Of Holy Communion

Article V

On the dispositions and conditions requisite for communicating worthily

We might dilate at length on this matter, by proposing various practices for communicating well: however, such is not our intention. We shall simply explain some of the chief means of approaching the Holy Table devoutly. Without doubt, what has been said respecting the holy Eucharist has inspired us with an ardent desire to participate frequently in and understand the dispositions we should bring with us to the reception of this most adorable Sacrament. Whatever may be our state or condition, priest or laic, we could neither offer in sacrifice nor receive with fruit the Victim of salvation, unless we did so with attention, a respectful fervour, perfect purity of heart, and detachment from creatures, and unless we spent a sufficient time in preparing for so holy an action.

1. Attention

When we approach the heavenly Banquet, let us reflect seriously on the divine food presented to us and on our own baseness. It is Wisdom itself which gives us this advice. ‘When thou shalt sit to eat with a prince, p. 209consider diligently what is set before thee.’¹⁰⁵105Prov. xxiii. 1. We should not approach the Holy Table, therefore, with levity and carelessness, but with a religious attention and solicitude, discerning with the eye of faith the priceless value of the adorable food there offered to us, and the nothingness of him who receives it. There is no reflection more calculated than this to concentrate all the energies of our soul on the action we are about to perform in communicating.

The following are two excellent means of sustaining and preserving our attention. The first consists in a kind of prelude. For example: represent to yourself the Sovereign Majesty quitting His throne of glory and descending on the altar which He envelops in a mysterious cloud, as He formerly ‘surrounded the Holy of Holies;’¹⁰⁶1063 Kings viii. 10. then imagine that you behold all the choirs of the blessed accompanying the Monarch of the universe, and legions of angels filled with awe encompassing the Divine Host.

If you are a priest, consider yourself as the minister of Jesus Christ, the mediator of the human race, appointed to appease the divine wrath, placed between God and man as another Aaron between the living and the dead: see the Church militant and the poor souls in purgatory stretching out their suppliant hands to you as their advocate and reconciler.

Such thoughts are calculated to arrest and restrain the wanderings of our imagination. In effect, these preludes being recommended to us as a preservative against distractions during meditation, it is evident we may derive the same advantage from them, should we employ them when preparing for communion.

The second consists in making ourselves or borrowing from some pious books a good method of communicating; the forms of prayers and the pious considerations which they contain will serve to reanimate us when we feel ourselves disposed to fall into aridity and distractions. By this second practice we can contrive to fix the inconstancy of our imagination and keep ourselves in a habit of recollection.

Let us remark that, as a rule, it is better to elicit those acts in the interior of our souls than to make them with the lips; however, it is sometimes desirable to pronounce them vocally when the dulness or aridity of our mind deprives us of a relish for devotion.

2. Fervour

Fervour is the natural consequence and fruit of attention. ‘It is a fire,’ says St. Laurence Justinian, ‘but one that requires to be constantly fed by the addition of fuel and fanned by the breath of good desires.’ The understanding furnishes us by reflection on the happy effects of the Divine Food which is offered to us with the fuel suitable to maintain this fire. The will produces the breath of holy desires by the pious avidity and holy ardour with which it solicits itself to approach the sacred Banquet.

We may take for the subject of these reflections the points which we have explained more in detail in the beginning of this chapter, and which we shall epitomize here.

1. The excellence of the holy Eucharist: it is wholly divine and incomprehensible on account of the Person who resides there, the manner in which He resides there, and the purpose for which He resides there.

2. Its effects: It is a throne of grace for fervent souls: the God whom they receive there can grant them all manner of blessings since He is omnipotent; He has the will to do so, for having bestowed Himself what can He refuse? But on the contrary, the Blessed Eucharist is for the tepid a tribunal of Divine Justice, a tribunal awful on account of the person of the Judge, it is the same Jesus whom we have treated so contemptuously in His mystery of Love; the quality of the accuser which is the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, profaned by our guilty apathy, and demanding vengeance against us; the account we will have to render and which shall be terrific in proportion to the inestimable value of the graces we have neglected.

3. The charity of Jesus Christ: He gives Himself wholly and unreservedly in this Sacrament; He gives Himself to all, repulsing no one; He gives Himself in all places and all times without exception.

4. The infinite value of the Holy Sacrifice, owing to the dignity of Him who offers it, the sanctity of the Victim, the Majesty of God to whom it is offered, the admirable manner in which it is immolated, and the sublime end of this divine oblation.

5. The super-eminent dignity of priests, whose power renders them superior to the angels, exalts them in some measure above the Queen of heaven, and equals them, so to speak, to Jesus Christ and God Himself: whence results to them the strict obligation of aspiring to a high degree of sanctity, that their life being free from sin it may not contrast with the sublime honour with which they are invested.

