Take and Eat The Lord is Good

TAKE AND EAT

BY REV. ROBERT NASH, S.J.

FROM TIME TO TIME one hears of men going on a hunger strike and everybody knows what must be the inevitable result if they persist in refusing to take food. Little by little the body will grow more and more emaciated, each day that the strike lasts sees the man's strength give way, and ultimately death must come, for, through sheer lack of food, all power has been lost to resist its onslaughts.

Now there is another sort of hunger strike with which we propose to deal in the pages of this little book. You will find thousands of Catholics who refuse to give to their souls the food that is essential to the soul's health. Result? 

Of course the soul too sickens and dies, for having no powers of resistance it must also succumb to the attacks of the forces of evil. You cannot put a soldier on the field and make no provision for keeping him supplied with food. A starving man must be fed and nourished before he can be expected to fight. In just the same way, your soul cannot long hold out against the many enemies who assail her unless she too is kept fit for the fight by regular supplies of sustaining food.

On every side you will come across people who will explain to you how hard it is to 'keep good at this present time. Undoubtedly, the world of today abounds in temptations of all sorts, and the Catholic who steers through the labyrinth and keeps his course must needs be a skilled pilot. Passion is seething in the human breast and facilities for its gratification abound. What is easier than to allow one's ideals to run crashing into the reef ? Who does not feel at times almost overpowered by the temptation to take his hand off the helm and, regardless of consequences, to let his little craft dash recklessly into the vortex of excitement and sin? *

Poor frail human nature, in which there is so much that is noble and lovable ! How many there are who embark on life's journey buoyed up with high-souled aspirations and who grow listless and inert before many knots have been covered ! How many resolute promises to God are made and how few there are, comparatively, who prove their loyalty to Him when tested by the storms and winds and rain of temptation! What tears of bitter repentance for sin, followed by a return to husks of swine!

Strange that it should be so,-on the one hand this craving for goodness and on the other this apparent inability to attain to it, at least permanently!

This is the place to pause for a moment in order to remind our-selves of a vastly consoling truth. It is very well worth while insisting with ourselves that it is quite a literal fact that the forces arrayed against us are indeed too strong for us. We have no chance against them. The enemy is a master of astuteness, and, in the 'body of flesh with its sinful tendencies, he finds a willing ally. Left to ourselves it is impossible for us even to conceive a good thought or cherish a holy desire. How much more impossible must it be to steer a straight course in face of the violent storms which continually threaten to capsize your little boat?

Do recognise that it is impossible. Admit readily to yourself that it cannot be done. But if this is true where does the consolation come in? Is not my utter helplessness calculated only to fill me with depression and make me give up the struggle altogether? What is the use in fighting sin and temptation if I am so hopelessly weak before them?

This attitude would be intelligible if we had to say that we were left to ourselves. But the same Lord Who assures us that without Him we can do nothing was far indeed from abandoning us to the buffetings out on life's ocean. The enemy is strong. Our merciful Lord has therefore provided us with a marvellous life-giving food precisely because we need so sorely a strength that is greater.

And that food is nothing less than His own Body and Blood. 'Take ye and eat ; this is My Body. Take ye and drink ; this is My Blood . . . He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath everlasting life. Long ago the prophet fainted on his journey and was desperately tempted to lie down and die. 

But God sent him a strengthening bread from heaven. He ate and walked forty days till he reached Horeb the mount of God. Our souls, too, need strengthening Food and nobody knows that better than Our Lord. 'If God be with me who shall be against me? And through frequent and fervent reception of Holy Communion God is in very truth living in me. What wonder that the enemy quails before His Face?

'Take and eat this divine Food and see what will happen. You will find a new strength growing up within you, just the very strength you needed. When you have for a time made frequent and fervent Holy Communion a habit, you will some day begin to reflect within yourself on a happy change that has taken place in your life. Temptation is still there and well you know that it is always possible for you to fall. But while it is true that you recognise your weakness it is none the less true that the attack has lost much of its force.

Moreover passion, which formerly had such a strong appeal, now seems to have calmed considerably and the glittering objects with which it used to seduce you are seen to be after all, only so much tinsel. You have more confidence now without being in any way presumptuous. 

You have a sense of comforting security now, for passion though not dead, is no longer the imperious tyrant of other days. In a word you have acquired strength, a strength to do what you know you should do and to avoid what you know you should leave undone.

Such a happy change! It is such a relief! How has this result come about? Your new-found strength is not your own. You are now receiving Holy Communion frequently and fervently and so you have within you the strength of Jesus Christ Himself. In a new sense the words of St. Paul are yours: 'I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me.

'Take and Eat. Never until we get to heaven, and not even then, shall we fully understand the anxiety of Jesus Christ for our eternal salvation. It is not fair to complain of our trials and temptations for no temptation is insuperable. 'I can do all things in Him that strengthenth me, and it is specially through this ineffable gift of Himself that Jesus pours His own strength, His own very life, into your soul.

He has sympathy with you in those attacks of the enemy. 

He understands how vehement can be the inclination to plunge recklessly into evil. But do not tax Him with leaving you without provision for the fight. You cannot go down if you depend on Him. you cannot be seriously wounded if His life is abiding in you. Or if you do fall and if you are wounded you will immediately rise again. That is why we say that monthly 

Holy Communion is good; weekly Holy Communion is better ; daily Holy Communion, worthily received, is best of all. Why? Because the oftener you take and eat of this sacred Food the more your strength will increase, or better, the more His divine strength will wax within your soul, and if God be with you who shall be against you ? This is why He leaves Himself to you under the form of bread,-to indicate that Holy Communion is the source of strength.

There is scarcely a time a priest stands in a pulpit that he does not want to speak about this first effect of Holy Communion. Such a marvellous remedy for the frailty of human nature! One has had the happiness of seeing lives revolutionised by the regular and fervent reception of this divine Food.

Weakness gone before His strength, fear and anxiety giving way to joy and trust, temptations that hitherto seemed to hold the poor captive in manacles of steel now broken at last and freedom restored-these are some of the wondrous results that accrue to the soul through the strength of Christ communicated to her by means of Holy Communion. Try it.

But what passes one's comprehension is that so many fail to use this divine remedy. You know you are a slave to impurity or drink, you know your soul is in imminent danger of being lost, you have lived in habitual carelessness. Do you tell me that you really desire to rise above all that welter of sin? To live once again the life worthy of your manhood? Do you say that you wish you could be pure but that your case seems hopeless? You are contradicted by no less a Person than Jesus Christ.

'He that eateth Me the same also shall live by Me.

Some months ago a priest said Mass on a Sunday morning in a country church. Out of a dense mass of men only two or three received Holy Communion. Why? Must not one presume that in a big crowd like that there were many sorely tempted, many possibly who had allowed themselves to be driven hither and thither before the violence of the storm? Yet here was the remedy and they will not take it. Here is the source of the very strength of God Himself, ready to place itself at their disposal and there they stand, staring vacantly before them, and letting the food pass them by. One wonders if they are in earnest about their cure at all seeing that they make so poor a use of the prescription left them by the Physician.

You cannot break off that occasion of sin, -without Christ. You cannot give up that companion who is leading you astray and whom you perhaps are leading astray,-without Christ. You have not a chance, with your weak vacillating will, of guiding your barque through the raging torrents, pitted against such a foe, unless Christ steers with you. But with Him what a difference! His strength gathering your weakness to Himself; His holiness transforming the ugliness of your sinfulness; His steady hand on the wheel and His unerring gaze fixed on the shore; in a word His very life expanding each day more and more within your soul. 'Take and eat for you can do all things in Him Who gives you such a strength.

A certain man had been a daily communicant for many years. Once each week he had to drive to a city one hundred and forty miles distant from his home, and his business there required his presence at an early hour in the morning. His practice was, on arriving at that city, to pull up his car outside a Church and go into Mass and Holy Communion. He had driven one hundred and forty miles fasting and without a smoke, for the privilege of being able to receive Holy Communion, and this not once or twice but for many years. Here was a man who realised that monthly Holy Communion was good; weekly Holy Communion better, but daily Holy Communion best of all. Did he have temptations? 

Of course he had. Did he succumb? Of course he did not. Or if he did, he at once recovered. Why? Because of the regular supplies of the grace of God, divine life itself, which were thus continually reaching his soul and strengthening his powers of resistance.

In many places of Holy Scripture you have instances, sad indeed, of men who were brought to Our Lord because they were possessed by an evil spirit. The unfortunate man so possessed spoke as the evil spirit wished him to speak, moved as he ordered him to move, flinging himself here and there despite the efforts of the strongest men to hold him down. There is another sort of possession,. a much happier possession, the possession which Our Lord designs to secure over your whole being through Holy Communion.

'Comprehensus sum a Christo Jesu, writes St. Paul. 'I am apprehended, or seized upon by Jesus Christ. The metaphor is from racing. The winner of the race seized upon his prize and held it in his possession as a sign of his prowess.

Now the prize most valued by Jesus Christ, the valiant Champion, is the soul and the heart and the mind of the creature fashioned by the hand of our heavenly Father. That He should love human nature to such an extent is a miracle that we shall not exhaust even in eternity. But of the fact there can be no sort of doubt. This is the prize He longs to seize upon and to hold in His possession. And it is especially through Holy Communion worthily received that He secures His objective.

