TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MONSEIGNEUR DE LA BOUILLERIE, Archbishop of Perga, Coadjutor of Bordeaux.
VI.
I have told you, O Christian soul, how the Eucharist helps us faithfully to obey the law, but I would now enter more into details, and show you how the same Eucharistic action applies itself to each of the commandments, in order to make their fulfilment easier to us.
You know that these commands belong to three distinct orders. They appertain to God, to our neighbour, and to ourselves. Taken together, one may say that they embrace the whole extent of morality. They form the most perfect code by which man has ever been governed. Well, then, let us first see how the Eucharist helps us to render to God the adoration, the love, and the worship which we owe to Him. Let us consider by turns in It the sacrament and the sacrifice.
The sacrament unites us to God by the firm bands of love.
It is this love which the Divine Saviour foresaw at the Last Supper, when He addressed this prayer to His Father: " That they may be one, as we also are one. I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." (John xvii. 23.) Christian love has no other object than that of uniting us to our Divine Head: and this close union which we form with Him in the sacrament of love, is it not the first hope of the perfect consummation ?
If the sacrament unites us to God, the Eucharistic sacrifice is the highest expression of the worship which is due to Him. Adoration, love, thanksgiving, almsgiving, expiation, prayer, all these acts of the Christian only acquire perfection inasmuch as they are united to those of the Eucharistic Victim. And, in fact, as I have said elsewhere, in speaking of prayer (The Eucharist and Prayer) in the holy sacrifice it is the Saviour Himself Who adores, Who loves, Who gives thanks, Who offers Himself in sacrifice, Who expiates, and Who prays with us.
By His own virtue He makes holy our human feelings. He corrects our imperfections, He conveys especially to our adoration and to our love a merit and a power which only belong to Him; and hence it is very true to say that it is only in Him, with Him, and by Him, that it is given to us to accomplish the first commandment of the law : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind."
God commands us to honour His Holy Name, and nowhere is this adorable Name more glorified than at the altar.
He orders us to observe faithfully all the days which are consecrated to Him. But does not the Church add that our first duty, in order to sanctify these days, is to assist at holy Mass? And all that surrounds the Eucharistic sacrifice, is it not the best embellishment of our Sundays and our festivals ?
O Christian soul, remain faithful to the Divine Eucharist, and you will be so with respect to all the duty which you owe to God. You will also be so to that which you owe to your neighbour.
Everything in the Eucharist teaches us charity. The holy doctors say truly that these grains of wheat which are crushed together, those grapes which are pressed and mingled together, to form in our holy mysteries but one bread and one cup, are the symbol of the close union which should exist amongst the faithful.
The Celestial Bread which the Lord dispenses, and which He multiplies on the altar to supply the needs of our soul, teaches us that we should multiply the bread of almsgiving, in order to succour the miseries of the poor.
How keep at the foot of the tabernacle the least feeling of hatred or of vengeance, when Jesus Christ forbids us all to approach the altar before being reconciled with our brother ? (Matthew v. 24.)
And the Eucharistic Table, where sit down at the same board both rich and poor, servant and master, learned and ignorant, is it not the most touching emblem of the holy equality of souls before God ?
The Eucharist teaches me to love all men, for Jesus Christ has loved them, even to give Himself to them.
The Eucharist teaches me to respect every human creature, for there is none who is not one day called to be the tabernacle of the Most High. But is it necessary to add that if the Eucharist teaches us the regard due to our neighbour, it is still more the respect due to ourselves with which It endeavours to inspire us.
Between the Eucharist and purity of heart there are very many loving ties. It is the perfume which purifies our soul. It is the salt which preserves our senses from all external pollution. It is the refreshing stream which extinguishes the fire of our guilty passions.
You see, O Christian soul, I have examined all the commandments, and there is not one which escapes the action of the Eucharist. It is indeed at Its school that is learned the science of the divine law, and especially it is there that one learns to put it into practice.
VI.
I have told you, O Christian soul, how the Eucharist helps us faithfully to obey the law, but I would now enter more into details, and show you how the same Eucharistic action applies itself to each of the commandments, in order to make their fulfilment easier to us.
You know that these commands belong to three distinct orders. They appertain to God, to our neighbour, and to ourselves. Taken together, one may say that they embrace the whole extent of morality. They form the most perfect code by which man has ever been governed. Well, then, let us first see how the Eucharist helps us to render to God the adoration, the love, and the worship which we owe to Him. Let us consider by turns in It the sacrament and the sacrifice.
The sacrament unites us to God by the firm bands of love.
It is this love which the Divine Saviour foresaw at the Last Supper, when He addressed this prayer to His Father: " That they may be one, as we also are one. I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." (John xvii. 23.) Christian love has no other object than that of uniting us to our Divine Head: and this close union which we form with Him in the sacrament of love, is it not the first hope of the perfect consummation ?
If the sacrament unites us to God, the Eucharistic sacrifice is the highest expression of the worship which is due to Him. Adoration, love, thanksgiving, almsgiving, expiation, prayer, all these acts of the Christian only acquire perfection inasmuch as they are united to those of the Eucharistic Victim. And, in fact, as I have said elsewhere, in speaking of prayer (The Eucharist and Prayer) in the holy sacrifice it is the Saviour Himself Who adores, Who loves, Who gives thanks, Who offers Himself in sacrifice, Who expiates, and Who prays with us.
By His own virtue He makes holy our human feelings. He corrects our imperfections, He conveys especially to our adoration and to our love a merit and a power which only belong to Him; and hence it is very true to say that it is only in Him, with Him, and by Him, that it is given to us to accomplish the first commandment of the law : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind."
God commands us to honour His Holy Name, and nowhere is this adorable Name more glorified than at the altar.
He orders us to observe faithfully all the days which are consecrated to Him. But does not the Church add that our first duty, in order to sanctify these days, is to assist at holy Mass? And all that surrounds the Eucharistic sacrifice, is it not the best embellishment of our Sundays and our festivals ?
O Christian soul, remain faithful to the Divine Eucharist, and you will be so with respect to all the duty which you owe to God. You will also be so to that which you owe to your neighbour.
Everything in the Eucharist teaches us charity. The holy doctors say truly that these grains of wheat which are crushed together, those grapes which are pressed and mingled together, to form in our holy mysteries but one bread and one cup, are the symbol of the close union which should exist amongst the faithful.
The Celestial Bread which the Lord dispenses, and which He multiplies on the altar to supply the needs of our soul, teaches us that we should multiply the bread of almsgiving, in order to succour the miseries of the poor.
How keep at the foot of the tabernacle the least feeling of hatred or of vengeance, when Jesus Christ forbids us all to approach the altar before being reconciled with our brother ? (Matthew v. 24.)
And the Eucharistic Table, where sit down at the same board both rich and poor, servant and master, learned and ignorant, is it not the most touching emblem of the holy equality of souls before God ?
The Eucharist teaches me to love all men, for Jesus Christ has loved them, even to give Himself to them.
The Eucharist teaches me to respect every human creature, for there is none who is not one day called to be the tabernacle of the Most High. But is it necessary to add that if the Eucharist teaches us the regard due to our neighbour, it is still more the respect due to ourselves with which It endeavours to inspire us.
Between the Eucharist and purity of heart there are very many loving ties. It is the perfume which purifies our soul. It is the salt which preserves our senses from all external pollution. It is the refreshing stream which extinguishes the fire of our guilty passions.
You see, O Christian soul, I have examined all the commandments, and there is not one which escapes the action of the Eucharist. It is indeed at Its school that is learned the science of the divine law, and especially it is there that one learns to put it into practice.
