Skip to the text
Ember
PT

In mei memoriam

Summary. — The Eucharist is a mystery of faith, — I. The Sacrifice of the Altar perpetuates the memory of Jesus. — if. The manna, figure of the Eucharistic sacrifice. — III. We find in this Sacrament the virtue of the mysteries of Jesus. — IV. How to participate in it by the Sacrifice of the Mass, Communion, and visits to the Blessed Sacrament. The profound reverence with which we ought to surround this mystery. — V. How, by faith, we are united to Christ in this Sacrament and, by Him, to the Father and the Holy Spirit.

LL Christ’s mysteries are essentially mysteries of faith ; without faith we cannot accept nor com template any of them.

However the degree of light which enlightens our faith in each of them is different. At Bethlehem we only see a little babe in the manger ; without faith, we should not recognize in Him the Son of God, the sovereign Master of all creatures ; but we hear the voices of the angels of heaven celebrating the coming of this Saviour of the world ; we see a marvellous star leading the Eastern Kings to His feet. At the baptism of Jesus, our eyes only behold a man who submits himself, like the other Jews, to the rite of penance ; but the heavens open, the voice of the Eternal Father is heard declaring that this Man is the Son of His dilection, in Whom He is infinitely well pleased. Upon Thabor, in the mystery of the Transfiguration, faith is powerfully aided ; the glory of the Divinity which penetrates the Humanity of Jesus visibly shines through upon it : the dazzled disciples fall upon their faces on the earth. The Divinity is, on the contrary, veiled when Christ dies upon the Cross, like the last of men in the midst of torments ; and yet the Centurion cries out that Christ is the Son of God. Nature herself, by the convulsions she undergoes at this unique moment, renders solemn homage to her Creator.

At the Resurrection, what do we see? Jesus is all resplendent with glory ; but He proves at the same time to His Apostles that He is still Himself, Man as well as God : He allows Himself to be touched, He eats with them, He shows them the marks of His Wounds, so as to manifest to them that He is not only a spirit, but that He is the same Jesus with Whom they had lived for three years.

As you then see, if in each of Christ’s mysteries, there is enough shadow to render our faith meritorious, there is also enough light to help our faith ; in all, we see manifested the ineffable union of the Divinity with the Humanity.

But there is one mystery in which the Divinity and Humanity, far from being revealed, both disappear from our senses : this is the mystery of the Eucharist.

What is there upon the altar before the consecration ? A little bread, a little wine. And after the consecration ? For the senses, still bread and wine. Faith alone penetrates beneath these veils, even to the divine reality therein totally hidden. Without faith, we shall never see anything but bread and wine ; we do not see God, He does not here reveal Himself as in the Gospel. We do not even see His Manhood :

In cruce latebat sola deitas, At hic latet simul et humanitas?.

“When Christ, during His earthly life, declared that He was the Son of God, He gave the proof that He was so. It was clear indeed that He was a man, but a man whose doctrine could only come from God : Quem enim misit Deus, verba Dei loquitur? ; a man who wrought marvels that only God could work : A saeculo non est auditum quia quis aperuit oculos caeci nati; nisi esset hic a Deo, non poterat facere quidquam . Nicodemus the Pharisee, like the man born blind, confessed this likewise : Scimus quia a Deo venisti ; nemo enim potest haec signa facere, quae tu facts, nisi fuerit Deus cum eo: “ Rabbi, we know that Thou art come a teacher from God: for no man can do these signs which Thou dost, unless God be with Him”. Faith was necessary, but the miracles of Jesus and the sublimity of His doctrine helped the faith of the Jews, that of the simple as well as of the wise.1

In the Eucharist, there is only room for pure faith, founded solely upon the words of Jesus: “This is My Body, this is My Blood” : the Eucharist is above all a “mystery of faith”, Mysterium fidet?.

That is why, in this mystery of the Eucharist, more than in any that we have contemplated up to now, we must only listen to Jesus ; reason is so confounded before this mystery that those who, in this, do not listen to Christ can only say like the Jews when Our Lord announced the Eucharist : Durus est hic sermo, et quis potest eum audire ? “ This saying is hard, and who can hear it”? ? Let us, on the contrary, go to Jesus as did the faithful apostles on this occasion, and say to Him with Peter : “ Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have known, that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God” : Domine, ad quem itbimus ? Verba vitae aeternae habes. Et nos credidimus et cognovimus quia tu es Christus Filius Dei vivi®.

Let us then question Our Lord on the subject of this mystery. Christ Jesus is Infallible Truth, Eternal Wisdom, Almighty Power. Shall He not perform that which He has promised ?