What does this possession by Christ imply? Think of the different faculties you possess and try to understand how, if this second effect of Holy Communion obtains, each will be brought under the controlling influence of Jesus Christ.

You possess first of all two interior faculties, your mind and your heart. The mind is the seat of thought. That mind of yours must henceforth cherish only the thoughts of Christ since He designs to acquire complete possession of it. 'Let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

Hence you will carefully exclude from your mind all deliberate thoughts of impurity, of hatred, revenge, selfish greed. Why? Because that mind of yours now belongs to Christ since He has taken possession of it through Holy Communion. How then could you entertain thoughts of that sort seeing that they are so foreign to the mind of Christ?

And on the positive side your mind will cultivate the thoughts that filled the mind of Christ. You know how He went about doing good to all men, ever thinking of their needs, always on the watch to help. The mind of which He has taken possession must be like Him henceforth, 'all things to all men. That divine Mind valued most highly the things that are above, treasure to be laid up in heaven where neither rust nor moth doth consume.

Receive frequently and fervently this divine Guest into your soul and you too will begin to relish eternal things, and the race for power or money or sin, which-occupies the thoughts and energies of the bulk of mankind will seem to you, what it is in reality, a foolish waste of time and opportunity. You will see life from a new angle,-the only opportunity you have of accumulating treasure in heaven,-and you will be all keenness to make the most of that one opportunity. Thus will you develop the mind of Christ through contact with Him in Holy Communion.

Then there is your heart, the seat of your affections. Of St. Paul it was said that the heart of Paul was the heart of Christ. Why? Because with his great apostolic love he embraced only the objects which were ever dear above all to the Sacred Heart,-the souls of men. When the mind is possessed by Christ light and conviction follow. 

When the heart comes under His divine influence the will reaches out to lay hold upon souls and lead them to Christ for He is an ardent lover of souls. In Holy Communion then, He seeks to obtain this entire possession of your heart and fill it with the affections of His own Heart. Hence too, He will rigorously exclude all false unworthy objects. Affection to sin must go because if Jesus loved sinners He hated intensely sin which would rob them of the heaven prepared for them.

Your external faculties must also come under the power and control of Jesus through Holy Communion. Your eyes must never deliberately look at an object that He could not gaze upon. Why?

Because they belong to Him now since through Holy Communion He has taken possession of them. Your tongue upon which He rested must never utter an unkind word, still less must it spread lying gossip or foul language. It belongs to Him.

It is His possession now since your Holy Communion. Your ears you will close to all that you know is opposed to what He would have you listen to your hands? His were roughened with toil; your hands too will be ready to serve others in any way in your power. 

Those hands of yours are His property since He owns you through Holy Communion. Therefore He can use your hands to help His members, the members of His mystical Body. Finally He must take possession of your feet. These you will not use to walk into occasions of sin.

You will never allow them to lead you into places where He and His Blessed Mother cannot be welcome guests. Why? Because they now belong to Him. He has taken possession of them by means of Holy Communion.

The whole idea of St. Paul's theology is that the life of Jesus should grow within us by a continual increase of divine grace in the soul. Now in Holy Communion we receive the very Source itself of all grace. 

That is why it is such a sovereignly effective means of bringing about the wonderful transformation in our faculties which make them responsive to the most delicate touches of divine grace. Take and eat this Food regularly and fervently and a Christliness will necessarily follow. Monthly Holy Communion is good; weekly Holy Communion is better; daily Holy Communion is best of all.

St. Catherine could never receive Holy Communion without falling into an ecstasy which often lasted for hours afterwards.

 St. Ignatius had the greatest difficulty in saying Mass on account of the abundance of tears he shed when he recalled the self-abasing and tender love of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. The Cure of Ars used to say that if we realised what the Mass is we should die of love and wonder.

Not so long ago a Non Catholic said to a Catholic: 'If I believed what you Catholics say you believe about the Blessed Eucharist I think I should never be off my knees. When Dr. Orchard was still a Protestant he attended Mass one day and, on coming out of the Church he said to his companion: 'These Catholics may be right or they may be wrong in what they believe about the Eucharist.

But one thing I know,-that priest whohas just said Mass, he at least believes it. The reverent attitude of that priest, his very evident deep spirit of faith as he moved about the altar and handled the Sacred Host produced their effect and contributed towards the conversion of that great Catholic.

These things are said by way of introducing what we wish to bring forward as the third effect of fervent and frequent Holy Communion. Jesus does not give strength merely, nor does He content Himself with taking possession. Above all, through contact with Him is there enkindled in the heart a fire of burning love. 'Hold Him and keep Him for thy friend, Who, when all others forsake thee will not abandon thee or suffer thee to perish in the end.

The man who is a regular and worthy communicant knows well the truth of the love of Jesus for him. He has not learned it out of books merely. He has not just listened to it in sermons. From his own intimate experience he understands, in a way he cannot tell you, that when Jesus Christ stretches out His arms wide to embrace all men, when He proclaims from the house tops that His Heart is on fire with love for us in our waywardness and sinfulness,-contact with Christ has taught him well that this language of love is no metaphor but literal truth.

When Our Lord gave us this Gift He was seated with 'His own at the Supper Table. He saw that in that very night Judas would betray Him with a kiss. Peter would deny Him three times, cursing and swearing that he had never even heard His name. The rest of His own would scamper away from Him in terror at the first appearance of danger. And His 'revenge is to give them this Gift. 'Take ye and eat. Was there ever such a Lover?

And as He sat there He looked down through the centuries and saw the Peters and the Judasas who would betray Him and repudiate His Gift. He saw the innumerable sacrileges that would desecrate His Eucharist. He saw that many would draw near to Him to receive Him, apparently indeed His friends, but in reality, even at that awful moment,- appalling thought,-their souls would be reeking with the guilt of mortal sin. Of all this He would have to complain to St. Margaret Mary. Of ingratitude, and sacrilege, and forgetfulness, and this 'even from those consecrated to Me!

Why then does He give the Gift at all? If the vast bulk of mankind are going to treat Him thus why will He knowingly allow the Bread of angels to be trampled underneath the feet of swine? Why? Because although the 'vast majority will repay His love with blasphemy, there will be at least a minority who will try to appreciate and love. And so ardently does He crave for that love of man's heart that He will go through all that sea of sin and sacrilege for the sake of that few.

When the priest bends over the chalice at the Consecration of the Mass, Holy Church puts on his lips the words: 'This is the chalice . . . which will be poured out for you and for many . . . . Pro vobis et pro multis. There is here a clear distinction. The Gift is first of all 'pro vobis,-for those around Him, His intimate friends, and only after them 'pro multis,-for the general multitude. The inner circle may be small but so intense is His love that He will endure sacrileges and insults provided He can be its centre.

So we have now touched upon three effects brought aboutin the soul that 'takes and eats this Sacred Food. Strength, the very strength of Christ Himself. Possession, so that little by little Our Lord can control all that man's faculties.

And lastly, a burning love which shrivels up the nonsense and the make believe of the world and establishes between Jesus and the soul a most holy and intimate and abiding familiarity. Yes, let us once again repeat our slogan. Monthly Holy Communion is good; weekly Holy Communion is better; daily Holy Communion, worthily received, is best of all.

Strengthened with Christ's strength; possessed by Christ and possessing Him; loved by Him and loving Him ardently-if these are some of the wonders wrought by Holy Communion why are there so many who regard His Gift so casually? Why are there not many more daily communicants?

One reason we have touched upon already. It seems hard to excuse those who complain about the difficulties of living a good life if they refuse to use this wonderful antidote.

Men going to war have to receive injections against disease. Every man on earth is fighting for his eternal salvation. He too needs an injection against the diseases that are sure to attack him and the divine Physician has supplied it. It is an infallible Injection for it is His own precious Blood. If you do not use it, or use it only haphazardly, who is to blame if you fall a victim to sin? The question is: Are you really in earnest at all about your eternal salvation?

But, apart from this class there is another which makes only scant use of this Gift, though for a different reason. Many good Catholics will, say to you: 'Yes, I could go to Holy Communion often, but I wouldn't dare. The fact is that I am not worthy. Did anybody ever remotely suggest that you were worthy? Does not common sense tell you at once that of course you are utterly unworthy? How could anyone of us, even the greatest saint, be worthy of admittance to this sacred Banquet? 'If you had the purity of an angel and the holiness of John the Baptist you would not be worthy . . . .

You receive Our Lord, not because you are worthy but because you are sorely in need of Him. 'Without Me you can do nothing. The only worthiness strictly required is freedom from mortal sin. But what about venial sins? Certainly cleanse your soul of them before Holy Communion by a good act of contrition. But on no account should you allow them to keep you away.

Here is a mother of a large family. Your youngest child spills tea on a new table cloth and you fly into a temper. Can you go to Holy Communion tomorrow? Certainly. Here is a lady walking down town and she runs into a bit of uncharitable gossip. Then reflects afterwards: What a pity! I suppose that now I can't go to Holy Communion. 

