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THE EUCHARIST:
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH
INTRODUCTION
Now, we are arriving at the dawn of the Year 2000-A.D. the flowering of the
Faith and love for The Holy Eucharist, is diminishing with thousands upon
thousands of Roman Catholics who have left the dysfunctional See of Rome,
their churches have become, demoralized, with a dysfunctional Clergy
without faith, false teachings. No! one believes in the doctrines
of "TRANSUBSTANTIATION." it has become a topic for discussion. Very few care
about the Majesterium, and Quo Primum, many have become
neo-Protestant-Catholics, and now entertain what ever feels good. These
writing will be an eye-opener for the Catholics who follows the New Order
Mass, better known as the New Age Mass-Novus Ordo...But in these writings
there is HOPE!
The great Pope St. Pius X, raised by God, to be the Pope of the Eucharist,
who in our appreciation and love we so ardently desire once more for such a
Pope to appear in the in the 1996's A.D. Pope PIUS X, by dispensation of
Providence rarely met within the history of the papacy, had before being
Pope Passed through successive steps of the Hierarchy.
As, a simple parish priest: his long experience brought him into contact
with souls in every station of life. Pope Pius X. understood the spiritual
needs of priests and nuns, of the rich man and the poor man, of the
children and students. Guided by The Holy Ghost, His keen Judgment saw
where He must begin in order to realize the program which He had laid down
for His Pontificate: "INSTAURARE ONMIA IN CHRISTO" ( To renew all things in
Christ).
His first act as Pontiff, Pope Pius X, put His seal on that great modern
movement of fervor. No, sooner was Pope Pius X, elected that His "Motu
Proprio" of November 22nd, 1903, he once more gathered the Catholic world
together at the center of the life of the Whole Church, to imbibe the True
Spirit of Christianity at its first and indispensable source, namely active
participation in the Sacred Mysteries and in the public and solemn prayer
of the Holy Mother Church.
It would be well indeed for the present Hierarchy of the New Order Mass to
leave its liberal teachings and ad-hear to those great words of Pope Pius
X. There is a great ending for which Our Lord Jesus Christ, instituted the
Holy Eucharist, namely the essential worship of the Father in the Sacrifice
of the Mass, brought to its consummation by the sacramental union with
Jesus Christ in Holy Communion. On, the other hand we have many wonderful
and different devotions of adoration to Our Lord of the Eucharist; who is
present in Our Traditional Catholic Churches and Chapels.
The New Order cannot fulfill the requirements for a valid sacrament. This
is not what Pope St. Pius X, had in mind. A, Valid Priest, is required for
a valid Sacrament, No! word of consecration can be replaced with the New
Order Ordinal or Missal. It leaves the Traditional Catholic Priest and
Bishops no alternative but to obey the Church's solemn decree "QUO PRIMUM"
it remains in force and infallibly guaranteeing a certainly Valid Rite of
the Mass.
In order to get a true and complete idea of the fundamental role of the
Holy Eucharist in our lives, we must first of all realize what it is.
A plain statement of the facts which every true traditional Catholic
believes and professes is enough, it seems to me, to make us understand the
place of the Eucharist in the whole of that New Order which Our Lord came
to establish on this earth and has appointed those still true to the faith
once delivered to the Apostles, He entrusted to them His Church. We, shall
thus at one and the same time establish our devotion on a solid basis, and
prepare for ourselves the way to a true Eucharistic life.
A. THE DIVINE INSTITUTION:
Let us first ask ourselves how Our Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist, so
that we may be able to grasp His whole idea and intention, and thus
understand the value of the Sacrament.
1. CHRIST PROMISE OF THE EUCHARIST:
When "on the night of His Betrayal" (1 Cor.11,23) our Lord instituted the
Sacrament of the Eucharist. He did not take the Apostles by surprise.
Already He had spoken to them publicly of the Supper which "He ardently
longed to eat with them" (Luke 22,15). It had been indeed a moment of
crisis for their vocation as Apostles. His other disciples were slipping
away, scandalized at His words, and Jesus turned to the Twelve: "And you,
will you too go away?"