6. The attributes of the Eucharist: it is the memorial of God’s omnipotence; the mirror wherein is reflected the sanctity of Jesus Christ by the virtues He there practises; it is the miracle of divine love, for the Saviour instituted this Sacrament on the eve of the death He was about to suffer for our crimes, though He foresaw the sacrilegious abuse which would be made of it and the outrages He would have to endure from the impious and for wicked Christians.

A short but serious reflection on one of these points, which may be meditated successively by distributing them according to the days of the week, will be of great use to us for the maintenance of fervour. The more attentively we ponder these truths, the more shall our love increase; for, ‘as the wood of the forest is, so the fire burneth,’¹⁰⁷107Eccli. xxviii. 12. ‘if the wood faileth, the fire shall infallibly go out.’¹⁰⁸108Prov. xxvi. 20.

However, it is not enough that our understanding supply in some sort, by such considerations, the wood proper to preserve our fervour; the will must also inflame and augment it by its affections and holy desires. Jesus Christ Himself ‘desired with desire to eat this divine pasch’¹⁰⁹109Luke xxii. 15. with us, to teach us that one of the best dispositions for approaching this adorable Sacrament is an ardent desire for its reception. ‘This heavenly Bread,’ says St. Augustine, ‘demands that the interior man hunger for it, and it satiates such only as render themselves worthy of it by the fervour of their desires.’

Yes, the greater our desire for this Bread of angels, the more delicious shall we find it, and the more copious the graces wherewith it shall enrich us. The God of the Eucharist ‘fills the hungry with good things,’ but ‘He leaves those empty’¹¹⁰110Luke i. 53. of His favours who receive Him without affection through routine or for the sake of appearances. ‘Let us beware of manifesting indifference when He condescends to lavish so many proofs of love p. 212and honour upon us. See with what avidity little children apply their lips to their mothers’ breast! let us approach the Holy Table with equal eagerness; let us apply our lips with equal ardour to the chalice of salvation; let but one regret have power to affect us—that of being deprived of this divine food.’

On the day on which we are to communicate, and even from the eve, we should from time to time make acts of desire, saying, for example: ‘Who shall give me, O my Brother! to find Thee and kiss Thee?’¹¹¹111Cant. viii. 1. ‘As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters, so my soul panteth after Thee, my God. My soul thirsteth after the strong living God.’¹¹²112Ps. xli. 1. ‘Lord, all my desire is before Thee, and my groaning is not hidden from Thee.’¹¹³113Ps. xxxvii. 10.

These pious reflections, but especially these ardent sighs, are so many fiery darts, which wound the heart of our God. Let us examine ourselves, and see in what manner we are resolved to follow the advice we have just received.

3. Purity of heart and detachment from creatures

To communicate worthily and beneficially, it is requisite that great purity of heart and a genuine detachment from creatures accompany us to the Holy Table; in other words, that we be exempt from venial sin and renounce all inordinate affections.

Our soul must be: 1. Free from all actual revolt of the evil propensities of the heart and all dangerous friendship, and free from all feelings of aversion, hatred, revenge, ambition, and jealousy.

2. Superior to its vicious inclinations, particularly those which flatter the senses, self-love, and a deordinate attachment to honours and the conveniences of life.

3. Exempt from all reprehensible attachment to creatures, even the holiest. He who communicates should elevate himself to these sublime degrees of purity and innocence. It is this that is typified by the beauty of the ‘wedding garment’¹¹⁴114Matt. xxii. 11. required by the Gospel of all the guests at this Divine Banquet, and by the mysterious action of Jesus Christ, who washed the feet of His disciples before the Last Supper, ‘being desirous to teach them,’ says St. Bernard, ‘that they should be free from the slightest faults, even such as they were wont to commit without scruple, and which adhere to the soul as dust clings to the soles of the feet.’

There should be ‘no blemish’ in the young people whom Nabuchodonosor ‘appointed to dine off the meats of his table.’¹¹⁵115Dan. i. 4. The Almighty commanded that the Ark of the Covenant, destined for the preservation of the manna, should be covered with gold, and that the table on which the loaves of proposition were deposited should be of ‘purest gold,’¹¹⁶116Exod. xxv. 24. and it excites surprise, says St. Denis the Areopagite, ‘that the God of infinite sanctity, “who feedeth among the lilies,” who is Himself “the Flower of the Field” and the “Lily of the Valley,”¹¹⁷117Cant. ii. 1. exacts perfect purity from those who receive Him!’

Though venial sin and a too natural affection for creatures do not absolutely prevent the growth of grace, they are, nevertheless, according to the doctrine of St. Thomas,¹¹⁸1183 q. 79, a. 8. an impediment to the perfect plenitude of the divine gifts which the virtue of this adorable Sacrament communicates to souls perfectly free from sin.