Please let me say very emphatically that you can. Here is a man playing cards and the language grows a bit coarse. That indeed is not an ideal preparation for Holy Communion but if he has done his best to keep clear of that language, or even if he has smiled or put in his few words, let him make his act of sorrow and promise of amendment, and go to Holy Communion. You tell a small lie in order to get out of a scrape, you indulge a habit of laziness, you pray with distraction-these things need not keep you from Holy Communion.

To avoid all venial sin for a long period is impossible, without a special grace from God. But Holy Communion is one of the very best means of conquering these vicious habits. Venial sin disappears out of your soul when Christ enters into you in much the same way as darkness vanishes when you open the shutter and allow the glorious summer sun to stream into your room.

Nobody will misunderstand and argue that we seem to be condoning habits of venial sin. Far from it. Our only point for the moment is, that venial sin does not constitute a barrier to the reception of this most Holy Sacrament. 

Everyone knows that no purity can be too great to receive the all-pure God. Everyone understands that frequent reception of Holy Communion should diminish enormously the frequency of venially sinful habits. So if you fall into venial sins make an act of contrition and go to Holy Communion and confess those sins at your next ordinary Confession.

Suppose I commit a mortal sin and make an act of perfect contrition? Can I now go to Holy Communion, provided I have the intention of confessing at my next confession? No. This is a case where, with very rare exceptions, you should abstain from going to Holy Communion. As soon as you make your act of perfect contrition your sin is indeed entirely forgiven,* but there remains on you the obligation to confess it before you receive Holy Communion.

The case would be different if you forgot to tell a mortal sin in Confession. You had your mind fully made up to tell it but somehow it went clean out of your head when you were kneeling before the priest. Can you go to Holy Communion? Yes. And how often? As often as you wish, not once or twice only. Your only obligation in this case is to tell the forgotten sin at your next ordinary Confession.

If an opportunity turns up of going to Confession of which you would not ordinarily be availing yourself, there is no obligation on you to avail of it now merely because you forgot your sin. Hence, in this case go to Holy Communion, and as often as you like, and tell the sin at your next ordinary Confession.

From what we have just been saying you see that it is not necessary to go to Confession each time you go to Holy Communion. Many excellent Catholics miss opportunities of receiving Our Lord because of this false notion. If you are going frequently to Holy Communion you are certainly to be recommended to go frequently also to Confession. But, provided you are keeping clear of mortal sin there is no reason in the world why you should not go to Holy Communion several times even though weeks may have elapsed during which you had not an opportunity of getting to Confession.

You have been to Confession on a Saturday and twelve days later you are at Mass and you are fasting. IS there anything to keep you from receiving Holy Communion? Nothing at all provided you have not fallen meantime into mortal sin. And the same will be true in another week's time. Of course we must again stress that frequent Confession is much to be recommended when you are receiving Holy Communion frequently.

But recommendation is one thing and obligation is another, and it is a pity if you miss a chance of receiving Our Lord when you might lawfully and laudably avail of it.

Sometimes people find themselves caught the other way, i.e. they have opportunity of going to Confession but they cannot get to Holy Communion. 

You have to deliver milk or go to the factory on a Sunday morning and it is impossible for you, especially at certain seasons, to go frequently to Holy Communion. But what about Confession? There is no difficulty, you say, about that on the previous Saturday. But what's the use when I'm not able to go to Holy Communion? There is every use. Every sacrament brings grace to your soul. If you cannot receive both sacraments do make sure of at least one and you will reap much benefit.

Perhaps it may be well to insert a word here about the privilege sick people have concerning the Eucharistic fast. 

If a man has been laid up for a month (roughly twenty-four or twenty-five days), he can receive Holy Communion without keeping the fast from midnight. 'Laid up does not mean that he has to be actually in bed all during that month. Perhaps he sits up for a few hours or even goes out in the sunshine during the day, or can manage even a little walk in his garden.

Now if he has been in that state for about a month he can get leave from his Confessor to receive Holy Communion twice in each week, even though he has taken liquid food during the previous night. And with that permission, he is allowed to drink, not once only, but as often as he needs on each of the two nights. He can drink tea, or liquid medicine, or a 'beaten-up egg-anything provided it does not lose its character of being liquid.

Note that he must have completed the twenty-four or twenty-five days. It does not suffice that the doctor tells him he is going to be laid up for that period or longer. Note too that if he can manage to keep the fast on other nights he can receive Holy Communion oftener than twice a week and use his privilege. Thus perhaps on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday nights he does not take any drink after midnight. On each of the following mornings he can go to Holy Communion. If he takes drink now on Thursday and Friday he can still use his privilege as a sick man.

It is also to be stated that one can always avail of 'new time in computing the hour of midnight. At present we are one hour and twenty five minutes 'ahead of the sun. Consequently a man may take food up till twenty-five minutes past one a.m. and receive Holy Communion at Mass that same morning.

What is to be said about smoking before receiving Holy Communion? It does not break the fast and therefore need not prevent you from going. But, as an act of reverence and self-denial you are to be recommended to abstain.

Having dealt with those who neglect this great antidote out of carelessness and also with those who refrain from Holy Communion through a false conscience, it remains that a word be said about those who actually do receive Our Lord frequently and yet, it would seem, do not reap the grand effects set forth in the beginning of this paper. Perhaps you have heard it said that sin was never more prevalent and yet the crowds at the altar rails were never so big. You have our magnificent First Fridays, our Mission and Retreat Communions, our Sodalities and Confraternities with their regular reception of Holy Communion. And yet, in spite of all his there are such terrifying stories abroad about sin and laxity of every kind. What is wrong? If Holy Communion is so frequent and yet crime so common can it be affirmed that the Gift is such a sovereign remedy after all? An anecdote or two will help with the answer.

Mass was just over in the small country Church on Sunday morning. I was kneeling in the organ gallery and I noted with joy that large numbers approached the altar for Holy Communion. It was a grand sight. Especially was I edified by the big number of young men who drew near to receive Our Lord and returned with hands devoutly joined to their places. Such fine numbers and such reverence-but, in less than five minutes after the priest had left the altar the Church was practically empty. I saw one man and his wife and child remain some considerable time in thanksgiving. Here and there an isolated person, mostly women and girls, stayed on. But the vast bulk of that crowd had vanished. Out of that big number it was literally true that scarcely a dozen in all remained behind to thank Him for His Gift for even ten minutes.

Three young girls, aged about eighteen or nineteen, came running to Mass. The priest was distributing Holy Communion. The girls had been chatting and joking right up to the Church door.

Then a hurried splash of holy water and a quick glance towards the altar. Yes. They were in time. There were still two or three people waiting for Holy Communion so our three little friends almost ran up the Church, fell on their knees at the altar steps, and, all flushed and breathless, received Holy Communion.

The little lad had served my Mass with becoming attention and precision. Each morning during the retreat he had presented himself at the usual time for Holy Communion. We came back together into the sacristy about six or seven minutes later. During that few minutes he had been occupied with his duties as server and could have scarcely done more than mumble an aspiration or two. Immediately on reaching the sacristy he pulled off his little cassock and was gone. What of his thanksgiving? He just didn't make one.

On the last day of the retreat, when I knew that I should not be saying Mass there again next morning I asked him if he had ever been told about thanksgiving after Holy Communion. Ever been taught that it was usual to spend at least a quarter of an hour thanking Our Lord and asking Him for the graces we need? He was a fine youngster and I believe he answered me truthfully. No. He was quite sure he had never been told about that quarter of an hour. And where was he going to school? It is hardly for me to tell you! But he told me and his answer surprised me.

A few years ago the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments issued an instruction about frequent and daily Holy Communion. Those who promote this most praiseworthy habit are warned to impress on their disciples the need for care concerning the conditions necessary for worthy reception of this most Holy Sacrament. Anything like 'dragooning people into going to Holy Communion is severely reprobated. Setting too much store on mere numbers is much to be blamed.

It is not mere numbers that the Church wants. It is not mere routine reception of Holy Communion that will work in souls the wonders outlined above. Are we allowing our young folk to dash up and dash down without a word of preparation and thanksgiving? Are we stressing .the actual reception of Holy Communion to the detriment of the need of approaching this most Holy Sacrament with due reverence, and employing our quarter of an hour afterwards in some effort to thank Our Lord? Are we guilty ourselves of this want of proper dispositions? If we are, let us not seek farther for an answer to our query. Holy Communion does not work like a charm, a talisman.

Yes, we thank the Lord with a full and grateful heart for those First Fridays and those packed altar rails, but once again let us not rest on our oars. The mere mechanical reception is not enough.

We have to bring proper dispositions, not adequate indeed for that is impossible, but at least that measure of adequacy which our poverty can supply.

Attentive, fervent Holy Communion is what the Pope is pleading for. That too is what will bring those grand effects spoken of. It is what Jesus Christ has a right to expect from us. Is He receiving it?

That flippancy shows itself in another way too. From time to time one comes across a disgusting sentimentality in this matter of receiving the Sacraments, especially Holy Communion. Let me explain. You have a young person making the nine Fridays, or a member of the Confraternity. Of course, nothing would induce them to omit the Confraternity Holy Communion, or to 'break the Fridays. But side by side with that resolve, excellent in itself, you have that person living in a free proximate occasion of serious sin. 