I

When our Divine Saviour instituted this mystery in view of perpetuating the fruits of His Sacrifice, He said to His apostles : Hoc facite in meam commemorationem, “Do this for a commemoration of Me”*. Thus, besides the primary object of renewing His immolation and making us participate in it by Communion, Christ desired to make of it, in addition, a memorial. And in what way is this mystery a memorial ? How does it bring the remembrance of Christ to our hearts ?

The Eucharist preserves the remembrance of Jesus, first of all as being a sacrifice.

Certainly, as you know, there is only one sacrifice, total, and perfect, that has paid off and expiated everything, that has merited everything, and from which every grace flows : that is the sacrifice of Calvary ; there is none other. Una enim oblatione consummavit in sempiternum sanctificatos }. “ By one oblation”’, says St. Paul, “He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified ”2

But in order that the merits of this sacrifice may be applied to every soul of every time, Christ willed that it should be renewed upon the altar. The altar is another Calvary where the immolation of the Cross is commemorated, represented and reproduced. Thus, wherever there is to be found a priest to consecrate the bread and wine, the remembrance of the Passion is kept. That which is offered and given upon the altar is the Body that was broken for us, the Blood which was shed for our salvation ?. It is the same High Priest, Christ Jesus, Who still offers them by the ministry of His priests. Hence how can we fail to think of the Passion when we assist at the Sacrifice of the Mass, where all is identical, except the manner in which the oblation is accomplished * ?

No Mass is celebrated, no Communion made without our being enabled to remember that Jesus delivered Himself up to death for the redemption of the world. “For”, says St. Paul, “as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until He come” : QUOTIESCUMQUE enim manducabitis panem hunc et calicem bibetis, mortem Domini annuntiabitis donec veniat *.

Thus is perpetuated, living and fruitful, until the end of time, the remembrance of Christ among those whom He came to redeem by His immolation.

The Eucharist is then truly the memorial that Christ has left to us of His Passion and His Death : it is the testament of His love. Wherever the bread and wine are offered, wherever the consecrated Host is found, there appears the remembrance of Christ’s immolation : Hoc facite im meam commemorationem.3

The Eucharist recalls to us above all the memory of the Passion of Jesus. It was on the eve of His death that He instituted it ; He left it to us as the testament of His love.

But it does not exclude the other mysteries. See what the Church does. She is the Bride of Christ, none knows better than she the intentions of her Divine Head; in the organisation of the public worship which she renders to Him, she is guided by the Holy Spirit. Now what does she say ? Directly after the Consecration, she first of all recalls the words of Jesus : Haec quotiescumque feceritis, in Mei memoriam facietis : “ As often as ye do these things, ye shall do them in remembrance of Me”. And at once she adds, to show how closely she enters into the sentiments of her Spouse: “‘ Wherefore, O Lord, we thy servants together with Thy holy people, in memory of the blessed Passion of the same Christ Our Lord, and of His Resurrection from hell, also of His glorious Ascension into Heaven offer unto Thy most excellent Majesty... the holy bread of eternal life, and the chalice of everlasting salvation” : Unde et memores... tam beatae passionis nec non et ab mferis resurrectionts sed et m caelos gloriosae ascensionis+, After the mention of “‘ the Ascension to the right hand of the Father ”, the Greeks likewise add, “that of the second and glorious coming of Christ” ?.

So then, although the Eucharist recalls (in a direct manner, and in the first place) the Passion of Jesus, it does not exclude the remembrance of the glorious mysteries which are linked so closely to the Passion of which they are, in a sense, the crown.

Since it is the Body and Blood of Christ that we receive, the Eucharist supposes the Incarnation and the mysteries which are founded upon or flow from it. Christ is upon the altar with the divine life which never ceases, with His mortal life of which the historical form has doubtless

  1. A similar prayer is made after the Oifertory : ‘‘ Receive, O holy Trinity, this oblation, which we make to Thee, in memory of the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ. ”’ Suscipe,sancta Trinitas hanc oblationem quam tibi offerimus ob memoriam passionis, vesurrectionis, et ascensionis Jesu Christi Domini nostri. — 2. Cf. D. KE. Vandeur, La sainte Messe, Notes sur la liturgie, 35° mille, pp. 164 and 223-226. ceased, but of which the substance and merits remain, with His glorious life which shall have no end?.

