72. Election and Reprobation — Second Sermon for the Tenth Sunday After Trinity

Synopsis — Some should communicate often who dread to do so because they feel no longing — Only bad living men slwuld remain away — Bitter sorrow for sin is God's call to communion — Meditation on Christ's passion is a stimulant to frequent communion — All must be on their guard against the admixture of natural motives.

But let a man prove himself : and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. — I Cor. xi, 28-29.

The meaning of this teaching of St. Paul is that one should study himself well, with a view to choosing the right devotional practice to prepare his heart for partaking of this adorable food. For it is good for some, who have no great interior longing for the Sacrament, nevertheless often to receive it, so that they may thereby keep their daily lives well ordered and have grace to maintain their good resolutions against sinning. Even more than this: one should not omit Communion even if sometimes he feels unprepared, and is wholly without conscious longing for it.

Only those should abstain who live according to their own will and do not stop sinning, being overbearing and self-willed, full of backbiting and rash judgments, restless and impatient and abusive, addicted to fleshy pleasures, and fettered with other such defects. As to whether or not such persons should never receive Communion at all, I leave to their own decision, though I would advise them against it, being of opinion that they do themselves more harm than good thereby. The oftener they communicate the worse they grow inreriorly and the farther they stray from virtue ; for they have no notion of true detachment of spirit; they have never so much as begun to live after the life and example of Christ, though they have doubtless sometimes thought of doing so, especially when the passion of our Lord is offered for their meditation. If it happens that the passion moves their hearts to devotional feelings, they consider that they have gained something great. Ah, no. This is only the lowest step ; and, in fact, the feeling soon passes away. This feeling about the blessed life and sufferings of Christ must settle into real imitation, before any actual good shall come to them, — into real self-denial, dying to all wickedness, whether of soul or body. Until that happens all resolutions and all outward devotional practices are vain; they will all be swept away by the first temptations.

Mark well how you may receive this Sacrament with fruit. Thou shouldst eat this heavenly bread with eagerness; that is to say, with great desire and savor in thy inmost soul. What if outwardly thou dost feel dull and all unfit to receive: that amounts to nothing, as long as thy will is upright to avoid all that is sinful, as far as thou knowest, against God's honor and virtuous living, whether thy feelings respond to this resolve or not. When one avoids all occasions of sin, and meanwhile practices the ordinary virtues of a Christian life, let him approach the Sacrament with all joy. His inner soul is not devoid of great sincerity, though the outward man is heavy and undevotional — for this inconvenience lies only in our poor human nature. Any amount of sensible devotion is of little worth, if the interior will is not upright.

Draw a lesson from the paschal supper of the Israelites, who ate the lamb with bitter lettuce. This means that thy soul should taste the bitterness of sorrow for thy sins when approaching the holy table. Thou shalt obtain this by arousing thy sympathy for Christ in His passion by means of meditation ; also by making atonement to God's injured honor by leading a life of strenuous penance. This begins by abstemiousness in eating and drinking, wearing coarse clothes, sleeping on a hard bed, keeping holy vigils, and the like. When thou hast thus followed Christ in His outward life, thou shalt be ready to imitate Him in His interior suffering. He said : "My soul is sorrowful even unto death" (Matt. xxvi:38). So shalt thou feel the interior woe of God's Son, in cutting off entirely all tendency to sensual pleasure, in total suppression of concupiscence, in treading self-will absolutely under foot, in entirely giving up self-conceit. Child, this is what it means rightly to meditate on Christ's passion and to bewail His death. Without this, other devotional exercises are worthless.

Many seemingly good men have fine appearing and ostentatious virtues, which, however, rest not in essential excellence, but in their own feelings. As a matter of fact, they never get down into their interior life — their whole trust is in outward virtuous acts. Some have a very strong sensible devotion ; they are much moved by our Lord's passion, which they meditate from beginning to end day by day with a great feeling of sweetness, the like of which other people do not have. But this is by no means the inner mortification, the humble self-renouncement or the universal love that they should have. They are not at all given up to meekness, or to purity of heart. When the test of self-abnegation is applied to them, their shortcomings are discovered, however honestly they may have imagined themselves humble and single-hearted during their meditations. Ah, no. The purity of virtue comes from other kinds of devotional exercises, namely, the examination and cleansing of all one's thoughts, and the steadfast resistance to whatever is not conducive to spiritual progress.

Along with this let a man meditate on Christ's passion, and study His words and works with the Holy Scriptures before him; then let him follow a good order of devout living; and finally let him free himself from useless and disturbing cares. This is the method of acquiring purity of heart and of thought. Towards that should one earnestly strive — against every evil intention, every sinful desire. Let him be grieved intensely at the danger or the very thought ot sin, and steadfastly set himself against it.

When one has attained this cleanness of spirit, whatever bad thing he sees or hears he takes no evil out of it, he forms no judgment about it, for to the pure all things are pure. It is not easy to provoke such a man to anger, and he spreads an air of peacefulness around him, even in the company of the quarrelsome. He is of use to all, of hurt to none, whether in things great or things little. In such a purified soul the Blessed Sacrament works wonders, for in such an interior condition the foundations of virtues are solidly laid; not in showy pious observances, or susceptibility to pious feelings when receiving Communion — in which and in other such things many people put their trust.

These go often to Confession and Communion, thinking themselves entirely worthy to do so, saying they cannot do without it. Yet they rest upon merely natural motives. They are even deluded with the notion that they cannot lose God's friendship ; and this arises from their feelings of devotion. But meanwhile they are greatly enraged against those who would admonish them to go to Communion less often, or who find fault with their peculiar devotions. They despise others, they sit in judgment on their neighbors and make little ol them, and they slander them. As to those to whom they lawfully owe obedience, they will scarcely look at them or listen to a word from them if they interfere with the practices which they deem so holy. Let it be quite different with us. May God grant us to receive Communion in a holy and happy state of true penance, inner and outer, and with great purity of heart and mind. Amen.