Have they the remotest notion of breaking that? Not they! They quite possibly have arranged to go back to it that very night, albeit to watch their pious attitude now you would think them fit to be classed with the saints. Or they are living beyond their means, indulging every extravagant whim, having outgrown, of course, the old-fashioned idea of paying their bills!

There is a want of solidity in their religion. Let the Almighty accommodate Himself and His Laws to their way of thinking and they will willingly serve Him! They like to 'feel holy, and Holy Communion gives them that feeling, specially if these is some favourite hymn played and sung well at the time.

But as for changing their lives, or breaking off that occasion of sin, or paying what they owe! Does it cross their mind that mere sentiment is no service? That this lip-service is a mockery? 

That true religion is that which makes a person order his life as God means it to be ordered? Feeling may come or go, but the true servant of God is not swayed by it. He is loyal especially in times of stress. And if he sees clearly that his life is out of joint with the teaching of Christ then he resolves, and at least tries sincerely, to change what is amiss. And it is that sincerity and consistency that draws down abundant blessings on him when he receives Holy Communion.

So it is not mere numbers that Christ wants. He complains, indeed, that there are many who abandon Him, but in those who do draw near Him He surely has a right to look for proper dispositions. It is a catastrophe if even those who do come think lightly of the supreme and sacred act they are performing.

'As He entered into a certain town there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And lifted up their voices saying 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.' Whom when He saw He said 'Go, show yourselves to the priests.' And it came to pass that as they went they were made clean. And one of them when he saw that he was made clean went back, with a loud voice glorifying God. And he fell on his face before His feet, giving thanks and this was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said: 'Were not ten made clean and where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give glory to God but this stranger'.

That complaint was wrung from the Sacred Heart by the evident ingratitude of the nine. Would you accuse those we speak of of base ingratitude towards Christ for the Gift of Himself in the Blessed Eucharist? I leave the answer to yourself, especially if you must number yourself amongst those who rush up and rush down without preparation or thanksgiving. Base ingratitude, perhaps no. But lack of a deep spirit of solid piety, lamentable want of the spirit of faith, yes. And it is this want that atrophies the effects of Holy Communion.

If you place a wet log on the fire it will not light until the moisture is first expelled. If you sit on a hillside in summer before a beautiful panorama you won't appreciate the beauty unless you open your eyes. If you are gasping with thirst you won't assuage it by simply feeling that you have drunk a glass of spring water. In all these cases where there is question of producing heat, or enjoying the lovely landscape, or easing your thirst, you have to secure cooperation. You must place the log to be dried. You must use your eyes and you must raise the glass to your lips and drink.

In much the same way there has to be co-operation between Our Lord and yourself when you meet in Holy Communion. All the treasures on earth are useless unless they can be enjoyed. All the 'unsearchable riches of Christ will not enrich your soul unless you come to receive Christ with proper dispositions and try to realise what you are about.

One is inclined to pursue this matter further and to ask: 'Do they know Christ at all, these people we have in mind? 'Generally they know a fair amount about the doctrines of His Church. Often they can rattle off definitions for you about the matter and form of a sacrament, the impediments of marriage, the essentials of an act of perfect contrition.

All excellent things to know. Often they can give you dates at will; they can tell the year of the definition of such and such a dogma, when this Council assembled and when it dispersed and why. No one has any quarrel with dates and dogma, of course.

But is the complaint justified which one often hears made up and down the country, and bitterly made, by those who have to teach religion, that so much time is consumed and so much energy expended in hammering dates and figures and facts into the heads of children that there is none left for Christ Himself? Is there a danger that Christ and His lovableness are obscured if not entirely lost amidst this maze of facts that have to be marshalled round about Him?

A little Irish girl aged twenty came some time ago to speak to her parish priest. She declared in all seriousness that she was in love with an atheist and a foreigner whom she had picked up during his week or two while the boat he belonged to was alongside. At first the priest treated the tale as a joke and laughed at her. But she meant business and had come to see what arrangements could be made about the marriage. Then the priest remonstrated. Did she not know what the Church taught about the evils of mixed marriages? Did she never learn at school about the impediments? He was met with a toss of the head and a breezy: 'O, of course, Father. But then we all looked upon that as just useful for the exams!

Is our religious training superficial? Is our programme too crowded? If reception of the all-holy and all-loving God in Holy Communion is fast becoming mechanical is it because we do not teach our children the reality of that holiness and that love and that lovableness? Have we to admit that they know not Christ Himself even if they do know quite a lot about Him ?

Let me borrow here, with permission, an idea propounded by a priest for his children. He explains to them that the suffix 'een signifies a small person who has not yet fully grown up. Thus Maureen is the growing girl, while Maire is generally the girl who has attained to maturity. In the same way Christ is our Elder Brother. He has attained to full stature. He is grown up. And what are we? Each of us is a Christ-een-a little Christ, 'growing up in Christ as St. Paul expresses it. One can see at a glance what wonderful developments this beautiful idea is capable of, how it can be made to serve as a foundation on which to build deep love for that Elder Brother. In this way the child comes to regard Our Lord as an intimate Friend, one of the family, and each Holy Communion welds the more closely the bond of love between the two. And is not this to teach religion? Is it not the burden of St. Paul's wonderful epistles?

Let us teach them Christ Our Lord-what manner of Man He was; what He thought about current problems, about war, and money-making and pleasure-seeking ; what He loved and valued ; how His conduct was ever consistent with His teaching, for 'He began to do and to teach. Then let them understand something about sanctifying grace, that marvellous gift which makes the human soul His Tabernacle. 'I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me.

The Life of Christ is to expand more and more in that soul and the barriers are broken down by self-sacrifice. According as the divine life expands within, it manifests itself more and more in one's external conduct so that the child becomes like the Elder Brother even in his way of speaking and acting and judging. The great question always is: What would Christ say to this ? How would He answer? How would He behave in these circumstances?

Comprehensus sum a Christo Jesu. 

He grows more and moreinto the soul of the child. He becomes the child's greater self. Is this teaching religion? Granted that a course on these lines may not have some of the advantages of another course. Granted that the child may know less about definitions and dates and facts and figures. Granted that he may not shine in an examination where theory supersedes practice. But would it be worth the price if he were thus led to a closer and more intimate knowledge of the love and lovableness of Jesus Christ?

And if our children grew up in Christ in this way and advanced each day in a personal love of Him would not that love be bound to affect their attitude towards Holy Communion ? Our Lord complained at the Supper Table that even His own did not know Him. 'So long a time have I been with you and you have not known Me? And lifting up His eyes He declared that this is eternal life that 'they may know Thee, the one true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. Are we doing our part to acquire that knowledge and to impart it to others?

Small wonder that, without this knowledge, when they approach Him they develop the slipshod habit of coming without preparation and running away without thanksgiving. Small wonder that the evil habit contracted in childhood sets firmer as the years of youth and adolescence come on. 

Small wonder that the Christ, looking out over the empty Church is forced to ask: 'Where are the nine? Does only one in ten understand what Holy Communion is? Does only one in ten appreciate this Gift of God for what it is? Does only one in ten know Christ and nine in ten know merely about Him? One in ten! And where are the nine?

Nihil Obstat:

Carolus Doyle, S.J., Censor Theol. Deput.

Imprimi Potest:

@ JOANNES CAROLUS Archiep. Dublinen., Hiberniae Primas. DUBLINI, die 27 Maii, I941

The Gift Divine -- An Amazing and Awesome Gift in more ways than one

THE GIFT DIVINE

By The Rev. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R. S.T.D.

I. THE BREAD OF LIFE

ONE day more than nineteen centuries ago a man was preaching to an attentive group in the Jewish synagogue at Capharnaum, a city situated near the Lake of Genesareth in Palestine. He was Jesus, well known to the people of that region as a prophet who taught sublime doctrines and a lofty code of morality, proclaiming them to be the revelations of God Himself. To support His claim, He performed wondrous deeds which evidently could be accomplished only with the miraculous assistance of the Almighty. Even now, as He was speaking, 

His listeners recalled that two days previously He had fed a multitude of five thousand persons with five barley loaves and two fishes, and some even knew that afterwards He had walked upon the waters of the storm-tossed sea to meet His disciples struggling in their tiny boat. With these thoughts in mind to persuade them that when a man exercised such extraordinary power it must be that the God of truth was attesting the correctness of His statements, the people listened to an astounding promise from the lips of Him whom Catholics acknowledge as the Son of God made man.

'I am the b read of life; he that cometh to Me shall not hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst. . . . I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh, for the life of the world. . . . Amen, amen, I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him (John vi. 35-57).

Thus did Jesus Christ promise to give His flesh and blood to be the food and drink of men. Evidently His listeners on this occasion took His words literally, for they asked one another in astonishment: 'How can this man give us His flesh to eat? And when Christ repeated His wondrous promise in even more explicit language, many who had been His followers up to that time complained: 'This saying is hard, and who can hear it? and departed from Him forever. Then our Lord turned to the little band of twelve chosen disciples, and put the pathetic question: 'Will you also go away? With unwavering faith the loyal Peter answered: '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 (John vi. 53-70).

