Book III, Chapter IX

0 happy minds and blessed souls, who have the privilege of receiving Thee, their Lord God, i with devout affection, and in so receiving Thee are permitted to be full of spiritual joy ! 0 how great a Lord do they entertain ! how beloved a Guest do they harbour ! how delightful a Companion do they receive ! how faithful a Friend do they welcome ! how lovely and noble a Spouse do they embrace

(On these words) — * O happy minds and blessed souls, who have the privilege of receiving Thee, their Lord God, with devout affection, and in so receiving Thee are permitted to be full of spiritual joy!”

“ O how great a Lord do they entertain how beloved a Guest do they harbour how delightful a Companion do they receive how faithful a Friend do they welcome how lovely and noble a Spouse do they embrace!” B. iv. c. 3.

Question. — What are the offices that our Lord exercises with regard to the just in the Eucharist?

Answer. — The four which our Author has noted. Jesus is, then, in this Sacrament, our Guest, our Companion, our Friend, and our Spouse. But it must be understood, that we do not now speak of the common effect that He operates in all the just, but of a particular effect which He produces in those whom He honours with His familiar intercourse. For although

128 JESU8 IN THE EUCHARI8T, THE GUEST, all the just being in a state of grace receive Him worthily, and He fulfils in them all the functions of a Guest, a Companion, a Friend, and a Spouse, it is yet true that those sanctified spirits that have the privilege of discoursing familiarly with Him, feel His presence in a singular way, of which others are incapable. They feel that He is present with them as a Guest Who has taken up His abode in them, and will go forth no more; as a Companion Who converses i sweetly and continually with them; as a Friend Who ceases not to load them with benefits; as a Spouse Who embraces them tenderly, and lavishes on them a thousand endearments. j

We have said elsewhere that the true happiness of I this life consists in the union of the soul with God by simple love this takes place whenever God wills it, but especially in the Communion, wherein, as was said by a great theologian, the spiritual marriage is completed.

1. We say, then, that the soul which attains in the blessed Sacrament to be united with Christ, not merely by Faith, but by a living Faith; a Faith so enlightened, that she believes she sees the Divine Guest Who abides within her, this soul participates, as far as is possible, in the happiness of the Saints who see Him openly in Heaven. She feels that He is truly in her, and this experimental knowledge of Him causes her such joy as not only fills all her powers, but overflows, and penetrates her very substance. Thus she feels the truth of that promise of the Saviour, I will manifest Myself to him that loveth Me. John xiv. 21. She has such convincing proof of it as to cry out with assurance, God is with me, Jesus is in me. And this proceeds from what our Saviour has also told us; He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in Him. John vi. 56. Would it be possible to have

COMPANION, FRIEND, SPOUSE OF HOLT SOULS. 129 a surer pledge of the presence of the God of mercy and love? She sees at last how truly He said, We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. John xiv. 23. He comes, He abides; and by the grace of the Sacrament He unites Himself to the soul in such manner, that if He were not in all the rest of the world, He would dwell in her. Therefore our Author exclaims, “ O how beloved a Guest do they harbour ”

2. But it is not only as a Guest that the soul receives Him, she possesses Him also as a Companion; and this is a favour which all men may hope for in this Sacrament, if they use It rightly. Those whom our Lord thus admits to familiar intercourse, not only have Him within them, but enjoy His conversation, and are in close fellowship with Him; a blessing which St. John wishes to all Christians, when he conjures them to lead such holy lives, that their fellowship may be with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John i. 3. Thus they have always One to converse with, One to Whom they may unburthen their hearts, and Whom they may consult in their doubts; they are never alone, but always in the most pleasing and delightful company possible; they discourse familiarly with Christ; and in this sweet communion, weariness is impossible, because He is ever teaching them something new, or giving them fresh illumination on the same subject; and, in short, He so fills them with light, that they are able to dispense it to others.

It is then that they feel the streams of grace flowing in their hearts, and that they drink with pleasure of that excellent water “ that springeth up into everlasting lifea.” It is then, also, that having lost their former thirst for temporal blessings, they think only of obtaining union with the Eternal Wisdom Who

130 JE8US IN THE EUCHARIST, THE GUEST, gives Himself to them with abundance of good gifts in the Eucharist. After this, what wonder is it that, having such a Companion Who never leaves them, they are always glad and perfectly happy? For if He sometimes hides Himself to try them, it is only to return again with a delightful surprise; it is only to make them feel His presence more than ever, by new and unhoped-for kindnesses; it is only, in a word, to restore to them that joy of which His absence deprived them, and to bring them into such a state that they may hope to lose sight of Him no more.

3. Moreover, He is not only their Guest and Companion, He is also their Friend, and in this quality He so gives Himself to them, that, not satisfied with conversing familiarly with them, He assists them in their necessities, He loads them with benefits, and through His extreme love, imparts to them the merits of His Death, communicates to them His Wisdom, and applies to them His Virtues.