It was Saint Peter, in the ardor of his faith, who replied unhesitatingly
for the others; and his answer sealed forever their allengiance to the
Master; it was simply the reason for their life with Him and for His sakes,
their quest for truth: "Lord, to whom shall we go?" You have the Words of
eternal life. We believe, and we know that Thou art the Holy One of God"
(John 6:68-70). What, then, was this alarming discourse, which shook the
faith of so many disciples?
It was a promise, clear and simple to us of a later time and day, but to
the Jews an impossible enigma. Jesus was offering Himself as a bread come
from Heaven to nourish them. When they showed repugnance, He but repeated
His words, tracing still more boldly the plan of this unheard-of feast; for
therein must they feed upon His veritable flesh and blood, and become one
in the body with Him: "He who eats My Flesh remaineth in Me, and I in him"
(Ibid.57) Jesus goes on so far as to insist upon this awe-inspiring eating
as necessary for their very life: Amen, amen, I say to you, if you do not
eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have
life in you" (Ibid 54). But what could this life be? the Apostles are
before Him, alive-and shuddering. Our Lord describes in words: "As My
Father has sent Me, and I live for My Father, in like manner he that eats
with Me shall live for Me? (ibid. 58). Jesus says no more, and the mystery
remained unexplained till a later day.
2. THE INSTITUTION OF THE EUCHARIST:
The Apostles had many thing on their minds, but the greatest was that
memorable day of the Eucharist promise when they settled themselves at the
table for the last Paschal Supper? We cannot say, but at all events our
Lord was suddenly to resume the discourse which He had left un-finished in
the synagogue of Capharnaum; He would at last expose beyond a shadow of
doubt, its full significance, in accomplishing in deed what had hitherto
been no more than promise. We need not discuss the Last Supper in detail,
but simply note the points essential to our proper understanding of it.
Formerly our Lord had spoken to the Jews in terms of bread; He now speaks
of wine, too, and thus reviving the concept of food links His present words
with those of Capharnaum. Food has now become a symbol, better still a
Sacrament; a Sacrament, however, which is to find its commentary in what
follows.
"Take all of you and eat; This Is My Body...This is My Blood." Jesus
recalls to us His promise, the mysterious food which is to give us a new,
higher life-a life for Him. And then directly He reveals a deeper purpose:
"Do This in Memory of Me." Suddenly the horizon has widened; we may have
thought the Holy Eucharist to be only for us; now our Lord turns it towards
Himself. It is for Him, according to His intention, that we must celebrate
it and use it. This holy act bound up with another, with the memory of the
Master, and this will set its seal upon it and give it values. The
Eucharist is a memorial, commemorating a definite act. In order to
participate in it to the fullest, we must turn our thought from mere human
utilitarianism to fix them on Jesus Christ and on the memory He has just
recalled. When we receive Holy Communion apart from the Mass and follow it
by a short thanksgiving made primarily with an eye to our own human
concerns, can we see in this isolated act that which we are recalling? Even
though we may view our spiritual gain from Holy Communion thus received as
an effort in God's service, we are almost certain to forget our obligation
to "Do this in memory of Christ."
3. IN MEMORY OF ME:
The Apostles themselves could not understand this all at once, because the
event had not yet taken place; but we have no excuse for not recalling it,
for not drawing its full significance, for not making it the governing
principle of our whole attitude towards the Holy Eucharist.
The remembrance must be, no doubt, that of our Savior's august Person
itself, the memory of His life, spent for us, of the benefits which flowed
unceasingly from His "Holy and Venerable Hands," (words use in the
consecration of the Latin Roman Mass) and still more from His Heart. But
above all we remember the consummation of that life, the moment of His
death, which He had called "His Hour." All His life, had been consecrated
to spreading the knowledge and love of His Father. His mission was and
still is to lead us to the Father. He wished to stress it more at the
solemn moment of His death: "That the world may know that I love the
Father, and that I do the will of the Father" (John 14,31).
And this is the love which has enkindled the world. St.
Paul,writings after the truth had been shown to the Apostles, expressed it
well in his simple but all-embracing sentence: "As often as you eat of this
Bread and drink of this Chalice, you will show forth the death of the Lord
till He come" (1 Cor. 11,26).
The Apostles could not see this on the night of the Last Supper: but today
we see why, in order to recall the memory of His Death in a symbolic and
visible manner, to be easily understood, our Lord divided the gift of
Himself, separating the giving of His Body from that of His Blood, at the
same time pointing out their redeeming and life-giving properties: "This
Is My Body, given for you..... This is My Blood, shed for the remission of
sins".