A year rolled by, and the feast of the Pasch was at hand. Christ had expressed an ardent longing to eat the ceremonial banquet ushering in that feast with His Apostles. 'With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you before I suffer (Luke xxii. 15). Evidently, He intended to do or to say something of great importance on this occasion. 

What this was He revealed after the ritual supper was ended on that memorable Thursday evening. He then took bread, rendered thanks to God, and breaking the bread gave it to His disciples with the words: 'Take ye and eat; this is My body. Then taking a cup of wine, He gave it to them to drink, with the words: 'Drink ye all of this. For this is My blood of the new testament which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins. Finally our Lord commanded that the rite which He had performed should be continued in His Church, for He said: 'Do this for a commemoration of Me (Matthew xxvi. 26-28; Luke xxii. 19).

 Thus did Jesus Christ institute the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist -a sacrament venerated by Catholics as the greatest of the sacraments. Moreover, in most of the other Christian denominations a rite of this nature is administered, known among Protestants as the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion. However, there is a vast difference of belief between Catholics and the majority of Protestants as to what this sacrament really contains. 

The usual Protestant view is that the Eucharist is nothing more than bread and wine, symbolizing our Lord's body and blood. Catholics believe that this sacrament contains the living, physical flesh and blood of our Saviour; and this is known as the doctrine of the Real Presence. The Oriental churches separated from the Catholic Church such as the Greek Orthodox Church, also accept this doctrine, as do some Lutherans and Anglicans. Of course, the crucial point is the significance of Christ's words when He promised and when He instituted this sacrament. For, since He empowered His Apostles to do whatever He had done at the Last Supper, and since their power has been transmitted to their successors in the sacred ministry, it follows that if Christ promised to give, and later actually gave His real body and blood to the little group around the supper table, the Holy Eucharist consecrated by the bishops and priests who have inherited the powers of the Apostles also contains the living Christ.

What reasons have Catholics for believing that our Saviour gave the Apostles His real body and blood? In the first place, we point to the undeniable fact that His words, both on the occasion of the promise and at the Last Supper, if taken literally, denote a true, and not a merely symbolic presence of Himself in the Holy Eucharist. He could not have expressed this more clearly or more forcibly than He did: 'He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath everlasting life. . . . For My flesh is meat (food) indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. . . . This is My body . . . This is My blood. Now, it is a universally accepted principle of interpretation that words are to be taken in their literal sense unless there are good reasons to the contrary. 

Are there any such reasons in the present instance? Those who deny the doctrine of the Real Presence do indeed adduce numerous arguments against the literal acceptance of Christ's statements, but an honest examination of these arguments will show that they all have one common basis-the difficulty of understanding how our Lord's real body and blood can be simultaneously present in thousands of places in a manner imperceptible to human senses. 

Now, this is only a repetition of the argument brought up by those who listened to Christ Himself at Capharnaum: 'How can this man give us His flesh to eat? . . . This saying is hard, and who can hear it? The weakness of this argument is that it measures divine power by human standards. He who has assured us that the Holy Eucharist contains His body and blood is the all powerful, all-truthful God.

Shall we twist His assertions to suit our ideas just because our puny intellects cannot understand how the miracle of the Real Presence takes place?Should we not rather exclaim with St. Peter: 'Thou hast the words of eternal life, and humbly acknowledge as divine truth the sublime doctrine which the Son of God has made known to us with His own lips?

 Secondly, the attitude of those who heard Christ's promise and His reaction furnish an argument for the Real Presence. It is very evident that they understood our Lord to be referring to His own body and blood, and not to a mere symbol. Now, from Christ's manner of acting on other occasions we can conclude that if they had interpreted Him wrongly He would have set them right. Thus, when the disciples understood literally His announcement: 'Lazarus sleepeth, He told them plainly: 'Lazarus is dead. Again, when He spoke of meat which He had to eat, and they thought He referred to material food, He told them: 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me (John xi. 11-14; iv. 32-34). But on the present occasion, when it was evident that His followers were accepting His words literally, He did not say: 'I intend merely to give you bread and wine as a symbol of My body and blood. 

On the contrary, He repeated His promise even more explicitly; and though He saw many departing from His company, He uttered not a single word implying that He had been speaking in figurative language.

Thirdly, with His supernatural knowledge Christ foresaw that in the course of future ages millions of devout Christians, relying on His words, would accept the doctrine of the Real Presence, and adore Him as truly contained in the Holy Eucharist. With this realization before His mind, how could our Saviour have been free from the grossest deception if He did not intend His words to be taken literally and yet gave no further explanation? Indeed, if the Holy Eucharist contained nothing more than bread and wine, Christ would be responsible for innumerable sins of idolatry.

From the earliest days of its existence the Catholic Church has firmly proclaimed the doctrine of the Real Presence, as is clearly attested by the writings of the firstcenturies. St. Justin, who wrote in the second century, said: 'We receive (the Holy Eucharist) not as common bread or as common drink. We have been taught that this nourishment is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus (Apologia I, 66). Tertullian, writing in the third century, stated: 'Our flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ, that our soul may be nourished by God (De Resurrectione Carnis, 8). Such quotations from the early writers could be multiplied almost indefinitely. It was only in the eleventh century that the doctrine of the Real Presence was first denied explicitly by one claiming to be a Christian-a certain Berengarius. 

Very few followed his teaching until the sixteenth century, when a large number of those who accepted the new creed of Protestantism, especially as proclaimed by Calvin and Zwingli, rejected the traditional belief of Christians in the reality of Christ's sacramental presence. However, Martin Luther and his disciples upheld the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, although they dissented from the Catholic Church as to the manner in which Christ takes up His abode in this sacrament.

In the Catholic Church the Holy Eucharist is the very center of worship and devotion, and as the most excellent of the sacraments is often known as 'The Blessed Sacrament. 

In view of the sublimity of the doctrine of the Real Presence it is not surprising that Catholic poets and painters and musicians have devoted the best efforts of their artistic genius toward expressing veneration and affection for the Son of God, ever dwelling in our midst in the Holy Eucharist and thus fulfilling in a wonderful manner His consoling promises: 'Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world (Matthew xxviii. 20).

II. THE THEOLOGY OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST

Although our Saviour has told us clearly that He is truly present in the Holy Eucharist, He has not explained fully the manner of His presence. Nevertheless, from a careful study of what He has told us, the Church and Catholic theologians under the guidance of the Church have compiled a systematic and fairly extensive explanation of the mode in which Christ is present in the Blessed Sacrament. We can divide the Church's doctrines and the teachings of theology on this subject into two classes 'those concerning the manner in which our Lord becomes present, and those concerning the manner in which He remains present. 

Under the first heading the most important point is the doctrine, taught by the Catholic Church as an article of faith, that our Lord becomes present in the Holy Eucharist by that process of change of the bread and wine known as transubstantiation. We could imagine various ways in which the Real Presence could take place. Doubtless Christ could enter into the substances of the bread and wine and coexist with them, somewhat as fire exists in and with a mass of molten metal. 

This view of the sacramental presence, known as the doctrine of consubstantiation, was defended by Martin Luther, and is accepted by many present-day Lutherans. Or, perhaps the soul of Christ could be united to the substance of the bread or wine in each host or chalice, making out of each a body. But in this latter case our Lord would not have the same body in the Holy Eucharist that He has in heaven, but would have a new body wherever the Holy Eucharist would be consecrated. 

However, all such modes are excluded by the clear teaching of the Catholic Church that our Lord becomes present by transubstantiation-that is, the change of the entire substance of the bread and of the wine into the same body of our Saviour that was born of the Virgin Mary and is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father.

Every material thing is made up of substance and accidents. The accidents are those elements which are perceived by our senses, such as color and taste and quantity. The substance is the thing beneath the accidents, supporting them in existence, yet itself imperceptible. Thus, we refer to the whiteness of the bread, the sweetness of the wine, the height of the tree, thus indicating that whiteness or sweetness or height is distinct from that which constitutes the substance of bread or wine or wood. Now, at the consecration of the Mass it is the substance of bread or wine that is changed into the body or blood of our Saviour, not the accidents. 

Moreover, the entire substance of bread or wine is changed, and thus this process differs essentially from any of the substantial changes that take place according to the laws of nature. For in the case of a natural substantial change-such as the change of wood into carbon or the change of hydrogen and oxygen into water- something of the previous substance is carried over into the ensuing substance, while only the element that determines each substance to be what it is differs in the two substances involved. The element common to both is called the matter, the distinctive element of each is called the form. Accordingly, a natural substantial change is called a transformation, because only the form of the previous substance passes away and only the form of the ensuing substance is new. 

But in transubstantiation both matter and form of the bread or wine pass away, the substance of our Lord's body or blood being entirely different. All this is implied in our Lord's own words: 'This is My body. For these words indicated that the substance of the bread was no longer present, but had been changed into the substance of Christ's body. Furthermore, it was a change of the entire substance of the bread, because what was then present was the identical body which the Apostles saw before them, and that differed both as to matter and as to form from the substance of the bread which Christ had taken from the table.

The accidents of the bread and wine remain unchanged. These accidents -also called appearances or species-could not naturally continue to exist without a material substance to support them, but in the Holy Eucharist they are miraculously sustained in being by the direct power of the Almighty. There is no more difficulty involved in this than if God were to support a stone in the air without any created cause to hold it up. Consequently, the eucharistic species continue to act in the same manner as they would if the substance of bread or wine were still upholding them. 

Our senses perceive the color, the taste, the odor of bread and wine. When the Blessed Sacrament is consumed in Holy Communion, the same process of digestion and nutrition ensues as if bread had been eaten. All this is quite normal, since the accidents continue to exist unchanged. For a material substance is not of itself perceptible or active; it is perceived and it acts only through its accidents. Hence, the consecrated species, being preserved in existence by the power of God, function in the same manner as if the substances of bread and wine were still present.

Under the doctrines concerning the manner in which our Lord remains present in the Holy Eucharist comes first the truth of His permanent abiding. This means that after the consecration Christ remains present under the sacramental species as long as they retain the appearances proper to them as the accidents of bread and wine. It is only when the process of digestion or disintegration produces such a change in the consecrated species that they no longer have the taste, color, etc., of bread and wine that the Real Presence ceases. 

Some ancient writers held that Christ leaves the sacred host when it is given in Communion to a sinner; and the Lutherans believe that our Lord is present only during the Communion service. The Catholic Church on the contrary teaches the permanence of the Real Presence in the sense just explained. This doctrine is the basis of the many devotions practiced in the Catholic Church in honor of the Holy Eucharist outside the time of Mass and Holy Communion, such as Benediction, the Forty Hours' Devotion and visits to the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle.

Another Catholic doctrine explanatory of the man ner of Christ's presence asserts its totality. This means that our Lord is present in His entirety-that is, with His body, blood, soul and divinity-under each of the two consecrated species. It is true, the words of consecration spoken over the bread signify and effect of themselves the presence of His body only; but since the body that becomes present is the same body that is now enthroned in heavenly glory, and that body is inseparably united to the blood, the soul and the divine personality, the entire Christ becomes present under the accidents of bread. In theological language we say that the body of our Lord is present in the host by the power of the words of consecration, while His blood, soul and divinity are present by concomitance. 

Similarly we conclude that under the accidents of wine the blood of Christ is present by the power of the words of consecration, while His body, soul and divinity are present by concomitance.

Moreover, Christ is entirely present in each portion of the consecrated host and of the consecrated species of wine. We cannot, of course, fully understand how a complete human body can be truly present in so small a compass, and can be simultaneously present in many thousands of consecrated hosts and chalices; yet we can acquire a limited conception of these marvels by analyzing the idea of quantity. When we think of a body as having quantity, the first thing we attribute to it is a number of parts, each related to the others and distinct from them. 

This aspect of quantity we call internal extension. Next we conceive the body as occupying a definite space, so that the whole body fills the whole space, and each part fills a distinct part of the space. This we call external extension.Now, we believe that while our Lord's body in the Blessed Sacrament has the first element of quantity, it does not possess the second in relation to the place occupied by the consecrated species. The various parts of His body-head, trunk, limbs, etc.-are present in their full perfection and proportion, entirely distinct from one another. But, by a miracle, His body is not contained in the place where the Blessed Sacrament is present in such wise that each part of the body occupies a different part of the place, as is the case with our bodies. 

On the contrary, it is present somewhat after the manner in which a person's soul is present in his body-wholly and entirely in every part. And since our Lord's body is not restricted by the space-boundaries of any particular host, it can exist simultaneously in any number of consecrated hosts throughout the entire world.

Since the body of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is the same body that is present in heaven, it performs on the altar the same actions that it is eliciting with its faculties in the kingdom of the blessed'for example, gazing on the radiant beauty of our Lady and speaking to her. The question naturally arises, whether our Lord with His bodily eyes sees those who kneel in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and with His bodily ears hears their prayers and hymns of praise. It seems that He does not, since His senses have no external extension in the Holy Eucharist, and so are not adapted to receive impressions from what goes on around them. 

Doubtless by a miracle His body could be rendered capable of such sense-perception, but such a miracle is not called for, since in the vision of the divine nature which His human intellect always possesses Christ dearly beholds the thoughts and actions of all men. And so, when we kneel before the Blessed Sacrament we can be assured that our every act of adoration and of love, our every manifestation of devotion, are perfectly known by Him whom we venerate beneath the Eucharistic species. And the realization of the wonderful miracles wrought by divine omnipotence to give us the living Christ for our strength and consolation should prompt us to exclaim from the depths of our hearts:

O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.

III. THE LITURGY OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST

The ceremonies centered about the Holy Eucharist are of two types-those established by Christ and those established by the Church. The former were performed by our Lord at the Last Supper, and consisted of the consecration-that is, the change of the bread and wine into His body and blood by the words: 'This is My body. . . . . This is My blood of the new testament which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins-and the distribution of Holy Communion to His disciples.* 

This ceremony which took place at the Last Supper was not only the institution and the administration of a sacrament but also the offering of a sacrifice. By a sacrifice is meant a religious rite designed to honor God and to atone for sin by offering to the Almighty a victim, and destroying or slaying it. That Christ offered a sacrifice at the Last Supper with His own body and blood as the victim is evident from His own words. For He said of His body, present under the species of bread, that it was being given for you (Luke xxii. 19), and of His blood, present under the species of wine, that it was being shed unto remission of sins (Matthew xxvi. 28). Such expressions clearly indicate that He was performing a sacrificial rite.

 Since then our Saviour offered a sacrifice at the Last Supper, the rite in which the Holy Eucharist is consecrated -the Mass, as we call it-is also a sacrifice. For the Mass is the repetition of what He did at the Last Supper, in compliance with His command: 'Do this for a commemoration of Me. The supreme sacrifice of the Christian dispensation is indeed our Saviour's death on the cross. By the efficacy of this sacrifice the Eternal Father received infinite honor and thanksgiving, and all men received sufficient means for the pardon of their sins and for the attainment of eternal life. The Mass does not add any merit or satisfaction to the sacrifice of the Cross; it merely applies to men the merits and satisfactions of this sacrifice. Nevertheless, the Mass is a true sacrifice, giving honor and thanks to God, renewing the Sacrifice of the Cross, and having as its victim and principal priest the same Christ who was the victim and the priest in the sacrifice of the first Good Friday. 

The chief difference between the two is that whereas on the cross our Lord's blood was really shed and He really died, in the Mass His blood is separated from His body only figuratively, by the twofold consecration of the bread into His body and the wine into His blood.** We say that on Calvary Christ was immolated in a bloody manner, in the Mass in an unbloody manner; or, that on Calvary He really died, in the Mass He dies only mystically.

* Although the scriptural narrative does not state that our Saviour Himself received Holy Communion at the Last Supper, it is probable that He did so.

**Although our Lord is present wholly and entirely under each of the two species, as far as the words of consecration are concerned only His body becomes present under the species of bread and only His blood under the species of wine. Hence, in the twofold consecration there is a vivid representation of Christ's death.

Some theologians believe that the Last Supper and the Cross were two distinct sacrifices, while others think they were the two parts of one and the same sacrifice- the offering and the immolation respectively. However, this question is very secondary to the important doctrines on which all Catholics agree- that both at the Last Supper and on Calvary 

Our Lord performed a sacrificial function, and that the Mass is a true sacrifice renewing the 'sacrificial death of Christ in a mystical manner, just as the rite of the Last Supper in a mystical manner anticipated it.

As was said above, Christ is the principal priest in the offering of every Mass, inasmuch as He instituted this sacred rite and commissioned the Apostles and their successors in the ministry to continue it in His name. Perhaps, too, He takes a direct and immediate part in the celebration of every Mass, invisibly exercising His priestly power in union with the visible priest when he says the words: 'This is My body . . . This is My blood. Only those can offer Mass as officiating priests who have received the priestly power through the sacramental rite of ordination from bishops who in turn have received their power in an unbroken line of succession from the Apostles. 

However, in this group are included not only Catholic priests but also the priests of the non-Catholic Oriental churches, in which bishops have been properly consecrated and priests properly ordained even after these churches separated from Catholic unity. But the Catholic Church does not recognize the power to offer the Holy Sacrifice in the clergymen of the Anglican Church, because in the sixteenth century this denomination changed the rite of ordination so that it was no longer able to confer the priesthood.

The second class of eucharistic ceremonies, those established by the Church, are numerous and inspiring. Thus, the simple form of sacrificial act established by Christ-the consecration and Communion- has been enhanced in the course of time by the Church's legislation adding the reading of portions of the Old and New Testament, prayers of praise, thanksgiving and petition, the use of incense, vestments, music, etc. In these matters there is considerable diversity in different parts of the Church, especially between the Western (or Latin) church and the Eastern (Oriental) churches. 

Thus, at the present day the Holy Sacrifice is offered by Catholics in eleven different languages and seventeen different rites, or ceremonial usages. Among Eastern Christians the term Liturgy is used to designate the eucharistic sacrifice, which Latin Catholics call the Mass. Although the additions made by the Church to this sacred rite are not necessary to make it a sacrifice, priests are strictly obliged to employ them, apart from very extraordinary circumstances. For example, in lands where the Church is being persecuted the Pope sometimes permits priests to offer Mass in an abbreviated form and without the use of vestments. But there never can be any dispensation from the essential features of the Holy Sacrifice instituted by Christ-the consecration of both bread and wine and the Communion (at least of the priest).

Although only an ordained priest can celebrate Mass, the laity also participate in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice. For the act of sacrifice is a public function, performed in the name of a society; and so, it is in reality the entire Church that offers each Mass through the priest as a public official. Accordingly, the laity assisting at Mass should realize that they are collaborating with the priest at the altar in offering the Divine Victim to His heavenly Father, and should join in the sacred rite as intimately as possible. For this purpose it is commendable to follow the prayers and ceremonies in a Missal. To receive Holy Communion during the Mass is also a praiseworthy act, since it is not only the reception of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist but is likewise the partaking of the Victim of the eucharistic sacrifice. 

And although strictly speaking only the priest who celebrates Mass is obliged to partake of the Holy Eucharist at the Communion, it is the wish of the Church that at every Mass some of the laity receive the body and blood of our Saviour 'in order that more abundant fruit of this most holy sacrifice may come to them, as the Council of Trent expressed it (Denzinger, Enchiridion, n. 944).

In most of the Eastern rites the faithful communicate under the appearances of both bread and wine, and this was the custom in the Latin Church also in the early centuries. But since the fifteenth century, according to the general law in the Latin Church,* Holy Communion is administered under the species of bread alone, so that only priests celebrating Mass receive both species. There are good reasons for this, such as the danger that the consecrated species of wine may be spilled. 

Ancient tradition justifies this practice, for although in the early days of Christianity both species were ordinarily * There are some exceptions. For example, the deacon and the subdeacon at the Pope's Solemn Mass receive the Blessed Sacrament under both species.

administered, there were some exceptions. 

Thus, those who were confined to bed by sickness or were in prison were given only the species of bread, while infants were sometimes communicated immediately after Baptism with the species of wine alone. The doctrinal basis of this restriction of Holy Communion to one species is the Catholic teaching that Christ is entirely present under each species, so that a person who receives only the species of bread receives the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Saviour just as completely as a person who receives both species. It is worth noting that a Latin Catholic is permitted to receive Holy Communion under both species from an Oriental Catholic priest in whose rite the Blessed Sacrament is administered in this manner.

Out of reverence for the Holy Eucharist the Church prescribes that ordinarily one may not receive Holy Communion unless he has abstained from all food and drink since midnight. In reckoning midnight one may follow any system of time that may be to his advantage. Thus, when daylight saving time prevails, a person need not begin this eucharistic fast until 1 A. M., which is midnight by standard time. However, one who is not fasting may receive Holy Communion as viaticum if he is in danger of death, and also may consume the Blessed Sacrament to preserve It from violation. Moreover, one who has been confined to bed by illness for a month and has no hope of a speedy recovery may receive Holy Communion once or twice a week, with the advice of his confessor, after having taken medicine or liquid nourishment. 

Finally, the Holy See sometimes grants special permission to individuals or groups to receive Holy Communion after taking food or drink when it would be impossible or very difficult for them to observe the eucharistic fast.

The eucharistic ceremonies in vogue in the Catholic Church besides Mass and Holy Communion, such as Benediction, processions of the Blessed Sacrament, visits to our Lord in the tabernacle, are of ecclesiastical origin. They are of long standing use in the Church and are commended to the devotion of the faithful as a means of animating their faith and stimulating their love toward Him who for love of us dwells ever in our midst.

IV. THE DIVINE GUEST OF THE SOUL

When promising the Holy Eucharist our divine Saviour said: 'Amen, amen I say to you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you (John vi. 54). From these words it is evident, that there is a grave obligation incumbent on all the members of Christ's Church to receive Holy Communion. However, it is not the same type of obligation as that which binds all men to receive Baptism, or that which binds those who have sinned grievously after Baptism to receive Penance. These obligations are concerned with a means necessary to salvation, whereas the obligation to receive the Holy Eucharist denotes only a precept to be fulfilled. However, it is a divine precept, since it was imposed by the Son of God. Our Lord did not specify how frequently we must receive His body and blood, but left the determination of this matter to His Church. 

In the earlier centuries the faithful were commanded to approach the holy table at least three times a year-at Christmas, Easter and Pentecost; but in 1215 the Fourth Council of the Lateran decreed that those who have reached the age of discretion must receive Holy Communion at least once a year, and that at Easter. This legislation still prevails.* Moreover, Catholics old enough for Holy Communion are obliged to receive the Holy Eucharist as viaticum (literally 'food for a journey) when they are in danger of death.

The Lateran Council mentioned above decreed that the obligation to receive Holy Communion should be gin with 'the years of discretion, and until comparatively recent times this phrase was generally interpreted as signifying the age of ten or twelve years. However, in 1910 a decree of the Roman Congregation of the Sacraments, approved by Pope Pius X, prescribed that the age of discretion is to be understood as synonymous with the age of the beginning of reason, which usually occurs about the seventh year. And so, in recent times little ones of tender years have been admitted to the holy table. Of course, children only seven years old cannot be expected to have an adequate understanding of the Holy

* The Easter season, during which this precept can be fulfilled, by the general law of the Church lasts from Palm Sunday to Low Sunday, two weeks. For good reasons a bishop may extend this period in his diocese from the fourth Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday, eleven weeks. In the United States, by special dispensation, the Easter season lasts from the first Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday, fourteen weeks.

Yet, this does not prevent our Lord from lavishing His graces on these innocent souls, so dear to His Sacred Heart. Instructions in Christian doctrine are indeed given to children in preparation for their first Holy Communion, but only a limited knowledge is required of them, and still less is necessary in order that a child in danger of death may be given the viaticum.

 Even though Christ had not explicitly commanded us to receive Holy Communion, we could conclude from the very nature of the Blessed Eucharist that we ought to partake regularly of this adorable sacrament. For Christ has established the Holy Eucharist to be the spiritual food of our souls. Now, just as our bodies need material nourishment to retain their strength and to ward off disease, so our souls need the supernatural food of our Saviour's body and blood to preserve their spiritual vigor and to overcome temptation. 

And while the Church obliges her members by strict command to receive Holy Communion only once a year, she certainly recommends more frequent communion. Pope Pius X in 1905 invited all Catholics even to daily communion, and pointed out that the only conditions required are the state of grace and a right intention. And in view of the appalling dangers to faith and morals which modern times have witnessed, we cannot doubt but that the Holy Ghost inspired the saintly Pontiff to propose to the faithful this effective means of keeping their souls in the love and friendship of God.

Just as material food will be beneficial only to a living body, so the Holy Eucharist will produce its effects only in a soul that possesses the spiritual life of sanctifying grace.* In other words, the Holy Eucharist is one of the sacraments of the living. However, one who has committed mortal sin since his last confession is not permitted to receive Holy Communion merely after making an act of perfect contrition. Such an act does indeed put the sinner in the state of grace; and it would suffice for the worthy reception of the other sacraments of the living. 

Of course, the person who would receive one of these sacraments in such circumstances must necessarily have the intention of confessing his sins subsequently. But there is a special law, frequently proclaimed in the official legislation of the Church, prescribing that one who is conscious of mortal sin may not receive the Holy Eucharist until he has first received the Sacrament of Penance. Only very extraordinary circumstances would exempt a person from this law. 

For example, if one had already taken his place at the communion-rail and only then realized that he was in mortal sin, he could make an act of perfect contrition and receive Holy Communion. But the mere fact that others will be surprised if one does not approach the holy table is not a sufficient justification for this manner of acting.

The effects of a worthy Holy Communion are many and sublime, and may be aptly compared to the effects produced in the body by nourishing food. In this latter case the first effect is that the food unites itself with the body and becomes one with it. So, too, Holy Communion produces a spiritual union between Christ and the soul, in accordance with our Lord's words:

'He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him (John vi. 57). We say 'spiritual union, for although Christ's body and blood are physically present in the communicant, they do not mingle physically with his body, but remain unchanged until the disintegration of the accidents. However, as long as our Lord is present, there is so intimate a spiritual union between Himself and the devout communicant that the two can be said to be one in affection.

The effects of this spiritual union in the soul are analogous to those resulting in the body from material nourishment, and are classified by the Council of Florence under the four headings of sustenance, growth, refreshment and joy. The Holy Eucharist sustains the strength of the soul by imparting graces to overcome temptation, especially temptations to impurity. It helps the soul to grow in sanctifying grace and in love for God. It refreshes the soul by inspiring it to acts of divine charity and contrition, whereby venial sins and the punishment due to sins already forgiven are remitted. It also brings joy to the soul-sometimes sensible consolation, but always that more stable and more profound happiness which consists in an eagerness to do God's will.

*It is probable that by exception Holy Communion received by a person in mortal sin will forgive his sins and confer sanctifying grace provided the recipient does not realize the wrong he is doing and has imperfect contrition, or attrition, for his sins. Such a situation, as is evident, could occur very rarely.