Faults, even such as are slight, and vicious affections, are likewise directly contrary to the intention which Jesus Christ proposes to Himself in the Blessed Eucharist of uniting Himself unreservedly to us. ‘It is in order that we may be one thing with Him,’ says St. John Chrysostom, ‘that He has incorporated Himself with us and mingled His body with ours.’¹¹⁹119Serm. on B. Sacrament. ‘The consequence of the participation of the Body and Blood of the Lord,’ says St. Leo, ‘is that we are changed into the food we take.’ It would seem as though our Saviour Himself deigned to reveal this consoling truth to St. Augustine: ‘I am the food of the strong; thou shalt not change me into thee, as thou transformest ordinary food into thy substance, but thou shalt be changed into me.’ It is true, therefore, that our transmutation into Jesus Christ, or, as the Council of Florence expresses it, ‘the identification, in some sort, of man with his God, with whom he incorporates himself by communion, is the last end of this mystery.’

But, I repeat it, even venial sin and disorderly affections are an obstacle to the principal fruit which the Blessed Eucharist should produce. For so long as an inordinate attachment shall separate our heart from God, there is no possibility of a union between them, any more than between ‘iron and clay.’¹²⁰120Dan. ii. 43.

As there can be no communication between Ismael and Isaac, Agar and Sarah, Dagon and the Ark, so there can be no relation between the flesh-pots of Egypt or affections which are purely natural and this heavenly manna. ‘Our God is a jealous God, who will not suffer a rival in our love.’¹²¹121Exod. xxxiv. 14. He desires to reign alone in hearts, to be adored alone on the altar of our soul. He admits no division in the empire He wishes to exercise; He will not tolerate a participation in it with any idol. If we do not prepare for Him a pure dwelling free from all profane attachments, He will not abide with us; He will retire, leaving us destitute of His graces.

Yes, these slight faults, these inordinate attachments, are odious stains, horrible wounds, livid ulcers, which inspire the heart of the heavenly Bridegroom with an insuperable disgust and render our intimate union with Him impossible.

Let us descend into the depths of our conscience, and examine candidly whether the promise of Scripture, ‘You shall be changed into another man,’¹²²1221 Kings x. 6. ‘into a perfect man,’¹²³123Ephes. iv. 13. has been exemplified in us after so many communions; whether we can say with St. Paul, ‘I live, now not I but Christ liveth in me.’¹²⁴124Gal. ii. 20. Is it not rather the world that lives in us, our flesh which still rebels, the old Adam, who instead of dying daily increases in strength?

Have we, according to the advice of the apostle, ‘put off the old man and his works, to clothe ourselves with our Lord Jesus Christ?’¹²⁵125Ephes. iv. 22. Do we not rather merit this reproach of the prophet Aggeus: ‘You have eaten, but have not had enough; you have drunk, but have not been filled with drink.’¹²⁶126Agg. i. 6. May not the Man-God address to us these words of the Royal Psalmist: ‘What profit hast thou found in my Blood?’¹²⁷127Ps. xxix. 10.

In vain hast thou been steeped therein, since thou hast withdrawn from the Holy Table as proud, covetous, impatient, passionate as thou wert before, thy love of ease and pleasure undiminished; and God grant that thou be not more guilty, since thou continuest susceptible as wax to the impressions of vice, and hard as adamant to the attractions of virtue!

Let us reckon the faults we have corrected and the virtues we have acquired by participating in this Sacrament. Alas! let us beware of drawing on ourselves this malediction pronounced by David: ‘May the table of their sacrifices be for them a rock,’¹²⁸128Ps. lxviii. 23. against which they shall perish. Would it not be the climax of misfortune should the infernal fowler employ this divine food as a bait to allure us into his nets?

To prevent the ‘bread of life’¹²⁹129John vi. 35. from being perverted in our regard into ‘a sting of death,’¹³⁰1301 Cor. xv. 56. let us observe the following precautions in its reception.

1. If we know ourselves to be guilty of any venial sin more considerable than usual, let us purify our conscience by a good confession and an act of more perfect contrition. ‘Venial sin,’ says St. Thomas, ‘prevents our experiencing the spiritual sweetness which sacramental communion procures.’¹³¹1313 q. 79, a. 8.

2. Should any depraved inclination rebel and disturb our interior peace, we must immediately reduce it to subjection, combat it successfully by making acts of the contrary virtue, for ‘the Lord dwells not in agitation.’¹³²1323 Kings xix. 11. ‘The God of peace’¹³³133Rom. xvi. 2. abhors tumult.

3. If our heart feel that it is strongly wedded to any creature, let us arm ourselves with the strength of Abraham, let divine love immolate our Isaac with the sword of the Spirit, to the Divine Guest who is about to visit us. Our generosity will obtain for us, as for this holy patriarch, the most abundant benedictions.