This act of redemption was to be accomplished, once for all, upon the
Cross: but in memory and imitation of the Master, the Apostles and their
successors would represent His death (in the true sense of the Latin word
("Repraesentare), (to make present again). They would gather its fruits,
and at the moment of receiving that Body, given for them, they would give
themselves to Him with ever more ardent love.
In the works of God there are no conflicting interests. The Holy Scriptures
says that "God has done all things for Himself" Prov.16:4
Yet St. Paul could write to the Corinthians: "All the works of God are for
you" (2 Cor.4:15). For indeed the glory of God will be our joy for all
eternity-it is so already, as we sing in the Gloria:
"Gratias agimus tibi, propter magnam gloriam tuam". We, give thee thanks
for Thy great glory. And on the other hand our sanctification, that
striving of the soul under the influence of grace and of our efforts, is
our share in the glorification of the Father; it is the tribute of all that
is best in us, which as children of God we must offer Him after the example
of Jesus Christ: "In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit
and become My disciples". (John 15:8). "This is eminently true of the
Blessed Eucharist".
"We offer Thee, O Lord, this Sacrifice, which Thou did institute in such a
way that in glorifying Thy Name it should heal us of our ills" (Secret for
the 10th Sunday after Pentecost).
The HOLY EUCHARIST is offered for the glory of God, to render Him the
homage which is His due, in memory of the offering of His Son, through
which He received "All Honor and glory". But this offering of the Son
redeemed us, and through the Eucharist it continues to nourish our new
life.
This which links up these two objects of the Eucharist offering in our
union with Christ, which has brought about the "EUCHARIST" In order to
glorify His Father, not only without neglecting our happiness, but indeed
by causing it, Our Lord draws us to share His life, His divine work, and
makes of the Sacrament the sovereign good of our souls, the most potent
instrument of our supernatural perfection, the most perfect gift of His
love. In it "He Has Loved Us To The End" (John 13:1).
4.THE EUCHARIST AND THE CROSS:
The Last Supper cannot be explained without the Cross. It was not the end;
it looked forward into the future, just as our celebration of it looks back
into the past. It is a commemoration, and it is complete in itself only
because it represents the sacrifice of the Cross. This representation is of
its very essence. It is not the Passion, but it tends to the same purpose.
It repeats it and continues to apply its divine efficacy. It would be
nothing of itself, but if offered to the Church, and to each of us, a
marvelous means of keeping united to that source of life which is the
Cross, and of maintaining in our hearts those dispositions with which Jesus
Christ offered for us and in our name His sacrifice to the Father.
The Scriptures, the Liturgy and tradition of the Traditional Catholic
Church are unanimous in giving the first place, the uncontested supremacy,
to the bloody offering of Christ. The Cross, and the Cross alone, is that
Sacrifice of Jesus Christ complete in itself, by which He merited for us
redemption and grace. The Last Supper adds nothing to the Cross, and the
Eucharist exist but to prolong it throughout the ages, from the Cross into
eternity, when, after Judgement, the Son will restore to the Father the
Church of His elect, so that henceforth "God May Be All In All."
5. THE SACRIFICE OFFERED TO THE FATHER
We must clarify what were those dispositions of Christ of which we have
spoken. His whole life was one act of adoration and submission to the
Father. St. Paul in the tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews shows
Him coming into the world and proclaiming His program. "Behold, I come; in
the head of the Book it is written of Me that I should do Thy will, O
God....sacrifice and oblation and holocaust for sin Thou would not, neither
are they pleasing to Thee...Then I said; Behold, I come to do Thy will, O
God. (Heb. 10:7-9).
One would like to recall here the vision of St. Gertrude, so rich in
imagery and at the same time so profound in doctrine. She sees the Sacred
Heart of Jesus , not yet as later visions will represent it, sadly inviting
us to prayer and penance, but showing us how to "Adore". She sees it as a
golden Altar, where-on it is offered to the Father an acceptable sacrifice;
as a harp which, moved by the Spirit of God, sings His praise; as a lamp,
shining for His glory; or a censer, from which rises the perfume of
adoration.