Holy Communion also produces a social effect, in that it unites all Catholics into one great family, irrespective of national and educational and economic distinctions. It is true, Baptism fundamentally constitutes the bond between the members of the Church, but the Holy Eucharist fosters this unity so effectively that it is sometimes called 'the sacrament of unity. For, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, Europeans and Africans and Americans gather at the same banquet table to partake of the same food, the body and the blood of Christ, the Saviour of all mankind. And greater aid toward the promotion of peace and friendliness among men is provided by this common participation in the Holy Eucharist than by man-made pacts and International laws.

The effects of Holy Communion are proportionate to the fervor of the recipients. Hence, it is most important that we prepare devoutly and attentively for each Holy Communion. It is sometimes stated that a single Holy Communion can make the recipient a saint; and the statement is no exaggeration, for as far as the power of the Blessed Sacrament is concerned, there is no limit to the graces it can bestow. The only limitations are those set by the dispositions of mind and heart found in the communicants. Besides a devout preparation, we should also make a fervent thanksgiving, for our Lord is truly present within our breast for about fifteen minutes after the actual reception of Holy Communion, and this amount of time at least should be employed in acts of ardent love and of petition for the graces we need.

We have been speaking of the benefits conferred on men by the Holy Eucharist as a sacrament. As a sacrifice the Holy Eucharist is intended primarily to adore and to thank God and to atone to Him for sin. However, it also obtains actual graces for those who share in its efficacy and obtains for them the remission of some of the debt of temporal punishment. The most practical way of benefiting by both the sacrificial and the sacramental power of the Holy Eucharist is to assist attentively at Mass and to receive Holy Communion devoutly.

The most common name of the great sacrament we have been studying -the Holy Eucharist-indicates the sentiment that should predominate in our heart when we think of this supreme gift of our Blessed Saviour. For the word 'Eucharist means 'Thanksgiving. This name is given to the sacrament of Christ's body and blood because at its institution He gave thanks to His Father (Matthew xxvi. 27). It is a most appropriate title because through the eucharistic sacrifice we can best thank the Almighty for His favors to us, and also because this name reminds us that we should ever be grateful to our Lord for giving us Himself in this sacrament. 

And the most suitable way to show our gratitude is to make the Holy Eucharist the very center of our lives, proving by our devout assistance at Mass, our frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament and our fervent reception of Holy Communion that we are profoundly thankful to the Son of God for this most precious gift of His love.

Imprimi Potest:

WILLIAM T. McCARTY, C.SS.R., Provincial Superior.

Brooklyn, N. Y., November 9, 1939.

Nihil Obstat:

ARTHUR J. SCANLAN, S.T.D., Censor Librorum.

lmprimatur:

@ FRANCIS J. SPELLMAN, Archbishop of New York.

New York, December 14, 1939.

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Mother Mary Leads us to Her Son in the Blessed Sacrament

Mary leads us to the Eucharist     Pope John Paul II 19th International Marian Congress Czestochowa, Poland August 15, 1996
"Hail, Jesus, Son of Mary, in the sacred Host you are the true God".
 
Joining in spirit with those attending the 19th International Marian Congress, I recall the words from a hymn that in Poland often accompanies Eucharistic adoration and processions. I repeat them because they contain the truth that, together with praising Christ present in the mystery of the Eucharist, almost of necessity we recall the memory of the Mother of God. 

It is thanks to her generous fiat that the Word of God was made flesh by the work of the Holy Spirit. She offered her own body to the Word so that he might take it upon himself and the miracle of the Divine Incarnation would be accomplished. In her virginal womb Mary bore the Incarnate Word, awaiting "with love beyond all telling" the birth of the Saviour-as the liturgy states (Pref. of Advent II).

When she gave birth to the Son of God she was, in a certain sense, the first to worship his presence among men. Together with Joseph she took the Divine Child to the temple to offer him to God according to the prescriptions of the law. Even then, through the words of Simeon, God had revealed to her that the sword of sorrow would pierce her heart, when her Son became the sign of contradiction 'for the fall and rising of many!' (Lk 2:34). This was the announcement of Mary's participation in the saving work of Christ, Priest and Victim, which was to be accomplished on Golgotha. "At the foot of the Cross out of love for your Son, she extended her motherhood to all men, born again from by the death of Christ for a life that will never end.... Taken up into heavenly glory, with maternal love she accompanies the Church and protects her on the way to her homeland until the glorious day of the Lord" (Italian Missal, Pref. of the Blessed Virgin Mary III)

Every Holy Mass makes present in an unbloody manner that unique and perfect sacrifice, offered by Christ on the Cross, in which Mary participated, joined in spirit with her suffering Son, lovingly consenting to his sacrifice and offering her own sorrow to the Father (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 58). Therefore when we celebrate the Eucharist, the memorial of Christ's passover, the memory of his Mother's suffering is also made alive and present, this Mother who, as an unsurpassable model, teaches the faithful to unite themselves more intimately to the sacrifice of her Son, the one Redeemer. 

Through spiritual communion with the sorrowful Mother of God, believers share in a special way in the paschal mystery and are opened to this extraordinary action of the Holy Spirit which produces a supernatural joy because of communion with the glorious Christ, on the example of the joy granted to Mary in the glory of heaven, as the first person to share in the fruits of the Redemption.
2. Mary and the Eucharist. The organizers of the 19th International Marian Congress in Jasna Gora proposed this as a theme for study and prayer. And it is a correct choice, especially in view of the International Eucharistic Congress that will be held next year in Krakow. In this way, just as Mary is present at the beginning of the mission of the Incarnate Word, and thereby at the origins of the Eucharist as well, the Marian Congress this year marks the start of the Church's spiritual preparation to make the Eucharistic Congress a fruitful experience. 

May these days bring you all close to her who--throughout her life in communion with her Son, not only by ties of blood but especially by love--is the most perfect Teacher of that love which enables us to be united in the deepest way with Christ in the mystery of his Eucharistic presence. Let Mary lead us to the Eucharist!

I ask all of you who are gathered in Jasna Gora for the Marian Congress to pray for the intentions of the Church and the world. As we give thanks for 20 centuries of Mary's protection of the Church, let us together ask her to lead believers towards an ever more perfect knowledge of the saving power of the Sacrifice of Christ, who is present in the Eucharist. Let us pray that the living experience of communion with Christ may bear fruits of zeal in the hearts of all Christians as they build up a communion of love among men. May the Mother of God lead us into the third millennium, united around the Word of God who was made flesh in her.

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With Mary Let Us Adore Him
  St. Peter Julian Eymard       
Mary devoted herself exclusively to the Eucharistic Glory of Jesus.  She knew that it was the desire of the Eternal Father to make the Eucharist known, loved and served by all men; that need of Jesus’ Heart was to communicate to all men His gifts of grace and glory.  She knew, too, that it was the mission of the Holy Spirit to extend and perfect in the hearts of men, the reign of Jesus Christ, and that the Church had been founded only to give Jesus to the world.
     
All Mary’s desire, then, was to make Him known in His Sacrament.  Her intense love for Jesus felt the need of expanding in this way, of consecrating itself — as a kind of relief, as it were — because of her own inability to glorify Him as much as she desired.
 
Ever since Calvary, all men were her children.  She loved them with a Mother’s tenderness and longed for their supreme good as for her own; therefore, she was consumed with the desire to make Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament known to all, to inflame all hearts with His love, to see them enchained to His loving service.
 
To obtain this favor, Mary passed her time at the foot of the Most Adorable Sacrament, in prayer and penance.  There she treated the world’s salvation.  In her boundless zeal, she embraced the needs of the faithful everywhere, for all time to come, who would inherit the Holy Eucharist and be Its adorers... 

Her prayers converted countless souls, and as every conversion is the fruit of prayer, and since Mary’s prayer could meet no refusal, the Apostles had in this Mother of Mercy their most powerful helper.  “Blessed is he for whom Mary prays!”

Eucharistic adorers share Mary’s life and mission of prayer at the foot of the Most Blessed Sacrament.  It is the most beautiful of all missions, and it holds no perils.  It is the most holy, for in it all the virtues are practiced.  

It is, moreover, the most necessary to the Church, which has even more need of prayerful souls than of powerful preachers; of men of penance rather than men of eloquence.  Today more than ever  we need men who, by their self—immolation, disarm the anger of God inflamed by the ever increasing crimes of nations.  

We must have souls who reopen the treasures of grace which the indifference of the multitude has closed.  We must have true adorers; that is to say, men of fervor and of sacrifice.  

When there are many such souls around their Divine Chief, God will be glorified, Jesus will be loved, and society will once more become Christian, conquered for Jesus Christ by the Apostolate of Eucharistic prayer.

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Prayer to Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament
O Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the glory of Christians, the joy of the universal Church, and the hope of the world, pray for us.  Kindle in all the faithful a lively devotion to the most Holy Eucharist, so that they may all be made worthy to receive Holy Communion every day.

Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.

Let us with Mary Immaculate adore, thank, supplicate and console the most sacred and beloved Eucharistic Heart of Jesus!