All this, as you know, is really contained in the Sacred Host and given in Communion to our souls. In communicating Himself to us, Christ gives Himself in the substantial totality of His works and mysteries, as in the oneness of His Person. Yes, let us say, with the Psalmist who sings in prophecy the glory of the Eucharist, the Lord “hath made a remembrance of His wonderful works, being a merciful and gracious Lord, He hath given food to them that fear Him” : Memoriam fecit mirabilium suorum, misericors et miserator Dominus : escam dedit timentibus se ?.

The Eucharist is like the synthesis of the marvels of the love of the Incarnate Word towards us.

II

If we now consider the Eucharist as a Sacrament, we shall discover in it wonderful properties which only a God could invent.

I have often said after St. Paul, to whom this idea is dear, that the chief events in the history of the Jewish people under the old Law were symbols, sometimes hidden and obscure, sometimes apparent and luminous, of the realities that were to be the light of the New Testament established by Christ. Now, according to Our Lord’s own words, one of the most characteristic figures of the Eucharist was the manna; with a special insistence, our Divine Saviour established comparisons between this food which came down from heaven to nourish the Hebrews in the desert, and the Eucharistic bread which He was to give to the world. Therefore it is to enter into the intentions of Christ if we study the figure and symbol the better to grasp the reality.

Now see in what terms the sacred writer, the instrument of the Holy Spirit, speaks to us of the manna. “ Thou didst feed Thy people with the food of angels, and gavest them bread from heaven prepared without labour, having in it all that is delicious, and the sweetness of every taste. For Thy sustenance shewed Thy sweetness to Thy children, and serving every man’s will, it was turned to what every man liked” : Deserviens uniuscujusque voluntati, ad quod quisque volebat convertebatur’.4

The Church in the office of the Blessed Sacrament applies these magnificent words to the Eucharist”. We are about to see with what truth and fulness they express the properties of the Eucharistic Bread ; we shall see with how much more reason we can sing of the Sacred Host what the inspired author sings of the manna.

Like to manna, the Eucharist is a food, but a spiritual food. It is in the midst of a repast, under the form of food, that Our Lord chose to institute it. Christ Jesus gives Himself to us as the nourishment of our souls : “ My Flesh is meat indeed : and My Blood is drink indeed” : Caro mea vere est cibus, et sanguis meus vere est potus *.

Again like the manna, the Eucharist is bread come down from heaven. But the manna was only an imperfect figure ; that is why Our Lord said to the Jews who recalled to Him the miracle of the desert : “ Moses gave you bread from heaven, but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the world”. This bread is given not only to one particular people—but to all mankind.

And as the Jews murmured at hearing Jesus call Himself “the Bread come down from heaven’, He added : “I am the Bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven ; that if any man eat of it, he may not die. I am the living Bread which came down from heaven ; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever ”,—for it places in our very bodies the germ of the resurrection.—“ And the bread that I will give, is My Flesh, for the life of the — world ” ¢,

In these words our Saviour Himself shows us how the Divine Eucharistic reality surpasses in plenitude, in its sub-

  1. Angelorum esca nutrivisti populum tuum, et paratum panem de caelo praestitisti tllis sine labore. omne delectamentum in se habentem, et omnis saporis suavitatem. Substantia enim tua dulcedinem tuam, quam in filtos habes, ostendebat : et deserviens uniuscujusque voluntati, ad quod quisque volebat, convertebalur. Sap. XVI, 20-21. — 2 Canticles of 34. Nocturn of Matins (Monastic Breviary) ; cf. 2", Antiphon of Lauds. — 3. Joan. VI, 56. — 4. Ibid. 32-33, 48-52. stance and fruits, the nourishment given of old to the Jewish people.

This bread from heaven gives us life by nourishing grace within us. It has in it all that is delicious and sweet : Omne delectamentum in se habentem, et omnis saporis suavitatem.

Nothing is so joyous as a feast ; Holy Communion is the feast of the soul, that is to say, a source of deepest joys. Why should not Christ Jesus, Truth and Life, principle of all being and of all beatitude, fill our hearts with joy ? Why, in making us drink from the chalice of His Divine Blood, should He not pour into our souls that spiritual gladness which excites charity and sustains fervour ? See Him in the supper room, after He has instituted this Divine Sacrament. He speaks to His Apostles of His joy ; He desires that this joy, His own joy, altogether divine, should become ours, and that our hearts should be filled with it : Ut gaudium MEUM in vobis sit*. It is one of the effects of the Eucharist when received with devotion, to fill the soul with supernatural sweetness that renders it prompt and devoted in God’s service. ;

Let us not forget, however, that this joy is above all spiritual. The Eucharist being eminently the “ mystery of faith”, it may happen that God permits that this altogether inward joy should not react upon the sensible part of our being. It may happen that very fervent souls remain in a state of great dryness and aridity, after having received the Bread of life. Do not let them be astonished at this ; above all never let them be discouraged ; if they have brought all the good dispositions possible for receiving Christ, and still suffer from their powerlessness, let them be reassured and remain in peace. Christ, ever living, acts in silence, but sovereignly in the innermost depths of the soul in order to transform it into Himself ; that is the most precious effect of this heavenly food : “ He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him 7;7:

What more is there to be said ? This living Bread which gives life, this delicious food that brings joy is granted to us “without labour” ; size labore. That was one of the properties of the manna. How much more is this verified in the Eucharistic food !5

What indeed is required of us in order that we may sit down at the “ feast of the great King” and eat with profit the heavenly Bread ? That we come to it clad in the “wedding garment ”’}, that is to say that we should be ina state of grace, and have a right intention.

Nothing more is required on our side. But for Jesus ? _ Certainly it was not without labour that He prepared this feast for us. It needed the self abasements of the Incarnation, the humility and obscure labours of the hidden life, the fatigue of the apostolate, the conflicts with the Pharisees, the combats against the prince of darkness, finally, that which contains and crowns all, the sufferings of the Passion. It was only at the cost of His bloodstained immolation and untold sufferings that Christ Jesus merited for us this wonderful grace of being united so closely to Himself in that He nourishes us with His Sacred Body, and gives us His Precious Blood to drink.

Therefore it was that He instituted this Sacrament on the eve of His Passion as if to give us the most touching proof of the excess of His love for us : Cum dilexisset suos... in finem dilexit?. It is because it is communicated to us at such a price that this gift is full of the sweetness of the infinite love of Jesus-Christ : Dulcedinem tuam... ostendebat...

These are some of the marvels figured by the manna and brought about, for the life and joy of our souls, by the wisdom and bounty of our God.

How is it possible not to “ admire” these marvels of the Church ? How can we fail to surround these sacred mysteries with all our reverence and adoration ? Tribue quaesumus, ita nos corporis et sanguinis tui sacra mysteria venerart * |

III

Of all the properties that Holy Scripture attributes to the manna, there is one which is particularly remarkable. The manna was a food which accommodated itself to the taste and wishes of the one who partook of it : Deserviens uniuscujusque voluntati, ad quod quisque volebat convertebatur.6

In the heavenly Bread, the Eucharist, we can also find, if I may thus express myself, the savour of all the mysteries of Christ, and the virtue of all His states. We are not here considering the Eucharist any longer as a memorial, but as source of grace, and this is a fruitful aspect of the Eucharistic mystery on which I wish to dwell with you for a few moments. If we allow it to penetrate our souls, we shall feel the love and desire for this Divine Food increase within us.

As you know, Our Lord gives Himself as food to preserve within us the divine life of grace ; moreover, by means of the union that this Sacrament establishes between our souls and the Person of Jesus,—im me manet et ego in ilo},...by the charity that this union nourishes, Christ works this transformation that caused St. Paul to say : “T live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me”?. Such is the virtue proper to this Sacrament.

But this transformation holds for us many degrees and comprehends many stages. We cannot realise it all at once ; it is only little by little that this transformation is wrought, in the measure that we enter deeper into the knowledge of Christ Jesus and of His states, since His life is our model and His perfection the example of our own.

The contemplation of the mysteries of Jesus constitutes one of the elements of this transfiguration ; I have already said that when, by a lively faith, we place ourselves in contact with Him, Christ produces in us, by the ever efficacious virtue of His holy Humanity united to the Word, that resemblance which is the sign of our predestination.

If that be true of the simple contemplation of His mysteries, how much deeper and more extensive will the action of Jesus be in this domain when He dwells in our souls by Sacramental Communion! This union is the greatest and most intimate that we can have here below with Christ, the union that takes place between the bread and the one who takes it. Christ gives Himself to be our Food, but, inversely to what takes place as to corporal food, it is we who are assimilated to Him. Christ becomes our life.7

The first property of the manna was to nourish ; the grace proper of the Eucharist is likewise to maintain divine life in the soul, by making us participate in the life of Christ.

But like the manna which “was turned to what every man liked ”, so the life that Christ gives us by Communion, is all His life that passes into our souls to be the exemplar and the form of ours, to produce within us the divers affections of the Heart of Jesus, to make us imitate all the virtues He practised in His states, and to shed within us the special graces which He merited for us when living His mysteries.

Doubtless we must never forget that under the Eucharistic species is found only the substance of the glorious body of Jesus, such as it is at present in heaven, and not such as it was, for example, in the crib of Bethlehem.

But when the Father looks upon His Son Jesus in the heavenly splendours, what does He behold in Him ? - He sees the One Who lived thirty three years upon earth for us, He beholds all the mysteries that this mortal life contained, the satisfactions and the merits whereof these mysteries were the source ; He beholds the glory that this Son gave Him in living each of them. In each of them too He beholds ever the same Son in Whom He was well pleased, although now Christ Jesus sits at His right hand only in His glorious state.

In the same way, it is Jesus born of Mary Whom we receive, Jesus, Who dwelt at Nazareth, Who preached to the Jews of Palestine ; it is the Good Samaritan ; it is He Who healed the sick, delivered Magdalen from the devil, and raised Lazarus from the dead ; it is He Who, wearied, slept in the ship ; it is He Who was crushed by anguish ; it is He Who was crucified upon Calvary ; it is the glorious Jesus, risen from the sepulchre, it is the mysterious Pilgrim of Emmaus, Who made Himself known “ in the breaking of bread ”* ; it is He Who ascended to Heaven to the Father’s right hand ; it is the eternal High Priest, ever living, Who never ceases to pray for us.

All these states of the life of Jesus are, in substance,

' given to us in Communion, with their properties, their spirit, their merits and their virtue : under the diversity of states, and the variety of mysteries, is perpetuated the identity of the Person Who lived them and now lives eternally in Heaven.

When, therefore, we receive Christ at the Holy Table, we may contemplate Him and converse with Him in any of His mysteries ; although He is now in His glorious state, we find in Him the One Who has lived for us and merited for us the grace that these mysteries contain; dwelling in us, Christ communicates this grace to us in order to effect little by little that transformation of our life into Him, which is the effect proper to the sacrament. It is enough, in order to understand this truth, to read the “ secrets” and “ postcommunions”’ of the Mass for the different feasts of our Saviour. The object of these prayers, which hold a special rank among those of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, are diversified according to the virtue of the mysteries celebrated ?.

We can, for example, unite ourselves to Jesus as living in sinu Patris?, equal to His Father, God like Him ; the One Whom we adore within us, we adore as the Word co-eternal with the Father, the very Son of God, the object of His Father’s good pleasure : Yes, I adore Thee within Me, O Divine Word ; by the intimate union that I have at this moment with Thee, grant me to be also with Thee in sinu Patris, now by faith, later in the eternal reality, that I may live by the very life of God, which is Thy life.

We can adore Him, the Incarnate Word, as the Virgin Mary did when He lived in her before being manifested to the world. Only in heaven shail we know with what reverence and love the Blessed Virgin inwardly adored the Son of God Who, through her, took our flesh.

Again we can adore Him within ourselves, as we would have adored Him, nineteen centuries ago, in the stable-cave of Bethlehem, with the shepherds and Magi ; He then communicates to us the grace of imitating the special virtues of humility, poverty and detachment, that we contempiate in Him in this state of His hidden life.

If we desire, He will be within us the Agonising Saviour, Who, by His wonderful submission to His Father’s good pleasure obtains for us the grace to bear our daily crosses ; He will be the Divine Risen Lord Who grants us to detach ourselves from all that is earthly, to “live unto God”? more generously and fully ; He will be in us the Victor Who gloriously ascends into heaven and draws us after Him that we may already dwell there by faith, hope and holy desire.8

Christ thus contemplated and received, is Christ living His mysteries over again in us; this contemplation is the life of Christ being instilled into ours, and, with all its own beauties, its particular merits and special graces, substituting itself for our life : Deserviens uniuscujusque voluntatt.

IV

In what I have been saying, I have given you to understand that the most perfect participation in this divine mystery of the altar is Sacramental Communion.

But you know that Communion itself supposes sacrifice. That is why we already associate ourselves with the mystery of the altar in assisting at the Sacrifice of the Mass.

We would have given anything to have been at the foot of the Cross with the Blessed Virgin, St. John and Magdalen. Now the oblation of the altar reproduces and renews the immolation of Calvary in order to perpetuate its remembrance, and apply its fruits.

During Holy Mass, we ought to unite ourselves to Christ, but to Christ immolated. He is, upon the altar, Agnus tamquam occisus*, the Lamb offered as a victim, and it is with His Sacrifice that Jesus wills to associate us. After the consecration, the priest with his hands joined together upon the altar—a gesture which signifies the union of the priest and all the faithful with Christ’s sacrifice—says this prayer : “ We beseech Thee, almighty God, command that these things be carried to Thy sublime altar, in the sight of the Divine Majesty ”.

The Church here places in relation two altars : that of the earth and that of heaven,—not that there is a material altar in the sanctuary of heaven, but the Church wishes to point out there is but one sacrifice : the immolation which is accomplished mystically upon earth is one with the offering that Christ, our High Priest, makes of Himself in the bosom of the Father, to Whom he offers for us the satisfactions of His Passion.9

“These things’, of which the Church speaks, says Bossuet, are truly the Body and Blood of Jesus, but they are this Body and this Blood together with us all and with our desires and prayers, and all these compose one same oblation ?.

Thus in this solemn moment, we are introduced ad interiora velaminis*, in the sanctuary of the Divinity, but we are brought there by Jesus and with Him ; and there, before the Infinite Majesty, in presence of all the heavenly court, we are presented with Christ to the Father in order that the Father may fill us “ with all heavenly benediction and grace” : Ommi benedictione caelesti et gratia repleamur. Oh! if our faith were ardent, with what reverence we should assist at this Holy Sacrifice! with what care we should seek to cleanse ourselves from every stain so as to be less unworthy to enter, in the train of our divine Chief into the Holy of Holies, there to be, with Christ, a living victim ! “It is then only”, as St. Gregory so well says, “that Christ is our Victim, when we offer ourselves, in order to share, by our generosity and sacrifice, in His life of immolation” : Tunc ergo vere pro nobis hostia erit Deo, cum nos ipsos hostiam fecerimus *.

The Eucharistic Sacrifice gives us the Sacrament. It is only by being united to the victim that one perfectly participates in the sacrifice. In the prayer which I have just explained, the Church, beseeches that we “ may be filled with all heavenly benediction and grace ”,—but it is on condition that we participate in this sacrifice by the reception of the Body and Blood of Jesus : Quotquot ex hac altaris participatione sacrosanctum Filu tui corpus et sanguinem sumpserimus. ,

It is then only by Communion that we perfectly enter into the thoughts of Jesus, that we fully respond to the desires of

  1. Explication de quelques difficultés sur les priéres de la messe. — 2. Hebr. vi, 19. — 3. Dialog. L. IV, c. 59.

Christ in His Mysteries. 23

His Heart on the day on which He instituted the Eucharist: “Take ye and eat”; “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man... you shall not have life in you” ?. Communion is the first of the Eucharistic duties.

But let us bring the best of dispositions to this Eucharistic banquet. Doubtless, as you know, this Divine Sacrament produces its fruits in the soul that receives it in the state of grace and with a right intention. However, the abun-, dance of its fruits is measured by the degree of each one’s fervour.

I have shown elsewhere * how these dispositions are summed up in faith, confidence, the utter surrender of ourselves to Christ and union with the members of His mystical body. I need not return to this subject.

There is however one disposition on which I would here touch, because it is the one which the Church herself points out to us in the collect of the Blessed Sacrament : it is. reverence. “Grant, we beseech Thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of Thy Body and Blood, that we may constantly feel within us the fruit of Thy redemption” : Ita nos corporis et sanguinis tui sacra mysteria VENERARI, ut redemptionis tuae fructum in nobis jugiter sentiamus.

The Church beseeches that we may venerate Christ in the Eucharist. There is a double reason for this.

First because Christ is God.

The Church speaks to us of “sacred mysteries”. The word “mysteries” indicates that under the Eucharistic species is hidden a reality ; in adding “sacred” she gives us to understand that this reality is holy and divine. Indeed He Who is hidden in the Eucharist is He Who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is the Infinite being, the Almighty, the Principle of all things. If Our Lord appeared to us in the splendour of His glory, our gaze would not be able to bear this splendour. In order to give Himself to us He hides Himself, no longer under the infirmity of passible flesh, as in the mystery of the Incarnation, but under the species of bread and wine. Let us say to Him: “ Lord Jesus, for love of us, in order to draw us to You, to become our Food, You veil your majesty. But You will lose nothing of our homage thereby. The more You hide your Divinity the more we wish to adore You, the more too we wish to cast ourselves at Your feet with profound reverence and ardent love.10

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas, Quae sub his figuris vere latitas?.

The second reason is that Christ Jesus has humbled Himself and delivered Himself up for us.

The Church reminds us that this wonderful Sacrament is the memorial above all others of the Passion of Jesus. Now, during His sacred Passion, Christ underwent untold humiliations, He was plunged intc nameless ignominies.

But, says St. Paul, it is because Christ emptied Himself of His glory, because He descended into such depths of self-abasement, that the Father has exalted Him. He, “hath given him a name which is above all names : that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow... and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father”.

Let us enter into this thought of the Eternal Father that the Apostle reveals to us. The more Christ has humbled Himself, the more ought we, like the Father, to exalt Him in this Sacrament which recalls His Passion ; the more ought we to lavish our homage upon Him. Justice, as well as love, requires this of us.

Then, is it not “ for us” that He thus delivered Himself ? Propter nos et propter nostram salutem*. If He suffered it is for me ; if He bore so many outrages on the part of the rough soldiery, it is for me ; if He was scourged and crowned with thorns, if He died in the midst of unutterable torments, it is for me, it is to draw me to Him : Dilexit me et tradidit semetipsum pro me*. Never let us forget that each of the sorrowful scenes of the Passion was preordained by Wisdom and accepted by Love for our salvation.

O Christ Jesus, really present upon the altar, I cast myself down at Your feet ; may all adoration be offered to You in the Sacrament which You left to us on the eve of Your Passion, as the testimony of the excess of Your love !11

Again we show this “ veneration ” by going to visit Christ in the tabernacle. Would it not indeed be to failing in respect to neglect this Divine Guest Who awaits us? He dwells there, really present, He Who was present in the Crib, at Nazareth, upon the mountains of Judaea, in the supper-room, upon the Cross. It is this same Jesus Who said to the Samaritan woman: “If thou didst know the gift of God” ! Thou who art athirst for light, peace, joy, happiness, if thou didst know Who I am, thou wouldst ask of Me living water... that water of divine grace which becomes “a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting ”*.

He is there, really present, He Who said: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”... he that followeth Me, walketh not in darkness*... No man cometh to the Father but by me‘.... I am the Vine, you are the} branches ; he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit : for without Me you can do nothing °... He that cometh to Me, I will not cast out ®... Come to Me all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you... and you shall find rest to your souls’”’’.

He is there, the same Christ who healed the lepers, stilled the tempest and promised to the good thief a place in His Kingdom. We find there our Saviour, our Friend, our Elder Brother, in the fulness of His almighty power, in the ever fruitful virtue of His mysteries, with the infinite superabundance of His merits, and the ineffable mercy of His love.

He awaits us in His tabernacle, not only in order to receive our homage, but to communicate His grace to us. If our faith in His work is not a mere sentiment, we shall go to Him, we shall put our soul in contact, by faith, with His Sacred Humanity. Be assured that “virtue goes out from Him” *, as of old, to fill us with light, peace and joy.

  1. Joan. Iv, 10, 14. — 2. Ibid. xiv, 6. — 3. Ibid. vim, 12. — 4. Ibid.

XIV, 6. — 5. Ibid. Xv, 5. — 6. Ibid. vi, 37. — 7. Matth. x, 28-29. — 8. Tuc. VI, 19 ; VII, 46.

IN MEI MEMORIAM 359 We can only hope “ever to feel within us the fruit of the Redemption ” if this attitude of respect and reverence deeply penetrate our souls. This veneration should be such that it will make us enjoy the Divine Gift in all its fulness : Jia venerari ut fructum jugiter sentiamus.

V

But why, you may ask, does the Church seem to sum up in this “veneration” all our dispositions towards this Divine Sacrament ?

It is because this reverence is a homage of faith. The man who is without faith does not bend his knee before the Sacred Host. This reverence has its source and nourishment only in faith.

Now, as I have often said, faith, the root of all justification and the fundamental condition of all progress in the supernatural life, is the first disposition for receiving the “ fruit of the Redemption” of Christ.

What, in fact, is this fruit for our souls ? In a word, it is to be born again to the divine life of grace, to become again partakers of the eternal adoption. We shall only attain to this by faith. Faith is the primal condition for becoming a child of God, and gathering, in its substance, this fruit of the Cross : Quotquot autem receperunt eum, dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fier, HIS QUI CREDUNT IN NOMINE EJUS... qui ex Deo nati sunt’.

The reception of the Eucharist unites us first of all to Christ’s Sacred Humanity, and this union is wrought by faith. When you believe that the Humanity of Jesus is the Humanity of the Son of God, the very Humanity of the Word, and that in Him there is but one Divine Person ; when, with all the strength and all the fulness of your faith, you adore this holy Humanity, through it you enter into contact with the Word ; for it is the way that leads you to the Divinity.

When Christ Jesus gives Himself to us in Holy Communion, He asks us the question that He asked His apostles : Quem dicunt homines esse Filium hominis? ? And we must answer with Peter: Tu es Christus, Filius12

Dei vivi : “ Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living God” *. I see only a fragment of bread, only a little wine, but Thou Who art the Word, Eternal Wisdom and Infinite Truth, Thou hast said: Hoc est corpus meum, hic est sanguis meus : “ This is my Body ; this is my Blood” ; and because Thou hast said it, I believe that Thou art present under these humble appearances! Our senses tell us nothing, it is faith that makes us penetrate as far as the divine reality hidden under the Eucharistic veils : Praestet fides supplementum sensuum defectur?.

And Our Saviour says to us as to the Centurion : Sicut — credidisti, fiat ttbi : “ As thou hast believed, so be it done to thee” *. Since you believe that I am God, I give Myself to you with all the treasures of My Divinity to fill you with them, to transform you into Myself ; I give Myself to you with the ineffable relations of My intimate life as God.

For we do not unite ourselves only to Christ. Christ is but one with the Father : Ego et Pater unum sumus, one in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Communion unites us at the same time with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Christ, the Word Incarnate, belongs altogether to His Father ; when we communicate, He takes us, He unites us to His Father, as He Himself is united to Him : Jesus said to His Father at the Last Supper, after having instituted the Blessed Eucharist : “And not for them [My Apostles] only do I pray but for them also who through their word shall believe in Me ; that they may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee ; that they also may be one in Us j... that they may be one, as We also are One : I in them, and Thou in Me” : Ego in eis et tu in me *.

The Word unites us also to the Holy Spirit. In the Adorable Trinity, the Holy Spirit in the substantial Love of the Father and the Son. Christ gives Him to us, as He gave Him to the Apostles, in order to direct us, through Him ; He communicates to us His Spirit of adoption, Who, first of all giving testimony to us that we are the children of God, helps us by His lights and inspirations to live as God’s “ dearly-beloved children ”’.13

What a sanctuary is the soul that has just received Holy Communion! The Eucharist first gives us Christ’s Body and Blood ; It gives us the Divinity of the Word indissolubly united to the Human Nature ; through the Word, our soul is united to the Father and the Spirit, in the indivisibility of their uncreated nature. The Trinity dweils in us ; our soul becomes the heaven whence are wrought the mysterious operations of the divine life. We can offer to the Father, the Son of His dilection that He may anew place in Him all His delight ; we can offer this delight to Jesus so that the ineffable joys that He experienced at the moment of His Incarnation may be renewed within His blessed soul ; we can pray the Holy Spirit to be the bond of love that unites us to the Father and the Son...

Only faith can comprehend these marvels, and plunge into these abysses : Mysterium fidet. .

XIX, ,—=1 HE, HEART Or PCHiRIOy: (Feast of the Sacred Heart).

Footnotes

    1. Hymn Adoro te. — 2. Joan. MM, 34. — 3. Ibid. Ix, 32-33. — 4. Ibid. tm, 2.
    ↩
    1. Canon of the Mass. — 2. Joan. vi, 61. — 3. Ibid. 69-70. — 4. Luc. XX, 19 ; I Cor. XI, 24.
    ↩
    1. Hebr. x, 14. — 2. Cf. Matth. xXxvI, 28; Marc. xIv, 24; Lue. XXU, 19-20. — 3. In divino hoc sacrificio quod in missa peragitur, idem ille Christus continetur et incruente immolatur, qui in ara crucis seipsum cruentum obtulit. Concil. Trid. Sess. 22, cap. 1. — 4. I Cor. XI, 26.
    ↩
    1. Cf. Mgr Gay. — 2. Ps. CX, 4-5.
    ↩

  5. 1, Joan, XV, rr. — 2. Joan. VI, 57. ↩

    1. Matth. Xx, 11. — 2. Joan. xim, 1. — 3. Collect for the Feast of Corpus Christe.
    ↩
    1. Joan. VI, 57. — 2. Gal. I, 20.
    ↩
    1. See above, pp. 90-91. — 2. Joan. I, 18.
    ↩

  9. t. Rom, VI, 11. — 2. Cf. Apoc. v, 6. ↩

    1. Matth, XXVI, 26. — 2. Joan. VI, 54. — 3. In the conference on The Bread of life. § V and v1, of the volume Christ the Life of the Soul.
    ↩
    1. Hymn Adoro te. — 2. Creed of the Mass. — 3. Gal. WJ, 20,
    ↩
    1. Joan. I, 12-13. — 2. Matth. XVI, 13.
    ↩
    1. Matth. 16. — 2. Hymn Pange lingua. — 3. Matth. vim, 13.— 4. Joan. XVI, 20-23.
    ↩

Chapter 19 of 21