4. But when to these tokens of friendship He joins the caresses of a Spouse, then the soul, wholly inflamed, and transported with love, feels within herself things that she cannot tell, and will communicate to none. These are, as it were, the kisses of the Divine Lover, of which St. Bernard says, that it is vain to ask what they are, because experience alone can make them known, and because the loving-kindnesses of God are proportioned to His Infinite Greatness. When Ahasuerus leaps from his throne to take Esther in his arms, who faints at beholding the great splendour with which his majesty is surrounded, when he calls her his sister, and comforts her, she falls into another kind of swoon, occasioned by love, not slighter than the former, but accompanied with unspeakable delight*. Thus some of the devout, a Esther xv. 7 — 16* Vulg.

COMPANION, FRIEND, SPOUSE OF HOLT SOULS. 131 after receiving the Body of the Saviour, lose the use of their senses, are ravished and out of themselves, and, as it were, absorbed in God, and in this extasy they hear Him say things that no tongue can express.

It is then that the Celestial Spouse shows them kindnesses which may, in some measure, be called infinite; for although man has a very limited existence, we may say, that by means of the intimate alliance which he contracts with the Lamb of God in the Eucharist, there is formed in Him something incomprehensible, and surpassing all created beings.

But who will he found worthy to share this favour? We have said it often; he who has courage to deprive himself of all things for the love of God; he who quits, either in deed, or in will and affection, all that he possesses, and who renounces not only temporal but also spiritual blessings, and, in general, all things hut God. This perfect deprivation prepares the soul to receive God, and to be transformed into Him. A man who is attached to a thing of no importance, though he is ready to part with all the rest, is as far below another who despises this trifle, and who has no attachment whatever, as the finite is below the infinite; at least with regard to the consequence for though a created being is very limited in himself, he is not so in his desires; and when he is able to desire nothing, he becomes capable of receiving infinite good.

I own that for a small thing God does not absolutely break with us, yet we do not enjoy His blessings in all their fulness; He does not visit us, He does not draw us to Him; and we remain ever afar off from Him, unless He prevents us with His Grace, and we then oblige Him to draw near to us, by denying ourselves every thing, and banishing from our heart all affection for created things. This general self-denial is the way that it is necessary to take to

132 SELF-ABNEGATION THE MEANS arrive at the state of which we speak. And the cause why our Author says that there are so few contemplative men to be found is, that there are few who can wholly withdraw themselves from things created and perishing a. Not that it is required that they should quit the world, to confine themselves to a desert, or to a cloister; it is enough if they withdraw their affection and interest from it, desiring and seeking nothing but God.

If I were asked then, why of so many who consecrate themselves to the service of our Lord, so few are seen to arrive at a high degree of sanctity, I could easily reply to this question, and I would take my answer first from the Gospel, where the Saviour says If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself \ Matt. xvi. 24; and, secondly, from our Author, who says, that rarely is any one found so spiritual as to be stript of the love of all earthly things b, and that there are few who put their whole trust in God, and study not to provide for themselves c.

God desires sincerely and efficaciously, not only to save man, but to cause man to unite himself to Him by love. But the disproportion between them renders this union difficult. Man is little, and God is great; man is low, and God is lofty; man is impure, and God is holy. Thus God and man are directly opposed. To remove this opposition, man must make such good use of the liberty of God, that loving Him with his whole heart, he may prefer Him to all besides, not merely by speculative opinion, but by an effectual attachment of the will leading him truly to value only God, and that which comes from God. But because most frequently people value creatures, and think to find satisfaction in them, they do not give their whole heart to God, a B. iii. c. 31. b B. ii. c. 2. <* B. iii. c. 37.

OF UNION WITH GOD.

and this it is that prevents Him from uniting Himself with man.

Let us conclude the whole discourse with the words of our Author. “ For a long while shall he be small, and lie grovelling below, whoever he be, that esteemeth any thing great, but the One only Infinite Eternal Good.** And he adds, “ Whatsoever is not God is nothing, and ought to be accounted as nothing.” B. iii. c. 31. On this is founded the whole of th.e spiritual life; and because few are convinced of this, there are few Saints. For if every individual were persuaded that there is nothing great in this world, nothing estimable but God and the will of God, they would think only of pleasing Him, and would try in all things to obey Him. But people prefer to yield to the low inclinations of their corrupt; nature, and do not walk by the bright light of faith.

Thus they cannot be united with God; they are ex- I eluded from familiar intercourse with Him; they ) cannot enjoy in the Eucharist that sweetness which the great Saints found in it. But when we know how to put in practice the fundamental maxim which has been explained, immediately God draws near, and brings back light; afterwards He pours out on the soul His treasures, which He does not give to those who love the good things of this world, and who say, in their extreme ignorance, that the just are rewarded in Heaven, but not on earth for although this is true of glory and perfect blessedness, it is not so of the delights of Divine love, which make the happiness of the kingdom of God upon earth.

134 TRUE GREATNESS TO BELIEVE GOD TO BE ALL,