosed! And what else can the soul want when it contains within itself Him who contains all things? If I desire charity, by having within me Him who is perfect charity, I come to possess the perfection of charity, and so too of faith, hope, purity, patience, humility, and meekness, because You, O Christ, by means of this Food, produce in the soul all the virtues. And what more can I want and desire, if all the virtues, gifts, and graces I long for are gathered in You, O Lord, who are truly present under the sacramental species, just as You are truly in Heaven at the right hand of the Father? Therefore, having and possessing so great a good, I want nothing else, I desire nothing else, I long for nothing else!” (St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi).