Chapter II

How much Jesus Christ deserves to be loved by us for the love he showed us in instituting the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.

Sciens Iesus quia venit hora eius ut transeat ex hoc mundo ad Patrem, cum dilexisset suos... in finem dilexit eos (Io. XIII, 1). Our most loving Savior, knowing that the hour had come for him to depart from this earth, before going to die for us, wished to leave us the greatest sign of love he could give us, which was precisely this gift of the Blessed Sacrament. St. Bernardine of Siena says that the signs of love shown at the moment of death remain more firmly in our memory and are held more dear: Quae in fine in signum amicitiae celebrantur, firmius memoriae imprimuntur et cariora tenentur. And so friends, when dying, are accustomed to leave those whom they loved in life some gift — a garment, a ring — in memory of their affection. But you, my Jesus, departing from this world, what did you leave us in memory of your love? Not a garment or a ring, but you left us your body, your blood, your soul, your divinity — your whole self, reserving nothing. Totum tibi dedit, says St. John Chrysostom, nihil sibi reliquit.

The Council of Trent says that in this gift of the Eucharist, Jesus Christ wished, as it were, to pour forth all the riches of the love he bore for men: Divitias sui erga homines amoris velut effudit (Sess. XIII, c. 2). And the Apostle notes that Jesus wished to make this gift to men on that very night in which men were preparing his death: In qua nocte tradebatur, accepit panem, et gratias agens, fregit et dixit: Accipite et manducate, hoc est corpus meum (I. Cor. XI, 23, 24). St. Bernardine of Siena says that Jesus Christ, burning with love for us and not content to prepare himself to give his life for us, was compelled before dying by the excess of his love to do a work even greater, which was to give us his very body as food: In illo fervoris excessu, quando paratus erat pro nobis mori, ab excessu amoris maius opus agere coactus est, quam umquam operatus fuerat, dare nobis corpus in cibum.

Well, then, did St. Thomas call this sacrament sacramentum caritatis, pignus caritatis. A sacrament of love, because love alone moved Jesus Christ to give us his whole self in it; and a pledge of love, so that if we should ever doubt his love, in this sacrament we would have received the pledge. As if our Redeemer had said in leaving us this gift: Souls, if ever you doubt my love, behold, I leave you myself in this sacrament; with such a pledge in hand, you can no longer doubt that I love you, and love you greatly. Moreover, St. Bernard called this sacrament amor amorum, the love of loves, because this gift comprehends all the other gifts the Lord has given us — creation, redemption, predestination to glory — since the Eucharist is not only the pledge of the love of Jesus Christ, but also the pledge of the paradise he wishes to give us: In quo futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur. Hence St. Philip Neri could not name Jesus Christ in the sacrament except by the name of Love. So indeed was he heard to exclaim when the Blessed Viaticum was brought to him: "Here is my Love," he said, "give me my Love."

The prophet Isaiah wished that the loving inventions God has devised to make himself loved by men be made known to all. And who could ever have imagined, if God himself had not done it, that the Incarnate Word would place himself under the appearances of bread to become our food? Does it not seem like madness, says St. Augustine, to say: Eat my flesh, drink my blood? Nonne insania videtur dicere: Manducate meam carnem, bibite meum sanguinem? When Jesus Christ revealed to his disciples this sacrament he wished to leave us, they could not bring themselves to believe it, and they took their leave of him, saying: Quomodo potest hic carnem suam dare ad manducandum? (Io. VI, 53). Durus est hic sermo, et quis potest eum audire? (Io. VI, 61). But what men could not imagine or believe, the great love of Jesus Christ has imagined and accomplished. Accipite et manducate, he said to his disciples, and through them to all of us, before going to die: Receive and eat! But what food is this, O Savior of the world, that before dying you wish to give us? Accipite et manducate: hoc est corpus meum (I Cor. XI, 24). This food is not earthly: it is I myself, who give myself wholly to you.

And oh, with what longing Jesus Christ yearns to come to our souls in Holy Communion! Desiderio desideravi hoc pascha manducare vobiscum (Luc. XXII, 15). So he spoke on that night in which he instituted this sacrament of love. Desiderio desideravi: this, writes St. Lawrence Justinian, was the cry of his immense love for us: Flagrantissimae caritatis est vox haec. And so that everyone could easily receive him, he chose to remain under the appearances of bread. Had he left himself under the appearance of some rare or costly food, the poor would have been deprived of him; but no, Jesus chose to place himself under the appearances of bread, which costs little and is found everywhere, so that all people in every land might find him and receive him.

And so that we too might desire to receive him in Holy Communion, he not only exhorts us with so many invitations: Venite, comedite panem meum et bibite vinum quod miscui vobis (Prov. IX, 5); comedite, amici, et bibite, speaking of this heavenly bread and wine (Cant. V, 1); but he also commands it as a precept: Accipite et manducate: hoc est corpus meum (I. Cor. XI, 24). Moreover, to move us to receive him, he entices us with the promise of paradise: Qui manducat meam carnem, habet vitam aeternam (Io. VI, 55). Qui manducat hunc panem vivet in aeternum (Ibid. 59). Furthermore, he threatens us with the exclusion from paradise if we refuse to receive Communion: Nisi manducaveritis carnem Filii hominis, non habebitis vitam in vobis (Ibid. 54). These invitations, these promises, and these threats all arise from his great desire to come to us in this sacrament.

But why does Jesus Christ so greatly desire that we receive him in Holy Communion? Here is the reason. St. Dionysius says that love always aspires to and tends toward union; and as it is said in St. Thomas: Amantes desiderant ex ambobus fieri unum: friends who love one another with all their heart would wish to be so united as to become one. Now it is this that the immense love of God for men has brought about — that he not only gives himself entirely to them in the eternal kingdom, but that even on this earth he lets himself be possessed by men with the most intimate union possible, giving himself wholly to them under the appearances of bread in the Sacrament. There he stands as if behind a wall, and from there he looks at us through narrow lattices: En ipse stat post parietem nostrum, respiciens per fenestras, prospiciens per cancellos (Cant. II, 9). We do not see him, but from there he watches us, and there he is truly present: present to let himself be possessed by us, yet hidden to make himself desired by us; and until we reach our homeland, Jesus wishes to give himself entirely to us and to remain wholly united with us.

He could not satisfy his love by giving himself to the whole human race through his Incarnation and Passion, dying for all men; he wished to find a way to give himself entirely to each one of us; and therefore he instituted the Sacrament of the altar, in order to unite himself wholly with each one of us. Qui manducat meam carnem, he said, in me manet et ego in eo (Io. VI, 57). In Holy Communion, Jesus unites himself to the soul, and the soul to Jesus, and this union is not one of mere affection, but true and real. Hence St. Francis de Sales said: "In no other action can the Savior be considered more tender or more loving than in this one, in which he annihilates himself, so to speak, and reduces himself to food in order to penetrate our souls and unite himself to the hearts of his faithful." St. John Chrysostom says that Jesus Christ, out of the ardent love he bore us, wished to unite himself with us so completely that we would become one with him: Semetipsum nobis immiscuit ut unum quid simus: ardenter enim amantium hoc est.

In short, adds St. Lawrence Justinian, O God enamored of our souls, with this Sacrament you wished to make your Heart and ours one single heart, inseparably united: O mirabilis dilectio tua, Domine Iesu, qui tuo corpori taliter nos incorporari voluisti, ut tecum unum Cor et animam unam haberemus inseparabiliter colligatam! St. Bernardine of Siena adds that Jesus Christ's giving himself to us as food was the ultimate degree of love, since he gave himself to us in order to be totally united with us, as food and the one who eats it are united together: Ultimus gradus amoris est, cum se dedit nobis in cibum, quia dedit se nobis ad omnimodam unionem, sicut cibus et cibans invicem uniuntur. Oh, how greatly Jesus Christ delights in being united with our souls! One day, after Communion, he said to his beloved servant Margaret of Ypres: "See, my daughter, the beautiful union between me and you; now love me, and let us always remain united in love, and never be separated."

We must therefore be persuaded that a soul can do nothing more pleasing to Jesus Christ than to go to receive Communion with the fitting disposition for so great a guest whom she is to receive in her breast; for thus she unites herself to Jesus Christ, which is the intent of this enamored Lord. I said: with the fitting disposition, not the worthy one, because if the worthy were required, who could ever receive Communion? Only another God would be worthy to receive a God. By fitting I mean what befits a poor creature clothed in the unhappy flesh of Adam. It suffices that the person, generally speaking, receive Communion in the state of grace, and with a living desire to grow in love for Jesus Christ. "Only out of love should Jesus Christ be received in Communion," said St. Francis de Sales, "since he gives himself to us solely out of love." As for how often each person should receive Communion, this should be guided by the judgment of one's spiritual director. Let it be known, however, that no state or occupation, including that of married persons or merchants, prevents frequent Communion when the director deems it appropriate, as Pope Innocent XI declared in his decree of 1679, where it was said: Frequens accessus ad Eucharistiam confessariorum iudicio est relinquendus, qui... laicis negotiatoribus et coniugatis, quod prospiciunt eorum saluti profuturum, id illis praescribere debebunt.

We must then understand that there is nothing from which we can draw so much profit as from Communion. The Eternal Father has made Jesus Christ master of all his divine riches: Omnia dedit ei Pater in manus (Io. XIII, 3). And so when Jesus comes to a soul in Holy Communion, he brings with him immense treasures of grace. Therefore the person who has received Communion may well say: Venerunt autem mihi omnia bona pariter cum illa (Sap. VII, 11). St. Dionysius says that the sacrament of the Eucharist has the greatest power to sanctify souls, more than all other spiritual means: Eucharistia maximam vim habet perficiendae sanctitatis. And St. Vincent Ferrer wrote that the soul profits more from one Communion than from a week of fasting on bread and water.

First of all, as the Council of Trent teaches, Communion is that great remedy that frees us from venial sins and preserves us from mortal sins: Antidotum quo a culpis quotidianis liberemur et a mortalibus praeservemur (Trid. Sess. XIII, cap. 2). It says liberemur a culpis quotidianis, because, according to St. Thomas (3 p. q. 79. a. 4), through this Sacrament a person is moved to make acts of love, by which venial sins are then forgiven. And it says a mortalibus praeservemur, because Communion confers an increase of grace that preserves us from grave sins. Hence Innocent III wrote that Jesus Christ by his Passion freed us from the power of sin, but by the Eucharist he frees us from the power of sinning: Per crucis mysterium liberavit nos a potestate peccati; per Eucharistiae sacramentum liberat nos a potestate peccandi.

Moreover, this Sacrament above all inflames souls with divine love. God is love: Deus caritas est (Io. IV, 8). And he is a fire that consumes in our hearts all earthly affections: Ignis consumens est (Deut. IV, 24). Now this fire of love is precisely what the Son of God came to kindle on earth: Ignem veni mittere in terram; and he added that he desired nothing else than to see this holy fire kindled in our souls: Et quid volo, nisi ut accendatur? (Luc. XII, 49). And oh, what flames of divine love Jesus Christ kindles in everyone who devoutly receives him in this Sacrament! St. Catherine of Siena one day saw the sacramental Jesus in the hands of a priest as a globe of fire, and the saint marveled that all men's hearts were not burned to ashes by that flame. St. Rose of Lima, after Communion, sent forth such rays from her face that they dazzled the sight, and such heat came from her mouth that anyone who brought a hand near it felt it burn. It is told of St. Wenceslaus that simply by visiting the churches where the Blessed Sacrament was kept, he was so inflamed with ardor that the servant who accompanied him, walking in the snow and placing his feet in the saint's footprints, no longer felt the cold. And so St. Chrysostom said that the Blessed Sacrament is a fire that inflames us, so that leaving the altar we may breathe such flames of love as to make us terrible to hell: Carbo est Eucaristia, quae nos inflammat, ut tamquam leones ignem spirantes ab illa mensa recedamus, facti diabolo terribiles.

The bride in the Canticles said: Introduxit me rex in cellam vinariam, ordinavit in me caritatem (Cant. II, 4). St. Gregory of Nyssa writes that Communion is precisely that wine cellar where the soul becomes so intoxicated with divine love that she forgets and loses sight of all created things; and this is that languishing of love, of which she then speaks, saying: Fulcite me floribus, stipate me malis, quia amore langueo (ibid. 5). Someone may say: But I do not receive Communion often precisely because I find myself cold in divine love. To this Gerson responds: "So because you find yourself cold, you wish to distance yourself from the fire?" On the contrary, because you feel cold, all the more should you approach this Sacrament frequently, provided you have a true desire to love Jesus Christ. Licet tepide, wrote St. Bonaventure, tamen confidens de misericordia Dei accedas; tanto magis eget medico, quanto quis senserit se aegrotum. Likewise, St. Francis de Sales said in his Introduction to the Devout Life (ch. 21): "Two kinds of people should receive Communion frequently: the perfect, in order to preserve themselves in perfection, and the imperfect, in order to attain perfection." But to receive Communion frequently, it is at least necessary to have a great desire to become holy and to grow in love for Jesus Christ. One day the Lord said to St. Mechtilde: "When you are about to receive Communion, desire all the love that any heart has ever had for me, and I will receive that love as you would wish it to be."

Affections and Prayers

O God of love, O infinite Lover, worthy of infinite love, tell me, is there anything more you could devise to make yourself loved by us? It was not enough for you to become man and to subject yourself to so many of our miseries. It was not enough for you to shed all your blood for us through torments, and then to die consumed by sufferings upon a scaffold reserved for the vilest criminals. In the end you reduced yourself to placing yourself under the appearances of bread to become our food, and so to unite yourself wholly with each one of us. Tell me, I say again, is there anything more you could devise to make yourself loved? Woe to us if in this life we do not love you! When we have entered eternity, what remorse will we feel for not having loved you!

My Jesus, I do not wish to die without loving you, and loving you greatly.

It grieves me deeply and pains me to have caused you so many displeasures; I repent and could wish to die of sorrow.

Now I love you above all things, I love you more than myself, and I consecrate to you all my affections. You who already give me this desire, give me the strength to carry it out.

My Jesus, my Jesus, I want nothing from you but you. Now that you have drawn me to your love, I leave all, I renounce all, and I cling to you; you alone suffice for me.

O Mother of God, Mary, pray to Jesus for me, and make me a saint. Add this to the many wonders you have worked in changing sinners into saints.