TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MONSEIGNEUR DE LA BOUILLERIE, Archbishop of Perga, Coadjutor of Bordeaux.
In fact, O Christian soul, death causes us a double fear; it detaches us from the creatures which we have loved here below, and it leaves us in painful uncertainty of the future in store for us! Well, then, the Eucharist calms this double fear; it consoles us for the good things of earth, and insures us the good things of heaven.
It consoles us for the good things of earth. Oh! in fact what power have they over man!
Between them and him the ties are so close that they are only severed with his existence. Everything leaves him in the valley of tears, and, nevertheless, everything is dear to him. Firstly, this earth itself which he inhabits, the air he breathes, the ground which he treads under his foot, the sky which extends over his head like a splendid dome; then, more still, that which belongs to him in particular, his field, his vineyard, his flocks, his house; then, more even than all these things, the human beings like himself who are the objects of his affection, and whose life is mixed up with his own.
And yet in the midst of this universe in which his heart delights, God has placed before the eyes of the Christian a treasure more precious than all earthly riches, a felicity greater than all transitory pleasures, a good above all goods !—the holy Eucharist. It contains the Divine Loveliness, the Divine Majesty, and the Happiness of Heaven. But a dark veil conceals from our sight what It really is, and we see nothing in it but a lowly appearance.
Thus the earth which we inhabit offers us at the same time these two good things which, from very different points of view, have, nevertheless, great charms for us;—creatures and the Eucharist- Man is placed on the world's stage as if between two scenes, of which one is present to his sight whilst the other remains hidden from him.
In fact, O Christian soul, death causes us a double fear; it detaches us from the creatures which we have loved here below, and it leaves us in painful uncertainty of the future in store for us! Well, then, the Eucharist calms this double fear; it consoles us for the good things of earth, and insures us the good things of heaven.
It consoles us for the good things of earth. Oh! in fact what power have they over man!
Between them and him the ties are so close that they are only severed with his existence. Everything leaves him in the valley of tears, and, nevertheless, everything is dear to him. Firstly, this earth itself which he inhabits, the air he breathes, the ground which he treads under his foot, the sky which extends over his head like a splendid dome; then, more still, that which belongs to him in particular, his field, his vineyard, his flocks, his house; then, more even than all these things, the human beings like himself who are the objects of his affection, and whose life is mixed up with his own.
And yet in the midst of this universe in which his heart delights, God has placed before the eyes of the Christian a treasure more precious than all earthly riches, a felicity greater than all transitory pleasures, a good above all goods !—the holy Eucharist. It contains the Divine Loveliness, the Divine Majesty, and the Happiness of Heaven. But a dark veil conceals from our sight what It really is, and we see nothing in it but a lowly appearance.
Thus the earth which we inhabit offers us at the same time these two good things which, from very different points of view, have, nevertheless, great charms for us;—creatures and the Eucharist- Man is placed on the world's stage as if between two scenes, of which one is present to his sight whilst the other remains hidden from him.
