Volume II, Treatise VIII, Chapter III

The Preparation We Ought to Bring with Us, When We Approach This Divine Sacrament

THE advantage which the sacrament of the altar has above all others is, that Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is really in it; this is what makes it to be the most excellent of the sacraments, and to work greater effects of grace in oursouls. For in the other sacraments, we partake of the grace that is communicated to us; but here we participate of the source or fountain of that grace. In the others, we drink only the waters that flow from this fountain; but there we drink out of the source or fountain itself; because in it we receive Jesus Christ himself, true God and true man. This sacrament is also called the sacrament of the Eucharist, that is to say, the sacrament of grace; because the source or origin of all graces is herein contained, and that we receive the Son of God herein, who is the sovereign grace, and who, by his incarnation and death, has again re-established men in the grace and favour of his Father. It is also called the sacrament of communion, according to the words of St. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, “they persevered jin the communion of breaking of bread,” (Acts 2:42) because in receiving it, we who communicate, become partakers of the sovereign good who is God, and of all other goods and spiritual gifts; and Jesus Christ, after having given us his body and blood, communicates at the same time to us, all the treasures of his grace, which he has obtained for us by his incarnation and death. This term of communion suits very properly to it, upon another account also; because it unites all the faithful together, who participate of the same table and of the same bread, and thereby become one according to the words of the apostle, ‘“‘ we are one bread and one body, all of us participating of the same bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:17) ‘One of the reasons also why Christ instituted this sacrament under the species of bread and wine, is,” says St. Austin, “to shew us, that as bread is_ made of many grains of wheat, and the wine of many grapes; so many faithful, who participate of the same sacrament, become one mystical body.”—(Tract. xxvi. in Joan.) St. John Damascen also compares it to the burning coal with which the saraphim purified-the lips of Isaias. ‘ Let us receive,” says he “the body of him who was crucified, and become partakers of it, that the fire of our inflamed desire, being kindled in us, by the inflammation that arises from this coal, our sins may thereby be consumed and our breasts enlightened.” He adds also, that the Divinity being a consuming fire, according to the words of Scripture, “our God is a consuming fire;” (Deuteronomy 4:24) this heavenly food which is united to him, consumes all our imperfections, purifies us from whatsoever is unclean in us, and heaps spiritual goods and blessings upon us. In fine, this is the banquet the gospel makes mention of, in which God commands to be said to the guests: “behold I have prepared my banquet, my beeves and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready.”—(Mat. xxii. 4.) In saying all is prepared, all is ready, he gives us sufficiently to understand, that we shall find therein all we can wish {for. Hence the royal prophet, speaking to God of this heavenly manna—“Thou hadst, O Lord,” says he, “prepared for the poor, in the excess of thy bounty and sweetness.” —(Ps. Ixvii. 11.) He says not what it is that God has prepared; because it is so ineffable a good that it cannot be expressed by words, and it is above all understanding. ‘“O sacred banquet,” cries out the church, “in which Christ becomes our food, in which the memory of his passion is renewed, in which the mind is filled with grace, and in which a pledge of future glory is bestowed upon us.” 0 sacred banquet! This name alone of banquet is a name of joy and abundance. O sacred banquet, where man is nourished with his God! Sacred banquet, which renews in our memory the passion of our Saviour, and that excessive love which obliged him to deliver himself up to death for us, even to the death of the cross? Sacred banquet, in which our soul is fully satiated with God, and replenished with his grace. Sacred banquet, in which is given us a pledge of our future glory: a pledge so precious, that it differs in nothing from the recompense which ought one day to be given us in heaven. All the difference is, that here he has given us himself under the veil of the sacramental species, and in heaven we shall behold him, “face to face, such as he is.”

But the excellence of so august a sacrament, and of the sovereign majesty of him we receive in it, requires that we should bring with us great preparations for the receiving of it. The royal prophet, speaking of the temple, which he desired to be built to the Lord, “it is a great work,” says he, “since it is not to prepare an abode for man, but for God himself.” (1 Paralipomenon 29:1) And after having amassed a great quantity of gold and silver vessels and precious stones, all this seemed very small and inconsiderable to him, for the building of a temple in which the ark of alliance was to be placed, and wherein was kept the manna, which was but a shadow and figure of this divine sacrament. What ought not we -then do to prepare the temple, in which we desire to receive God himself in person? Ought not our care and precaution herein surpass the care and precaution of David, as much as a reality and a body, surpass a figure and a shadow? There is nothing, without doubt, that we owe not to his infinite Majesty, whom we receive in this august sacrament. But, we ought moreover consider, that it is of very great importance, to be well prepared to receive him. For such as our disposition and preparation shall be, that we carry along with us to it, such also shall be the grace, which will be bestowed upon us therein; just as the quantity of water we draw out of a fountain, is proportionate to the capacity of the vessel in which we draw it. The better to comprehend this, we must know that divines take notice, that he who approaches this sacrament, with more good works and more holy dispositions, does not only, in virtue of good works, and holy dispositions, receive more grace, which, with the counsel of Trent, they call the grace of “him that works;” (Ex opere operantis), but that the sacramental grace which the sacrament gives of itself, besides this other, “by the work performed,” (Ex opere operato), and which grace is attached to it by divine institution, becomes greater, and more abundant, in proportion as the disposition he brings, is greater and more holy. For God works in the order of grace, as he does in the order of nature; where we see causes work upon subjects, according to the disposition they find in them. Fire, for example, kindles dry wood in a moment, but it kindles damp wood very slowly; and it acts very differently upon the one and other, according to the different degrees of dryness it finds in them. The same happens in the sacrament of the altar; and consequently, for every reason, it is of the utmost importance to be well prepared for approaching it.

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