During His whole life, His will was united to the will of His Father. We
see already in Him, through His life, and He drew us with Him in His
obedience. But this was still invisible, hidden in the intimacy of His
life with the Father. The moment came when this offering became concrete,
when He could prove the world His obedience by immolating Himself to atone
for the offenses of mankind against His Father; when at the same time, His
holiness would be poured out upon us; when His love for us would go to the
extreme limit; when He would admit us into the sanctuary of His love, there
to live and act as He did, to the glory of His Father, in memory of Him.
It was to sanctify us that He offered His body and His Blood upon the
Cross. "The will of the Father," says St. Paul again, "has sanctified us
forever by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ (Heb.10:10).
The Cross was the sacrifice, the one sacrifice, visible and material-for
all sacrifice must be material, it cannot be merely interior and personal,
being of necessity to corporate in ritual acts. He associated His Church
with His Sacrifice on the eve, "priusquam pateretur"; it would have been to
late to do so afterwards. While He offered us His Body and Blood to be our
nourishment, all His love was poured upon us, all His will to sanctify us
was identifying us with Himself as co-sacrificers and co-sharers. And that
there might remain no doubt, He willed that, as on Calvary there should be
in the Last Supper an immolation, an anticipated manifestation of His Body
offered and His Blood shed. He offered the representation of this
Sacrifice, at once both symbol and reality, to which He gave all its value
commanding that it should be repeated after Him, and as He did Himself in
memory of Him.
When therefore we say that our Lord comes upon our altars to give Himself
to us, let us not stop at this first consideration, for it is but half the
truth. I would seem to make of mankind alone the sole object of the
Eucharist, and to limit the marvels of Christ's love to the special
personal benefit we derive from it. He loved us, miserable sinners, with a
boundless love; in spite of our unworthiness He came to us, to pour into us
the treasures of His heart. It is our right and our duty to have recourse
to this love in the Sacrament which He has so marvelously adapted to our
human needs and in which our heart's desire for love can find full
satisfaction.
But do not let us set limits to His divine intentions; let us enter
wholeheartedly into them and associate ourselves generously with His work.
He comes to give Himself to us indeed, but it is that we may, with Him,
give ourselves to the Father. He does not come merely to form with us a
contact of friendship, and perhaps some personal benefit to our own soul
His intentions are far higher, and He brings more benefit. He come to take
possession of us, to divinize us, to quicken and to steady our progress in
the supernatural life. He comes to teach us how to make ourselves sacrifice
of adoration, a constantly repeated act of donation and of conformity to
the Father's will. Thus He will lead us to our true life, that of eternal
glory. His work is not completed. He comes to continue working within us,
that we may one day offer ourselves with Him to the Father.
B. THE LAST SUPPER IN THE PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH
If at the time the Apostles were not able to understand the full
significance of the great act, we can see nevertheless how after the Lord
had ascended into Heaven, they carried out what He asked them with sureness
of touch which has fixed the practice of the Church for all time.
1. A COMMUNAL ACT
>From the very first they gathered the faithful around them for the
"Breaking of the Bread." This was the repetition of the solemn meeting in
the Cenacle. There is no ground for supposing that they ever celebrated in
private. The Eucharist was the natural assembly of the young community. As
the numbers increased they grouped themselves "by House," but it was always
among the brethren and for them that the Apostles re-enacted the Sacrifice
of Christ.
2.A CENTER OF UNITY
And this was natural. The Eucharist was the bond of their union. If when
just converted the first Christians formed a community welded together by a
natural affection and devotedness hitherto unknown, and if for several
centuries this community remained faithful to its traditions, so that even
the pagans marveled, it was because they had taken as their rule of life
the commandment of the Master..."Love one another as I have loved you."
Now the great act of the love of Christ had been, and was still each day,
His Sacrifice offered them, and now offered with them. Their union was the
outcome of their union with Christ, which mad them live for each other as
He had lived for them all. The same life animated the whole body, and this
life was sustained by the Eucharist.
3. THE GREAT MEANS:
And this it was that fixed the place of the Eucharist in their lives, and
this setting of the Eucharist continues un-broken the work of Christ: to
lead men to the Father. "I am the Way" I Am the Life" and the Truth. No one
comes to the Father except through ME!
