FROM JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST BY REV. FERREOL GIRARDEY, C.Ss.R.
The same apostle, St. Paul, writes thus to the Romans: " Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord (says the prophet Joel 2:32), shall be saved. How, then, shall they call on Him, in whom they have not believed ? Or how shall they believe Him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher ? And how shall they preach unless they be sent? . . . Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word (the Gospel) of Christ" (Rom. 10: 14, 15, 17). No one may therefore undertake to preach the Gospel, to teach the doctrines of Christ, unless he is sent by Christ, unless he has his mission to do so from Jesus Christ Himself. The Catholic Church alone has her mission to do so from Jesus Christ and His apostles, and therefore, the Catholic Priesthood, the mouth piece of the Church, is alone entrusted with that mission. Whence, then, had the Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century the mission to preach a gospel different from that preached by the Catholic Church, which Christ commissioned to preach to mankind? They could not have it from Christ who is ever with His Church, as He solemnly promised, and whose teaching is as unchangeable as truth itself. If not from Christ, it must be from " the gates of hell," vainly attempting to prevail against the Church Christ founded on Peter!
Therefore, let us firmly believe in the Real Presence and in the other mysteries the Catholic Church teaches, and let us thank God for the inestimable gift of faith, and especially for His personal, though invisible, Presence among us in the Blessed Eucharist. There in our churches we can visit Him, pay Him our homages, thank Him, beseech Him to forgive our sins and to assist us in our wants, temp tations, and trials, with the confidence of being heard. Protestants cannot find Jesus Christ in their churches, for they have no Real Presence; and they have no Real Presence because they have no Priest hood, no one empowered to do what Jesus did at the Last Supper, to change bread and wine into His Very Body and His Very Blood. Some of the pious among the Separated Brethren, when they wish to pay their homage to Jesus Christ and beseech His assistance, are accustomed to come to a Catholic Church to find Jesus and pour our their hearts to Him! May He deign to bestow on them the gift of the true faith!
Finally, we have had, of late years, tangible proofs of the Real Presence in the Catholic Church. Lourdes, a small town in France, not far from the Pyrenees, is a renowned place of pilgrimage in honor of the Blessed Virgin, who in 1858 several times appeared to a little peasant girl, and gave her her name, saying: " I am the Immaculate Conception "; and told her that she wished that people should henceforth come there in crowds to honor her and receive favors. Every year people afflicted with various incurable diseases beyond all medical (or magical) skill, or with spiritual and other trials, come from almost every country in the world to implore help, health, etc., through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. Every year miraculous cures, proved beyond all shadow of doubt, more or less numerous, take place, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin; but the majority of them at the general pilgrimages are directly performed by Jesus Christ Himself in the Holy Eucharist, thus proving the Real Presence of Jesus Christ therein. A few days before the breaking out of the terrible war now going on in Europe, that is, on the 25th of July, 1914, the International Eucharistic Congress was in session at Lourdes, listening to the great Dominican preacher, Rev. Father Janvier. The following lines are taken from his sermon: " For us," says Father Janvier, " the miracles, which take place at Lourdes, have an important bearing. They confirm and facilitate our faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. . . . The miracles which have taken place before the tabernacle, after a Holy Communion, during the passing by and at the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, confirm our faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. This faith, in fact, is for the sick, the inspiration of their supplications. They believe that Jesus Christ is truly, really, and substantially present in the Host; that He is hidden therein with His Body and with His Blood, with His Mind and His Heart, with His Humanity and with His Divinity. This is the reason why they go to Him as if they touched Him with their hands; as if they heard Him with their ears; as if they actually beheld Him in His physical body. From Him they expect consolation, their cure, health, and life, and their expectation is based on the words pronounced by the Prophet of Nazareth over the first consecrated bread and wine: 'This is My body! This is My blood'; in a word, it is based on His positive Presence in the ciborium, in the chalice, in the monstrance. And God, by choosing His intervention, for performing a miracle, the very moment when he receives Holy Communion, the very moment when the Blessed Sacrament passes near him and blesses him, God Himself, I say, by these very facts, adheres by a sensible sign, to the words of Jesus (instituting the Eucharist); He adheres indirectly, it is true, but, at the same time, He implicitly and truly approves them and holds Himself responsible for the teaching of the Church proclaiming the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, in our tabernacles. Is God mistaken in this? No, my brethren, for He possesses in a transcending degree the science of facts, of things and their essences. No, my brethren, for He is infallible, not only in His thoughts, but He is infallible also when He speaks; He could not betray the truth without ceasing to be God. There fore the miracles of Lourdes bring fresh security to our faith. By their means God guarantees that our faith in the Majesty of the Altar has a solid basis, that the Savior really dwells in the Sacred Host, and that we can safely offer to the Host the adorations, the prayers which the Israelite's addressed to Jesus, the Son of the heavenly Father."
