The Promise Of Our Divine Saviour to give to men His very Flesh to eat and His very Blood to drink. part 24.

FROM JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST BY REV. FERREOL GIRARDEY, C.Ss.R.

Wherefore in matters of faith it belongs not to us to examine, whether the doctrines we are required to believe are comprehensible to us, but merely to inquire whether they have been revealed by Jesus Christ, our divine Savior; if they are included among the doctrines He has revealed, they are necessarily true, however incomprehensible and mysterious they may appear to our weak and limited reason. In believing them we cannot err, for Jesus Christ, being God, can neither deceive us, nor be Himself deceived or mistaken, and we can then be more certain of their truth and of all the other truths of faith than of any truth pertaining to our natural reason, and why? Because in believing the truths or doctrines of faith, we rely on the infallible testimony of the all-knowing and infinitely perfect God, and there can be nothing more certain, more sure, than the testimony of God Himself, who can neither deceive nor be deceived: " The testimony of God is greater" (i John 5:9).

The intellect of the brightest and most intelligent of men is very limited indeed. St. Thomas Aquinas, speaking of the human intellect in relation to the revealed mysteries of our holy religion, compares it to the eyes of the owl in relation to the light of the sun, which is too bright for them to behold. Our modern unbelievers, who reject the truths of divine revelation, merely because they are above their comprehension, are like the owl that would deny the existence of the light of the sun, merely because it is too bright for its vision! But as the owl's denial of the sun-light does not and cannot prove that there is no such thing as the sun-light, so also the unbelievers' denial of the existence and truth of divine revelation has not the least weight against its existence and truth, for they are no more competent to judge in this matter than the owl is to judge of the light of the sun. Unbelievers are the most conceited of men. They pride themselves on their superior intelligence as self-sufficient and subject to no one, independent of all authority, even of God Himself; their mind becomes the slave of their passions and falls into the most absurd theories and gross errors, and they have the arrogance and effrontery of claiming to be the benefactors of man kind, on the plea of freeing them from all subjection to God and His holy law.

But the real truth is that they have led mankind astray from virtue and correct living, and undermined, by their false teachings, the very basis of society itself, the human family. Not one of the proud and boasting unbelievers has ever done as much good to man kind as one Sister of Charity, of Mercy, or one Little Sister of the Poor by her virtuous life and her devoted charity towards her fellow-men! Those vain boasters, claiming infallibility for themselves and their erroneous theories, attempt to destroy in men all belief in God and the supernatural, and practically seek to debase their fellow-men to the level of the brute!

On.the other hand, the Protestant sects, hardly less boastful, less arrogant, put their own private judgment, or views, in the place of the Church, which Jesus Christ instituted as His infallible organ, as the competent teacher of His revelation, as the guide and promoter of salvation. Instead of seeking to know what Jesus Christ really did teach, what His words really mean, and adapting their belief thereto, they exert themselves so to explain His words and doctrines as to suit them to their own views or theories. Our divine Savior, when commanding His apostles to go into the whole world and teach all men the very things He Himself had taught them, and threatening eternal punishment to all who would refuse to accept and embrace such teachings, such doctrines, established His Church, the Catholic Church, and not Protestantism or any one of the Protestant sects, as the lawful teacher and competent interpreter of His revelation. Wherefore, the true meaning of His words, of His doctrines, must be sought and will be found, not in the views or teaching of Protestantism or any of its sects, but solely in the teaching and doctrines of the Catholic Church from the time of Christ until the present day.

In previous articles we have seen the invincible arguments and unquestionable testimonies, which clearly prove that our divine Savior instituted at the " Last Supper " the Holy Eucharist, by changing bread into His true body, and wine into His true blood. He who denies this, might as well reject Christ and the whole Christian religion, as so many Protestants now practically do, for without the Real Presence, without the Eucharist, man's redemption would, in some manner, be incomplete! For by His Incarnation Jesus, the Son of God, united Himself to our human nature; by His sufferings and death He effected man's redemption; but by means of the Holy Eucharist Jesus Christ intimately unites Himself, not merely to human nature in general, but to individual men, and makes each individual man who receives the Holy Eucharist, or Holy Communion, a partaker of the fruits of His Passion and death, of the Redemption, and imparts to him the right to heaven and its glory, and thereby completes the individual Redemption of each communicant, who believes in Him and worthily receives Him.