The early Christians understood that. Their love of Jesus Christ was full
of the ardor of youth, their belief in His divinity clear and unshakable.
But their devotion to the Eucharist was not limited to those moments of
adoration which the liturgy affords during the Mass. Such adoration is
neither the end nor the motive of the Eucharist. They regarded the
Eucharist-as we do-and with what fervent gratitude!, as the sovereign means
of left to them by Christ to glorify God and make themselves holy.
The name of "Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," given to God, is already
frequent in the writings of St. Paul. Primitive liturgies give thanks to
the Father for the gift of His Son: "We give the thanks for Thy Holy Son,
for the holy Vine of David." They thank Him for having united in Christ
mankind, which had been scattered like grains of wheat of whcih is mad the
Eucharist bread. But these prayers, which breathe forth such love for the
Son, always end by recalling the incommunicable glory of the Father: "for
Thine, O Father is the glory her, ....They cannot tarry on the road; Christ
is the Way; their journey, sustained by the Sacrament, must end by bringing
them to the Father.
And on the other hand, how well they understood that Christ gave Himself to
them under this simple form to facilitate their intimacy with Him! With
what loving familiarity do they not treat the Eucharist! Not only do they
take it into their hands, they kiss it, they lifted it to their eyes before
partaking of it; they carry it to their homes for days when they will be
unable to attend the celebration of the Holy Mysteries. Later they will
adopt the practice of bearing it about with them or on their persons as a
protection: so, for instance, the ancient Irish monks, who used to carry it
in a small vessel, called chrismale, hanging from their necks. St. Benedict
ordered the sacred Host to be placed as a sign for forgiviness and blessing
upon the body of a young monk who had died outside of his monastery in an
act of Obedience.
The old french epic of the Aliscans tells of the First Communion of little
Vivien during the terrible battle against the Saracens. His uncle, the
noble Count William of Orange, has carried the boy, mortally wounded, to
the shade of a tree, and kneeling beside him he says: "I have here in my
wallet some of the Bread consecrated by the priest at the Mass; "Would you,
not taste it? Yes my lord, let me partake of this bread of life. The
Christian of old did not look upon the Eucharist only as an object of
adoration. It was their most cherished possession, the sovereign means to
lead them to their goal. All through their life it was their companion, and
thereafter opened to them the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven.
CHAPTER II
THE EUCHARIST IN OUR LIVES
I should like now to return to the fundamental and complete idea concerning
the Eucharist, to show that it is the life of our lives:
""vivere Deo de Deo,"" to live for God by God; Jesus in the Eucharist, that
is to say the Mass, renders a perfect worship.
A. THE SACRIFICE
Just as sacrifice is the supreme and principle act of all religion, so the
Holy Mass is the most important act in the life of the Church and of each
Christian. Its influence should therefore be felt throughout our whole
life. But, if we may say it again, by Mass we mean the complete Eucharist,
the Sacrifice, either in thought or in our practice, that Communion which
Jesus Christ united so closely with it. We tend to mar that harmonious
unity of Christ's designing when we are satisfied to assist with respect
and devotion at Mass when it is offered in our churches, and then to draw
near to the Holy Table in another supremely important act, but one which
is, after all, quite different. I would insist and show before all how this
intimate association is pointed out in the Sacrifice itself. We shall then
see more clearly how the Communion sows and nourishes in our souls the
seeds of the Sacrifice.
There are thus two moments of the Mass I should like to stress. The set in
relief this compenetration of Mass and Communion, and indeed are not fully
understood themselves if we consider these two great acts as independent on
from another, even though in practice we include on within the other at
point of time.
1. COVENANT
At the most solemn moment of the Consecration, the Church uses words which
seem full of mystery. Although inspired by the Gospel and the Epistles of
St. Paul, they do not form part of the actual Gospel narrative, and this
very fact shows what great importance the Church, our Mother and Mistress,
attaches to them: "This the Chalice of My Blood, of the new and eternal
Covenant."
Now we cannot doubt that these last words bear a reference to the first
Mosaic Covenant, made by God with the Jewish people and sealed by the blood
of the sacrifices offered on Mount Sinai. To assist at Mass is therefore to
witness an act of alliance, and that not merely as a spectator. It is to
accept the new and eternal alliance which through Jesus Christ the Father
concludes with redeemed man, a Covenant which is to last forever. Now the
making of an alliance includes two fundamental ideas: the agreement to work
for the common good of the contracting parties, and a guarantee given by
some accepted pledge. The common interest here is the glory of God. To
assist at Mass is to assent to the act of Christ, who sanctifies mankind by
consecrating it to the service of His Father. As for the pledge, God has
already given it, and it is represented again on the Altar: as in the First
Covenant, God has given the pledge of blood, the Blood of His only Son. But
as for us, we have nothing. We can but receive Christ, and unite ourselves
with Him, and then offer Him ourselves with Him, so that we can give a
pledge equal in value to that of our Partner. Communion, therefore, is
essential to the Mass, and derives from it its fundamental significance as
an act of worship, performed in God's honor.
2. BY HIM AND WITH HIM AND IN HIM
The Canon of the Mass ends in a note of triumphant and joyful homage. We,
poor creatures, finite and imperfect, using the words the Church puts in
our mouth, we declare with assurance that we give to God:
"To Thee Father Almighty....all honor and glory" How is it possible?
Solely, as the Church says, "by Him, and with Him, and in Him"-in Him, the
Christ, the Eucharist which the priest holds in his hands as he utters
these bold words. Who, then, does not realize that in order to pay this
homage, in order to fulfil, as we now see we can fulfil, our last end,
which is to render to God a fitting honor and worship, we must be really
one with Christ? And when we remember that the fruit of Communion is
precisely that union with Christ, we see that here again the Church leads
us to Communion. What we say with the priest, we must realize in ourselves;
we must unite ourselves to Christ in this same Sacrifice of His. The prayer
after the Consecration, Supplices te rogamus, is very clear on this point:
"We most humbly beseech Thee....that so many of us as at this altar shall
partake of, and receive, the most Holy Body and Blood of Thy Son, may be
filled with every benediction and grace".... And now we have reached the
moment for which every loving heart has been longing, the comsummation of
the Sacrifice. All that we have said and heard and seen during the Mass is
about to take place in our souls. The Mystery of redemption and
sanctification is about to enter into our lives.
"Sancti, venite, Christi corpus sumite, Sanctum bibentes quo redmpti
sanguinem"
What, then, are the fruits, what are the significance of Communion?
3.FUNDAMENTAL WORK OF COMMUNION: TO DIVINIZE THE SOUL:
We receive the Eucharist in the form of food. Throughout the ages, the
Fathers of the Church and all spiritual writers have spoken with one
another in emphasizing the difference between this food and material food;
whereas we assimilate the latter, transforming it into our own substance,
The Eucharist transforms us into itself.
Let us try to grasp this doctrine in its first and simple meaning.
We tend to regard this assimilation with Christ primarily as the
acquisition of particular graces helpful in our spiritual life. But is not
that life looked upon chiefly as a system of virtues to be acquired by a
laborious asceticism? In this view, we would go to communion only in order
to remain fervent or to become more perfect. And that life of perfection,
though governed, no doubt, by the commandments of God, is conceived in a
predominantly human way; it is chiefly the human virtues, justice,
chastity, courage and the like, which we put in the forefront and which we
seek to strengthen by means of divine grace-when indeed we do not give the
first place in our minds to petitions for temporal favors.
Naturally, these virtues are far from negligible things, and the Eucharist
remains the most powerful means of strengthening us in our struggle to
obtain them. But to begin with that, often to limit ourselves to that, is
it not perhaps to look in Communion for what we can obtain otherwise in our
ordinary prayers? We know, of course, that the Sacrament is of infinitely
greater efficacy, but we regard it nevertheless as a means towards a
similar end. Now the action of the Sacrament is essentially deeper. For
herein God, before bestowing any specific favor, raises and renews the soul
by touching the very springs of its life. The special graces we seek from
the Sacrament, and which are justified in expecting from it, are but the
overflow from an outpouring of more essential grace-sanctifying grace; they
are the final effect, but not the cause which produces them.
By Baptism we have been raised to a new nature, to the supernatural order.
We have been brought in the divine life through our adoption in Jesus
Christ.
This fist Sacrament obliges us to live "as gods"; that is to say, for God
and in a manner worthy of God. But it give us also the right to find in the
other Sacraments the graces which sustain, form, develop and restores the
new nature according to which we should think and act. In this Sacramental
system the Eucharist is the divine help given to our divinized life. This
help is in itself but an infusion of sanctifying grace such as every
Sacrament produces. The Eucharist reaches the inner depths of the soul; our
life is intensified and strengthened, our transformation into Christ if
furthered, and grace produces in us acts conformed to His life.
Now let understand this by turning our thoughts to-wards the Sacrifice in
the course of which we have received the Eucharist. In it Jesus offers
Himself to God for us. He makes it the supreme act of His life for His
Father. Our participation, made complete by Communion, must make us live by
Christ and for Christ; that is, it must enable us to accomplish His mission
with Him , by making us capable of divinized acts, acceptable to the Father
whose children we have become, and by giving us the strength to put into
practice our firm resolution of living for Him; that is, of seeking "First
the kingdom of Heaven and its
Justice."
4.ITS PRIMARY EFFECT; UNION:
(a) Twofold Fruit of the Sacraments: It is well to remind ourselves here
that in the soul which puts no obstacle in the way every Sacrament
produces, "ex opere operato" that is, of itself-a double effect.
First it confers or increases sanctifiying grace, as we have just shown. We
have expalined how, in the Holy Eucharist, this is as much as to say that
it perfects in us the likeness to Christ, the divine nature infused into us
by Baptism, and enables us to act ever more conformably to our dignity as
members of Christ and children of God.
But The Sacrament has also a second effect. The first is common to all the
Sacraments; the second special, differing for each.
It is the very purpose of its institution; for, if there are seven
Sacraments and not one only, it is precisely with a view to these specific
graces, destined to help us in the various aspect of our Christian life. It
is therefore often called sacramental or special grace, although it is in
fact the same sanctifying grace, but producing a special effect. A fresh
air cure strengthens the general health, but in one district it is more
beneficial to the heart, in another to the nerves. All who have profited by
the fresh air feel a general improvement, but the one returns with a
sounder heart, the other calmer nerves. Is this particular effect an
habitual grace entitling the soul to receive the special helps offered by
the Sacraments? Or is it just a succession actual grace? The question is
disputed by theologians, and I think that for the development of practical
devotion it has little importance.
(b)GRACES OF CHARITY PRODUCED BY THE EUCHARIST:
What is important here, and it is a point to which we can never give too
much attention, is that the special effect of the most blessed Sacrament of
the Eucharist is an increase of charity; that is, of the love of God. It is
in this very truth that the Sacrament of Love, the supreme proof of the
love of Christ for us, and the most powerful means of enkindling in us a
return for love. Divine charity is always present in our souls-though
often more or less dulled-whenever we are in a state of grace.
It follows necessarily on sanctifying grace, and it increases by the
infusion of this grace at each Communion. But more than this, the Sacrament
makes it operative with within, us, enabling us to perform acts of love. It
is no more a question of a simple general disposition to will what God
will; by this wonderful grace, if we are ready to cooperate with it, our
soul is lovingly directed towards God, it sees better His beauty and
goodness, it seeks His friendship, it finds in Him it repose and happiness.
Each well-made Communion is thus followed by acts of love, of gratitude,
submission, of desire and of delight in God. God is nearer to us, and our
life is illuminated and strengthened by what St. Thomas calls "the
enjoyment of spiritual sweetness."
This expression, however, must not deceive us. There may be in all this
none of the sensible sweetness for which we are eager, and to which we
attach to great a value. We may sometimes think-perhaps often-that we are
cold and indifferent, that our Communion has not been fervent, and yet we
have made these acts of love of which we have just spoken. Now the grace of
this Sacrament, its primary effect on the soul, is of a higher order than
that of feeling, through the fervor of charity it imparts may in fact
overflow on our feelings. Our Sacraments, to use the expression dear too
St. Thomas, are Sacraments of Faith: it is in a spirit of faith that we
should receive them, and it is by our faith that they work in our souls.
This grace, which we lay hold on by faith, has for direct object the will,
whcih in consequence tends more strongly and ardently towards God, longs
for Him above all else, and rests peacefully in Him as one rests when one
has found a treasure. The soul desires nothing better that to abide with
Him, to enjoy Him; that is, to use for God the graces received, to live
henceforward in conformity to God's will as a true child and friend of
God. It is therefore by its fruits-by the greater purity and docility of
our lives, by our zeal in the fulfilment of our duties, by our placing God
above all else-that we can judge of the reality of the love within us. Acts
of virtue are made more easily, and the most ordinary actions of the day
are performed for God, who has thus enkindled in us the fire of His love.
C. THE UNION
This transformation by love into the likeness of Christ whom we have
received in the Sacrament is also called by another name: UNION, union with
Christ. whatever may be the material oneness resulting from the act of
Communion, we must understand this union in its spiritual sense. The word
too easily awakes in our minds the picture of two friends who rejoice in
each other's company, who spend their hours of work and of leisure
together, and is never thought of apart from the joyful emotions of
friendship. But between Christ and ourselves all is spiritual, and if this
spiritual union may and often does bring about an emotional joy, this is
merely a secondary thing. This union may not be felt, but that does not
make it less real or less fruitful. The essential thing is the spiritual
union by which we deliberately will to think and act as Christ means,
therefore, to feed our minds on the truths He has revealed to us, to form
our thoughts to a life of faith, to meditate on the divine perfection, on
the marvels of the divine life unveiled for us by Christ in the Mystery of
the Holy Trinity, on the unfathomable goodness of God shown us in our
creation, in the Incarnation, in the whole life of the Holy Mother Church.
It means to fill our hearts with the contemplation of His beauty, of His
glory, of His greatness. It is to thing as Christ thinks on all the
questions of public and private life, on religion, family, justice, on all
human intercourse, on happiness and sorrow, on our duties and on our joys.
It is to will what He wills,, to approve of He has told us is good, and to
seek and to help His Kingdom to come; to love those He loves, to interest
ourselves in them, to overcome ourselves daily in order to serve Him in all
things.
All this can be done, and if often done, in our souls without our
experiencing any sensible joy. "Father Mateo, in a book which is the echo
of his burning eloquence, complains: " I protest angrily against those who
say that all love is sentimentality."
With this protest I most heartily agree. Our love of God, that is the
virtue of divine charity, is founded on faith and produces acts of the
will, not of feeling or emotion. As Our Lord Himself says: "He that loves
Me, keeps My Commandments." It is by our works that our love is to be
recognized, not by the joy which that love may bring us.
It would be well to explain this word..."Sentimentality." once and for all.
Its meaning is clear, but its application is often elusive. Without wishing
to define it, one could reach a fairly accurate explanation by saying that
a sentiment or feeling the movement of the emotions (fear, love, etc..)
when confronted by a real object presented them by reason. Sentimentality,
on the other hand, flings itself into emotion without asking to justify
itself by either reality or reason.
This distinction is especially marked-and with most important results-in
matters of religion. True sentiment must rest on faith. Sentimentalism,
without definitely excluding faith, has no recourse to it, but feeds itself
on side-issues appealing to the senses and to human emotions. Sentiment
will nourish itself on truth: it seeks to learn what is true, what faith
tells us about the Son of God. Sentimentality prefers the highly colored
images, the emotional exaggerations. On the subject of the Eucharist, with
which we are concerned, we find a perhaps undue insistence in considering
exclusively the human and the emotional aspects. Unquestionably Christ is
still and always will be man, and His sacred humanity must be the support
of piety, the memory of what He was and what He did for us all while on
earth, a constant appeal to our love. It is as a man, moreover, and head of
the human race that Christ instituted the Eucharist and offered Himself
to the Father. He has given us His humanity as a model for our own lives;
therein we ponder the admirable wisdom which through a Man-God realized in
the frailty of our human nature all the perfection of the divinity. Our
souls should find in this consideration a power that uplifts, that
strengthens our will, that guides our efforts to imitate the virtues Christ
practiced on earth. Does not this constitute the true, the indispensable
contact of the soul with the humanity of Christ in faith? To me it appears
more profitable that those efforts of the imagination which transfer the
conditions of His mortal life to Jesus in the tabernacle-(the Solitary, the
prisoner of the Tabernacle, etc.)and seek to excite our emotions by
representing Him there suffering, afflicted, re-enacting His Passion, which
we know to be untrue. Do we not often found our love and devotion on such