4. The time necessary

Lastly, to participate worthily in the Holy Table, we must spend a sufficient and appropriate time in the p. 216preparation for the Holy Sacrifice, in the celebration of it, and of thanksgiving after it.

First.—It is meet to devote at least a quarter of an hour to the preparation: pious souls are wont to do so. The Israelites did not eat the Paschal Lamb, the figure of the Eucharist, raw; they had it dressed: if treating the reality with less respect we receive this adorable Sacrament without the proper disposition or adequate preparation, how can it be otherwise than injurious to our soul?

We receive a greater abundance of graces, according as our preparation has been carefully made; for the divine gifts are always dispensed with a profusion and perfection proportionate to the fervour with which we dispose ourselves for their reception. Preparation is as essential to a good communion as it is to a good meditation; nay, so necessary is it, that by it we may prejudge what fruit we shall derive from the Blessed Eucharist.

…¹³⁴134Editor’s Note: Omitted by the translator as it applies only to priests (see footnote 104). The original Latin is preserved at the end of this chapter.

How shameful is it in the sight of angels and men, and even of the demons themselves, to see Christians devote less care to the preparation for so august an action than a worldling does for his adornment! to be more assiduous about vain studies than about the adorable Sacrifice! more watchful and reserved in the society of the great than in the presence of the immolated Host! more solicitous to assist at a convivial entertainment than at the Banquet of the Lamb!

This being the case, how can we be astonished if we continue so deficient in virtue, despite our having so frequently received the Author of all Justice, even though one communion well made would have sufficed to make us saints? Is it surprising that, nourished on Sanctity p. 217itself, satiated with the flesh of a God, replenished with Jesus Christ, we still continue earthly, carnal, and stained with sin! The cause of this disorder is that we approach the Holy Table without preparation, or at most with a hurried, superficial, and tepid one. In order to remove this great barrier to the fruit we should derive from communion, let us faithfully devote, at least, a quarter of an hour to devout preparation for it. Alas! a whole year spent in this occupation alone would be inadequate to dispose us for so august a duty; how, then, can we find it difficult to consecrate a quarter of an hour to it?

Second.—…¹³⁵135Editor’s Note: Omitted by the translator as it applies only to priests (see footnote 104). The original Latin is preserved at the end of this chapter.

Third.—Faith, reason, and gratitude alike render it obligatory on us to spend, at least, a quarter of an hour in thanksgiving after we have had the happiness of receiving Jesus Christ into our soul. If a subject honoured by a visit from his sovereign were so ungrateful as to pay no heed to his presence, not even condescending to look at him, continuing, on the contrary, to pursue his ordinary avocations, assuredly such misplaced behaviour would be deserving of chastisement. But what a retribution does not he merit who, by an inexcusable forgetfulness of his obligations, abandons the God of heaven and earth almost immediately after He has honoured his soul with His presence, to give himself up to secular business?

O man! the great Physician, descended from heaven, has entered thy soul to heal its wounds: thou possessest the Wisdom of the Eternal Father, who has come to dispel the darkness of thy ignorance. Infinite Goodness communicates Himself to thee with all His treasures, to enrich thee with His gifts; and thou avertest thy eyes, thou despisest His bounty, thou fliest the brightness of this Divine Sun, thou forsakest the fountain of life to draw from broken cisterns, thou abandonest the Creator to run after creatures. This brief moment, during which the Heavenly Bridegroom visits thee in secret, is a favourable time, a day of life, an hour of salvation, a moment of grace; the Holy Ghost admonishes thee to defraud ‘not thyself of the least part of this gift’¹³⁶136Eccli. xiv. 14. ‘of God.’ Thou believest this, and yet, satisfied with having rendered Him a maimed worship, thou imitatest Judas, who ‘having received the morsel of bread went out immediately.’¹³⁷137John xiii. 29.

Senseless and spendthrift soul! thou knowest that in receiving thy God concealed under the Eucharistic veils, ‘all good things come to thee together with Him;’¹³⁸138Wisd. vii. 11. that ‘His delights are to be with the children of men;’¹³⁹139Prov. viii. 31. that this Divine Merchant comes to display His richest merchandise and to invite thee by the voice of His prophet to supply thyself abundantly; ‘Come,’ says He, ‘buy wine and milk without money and without any price.’¹⁴⁰140Isaias lv. 1. Thou contemnest His munificent offers, thou sighest after the flesh-pots of Egypt, thou thirstest for the wine of Babylon; weary even of the presence of so true a Friend, thou shunnest His tender embraces, thou fliest Him as though ‘His conversation were accompanied with bitterness.’¹⁴¹141Wisd. viii. 16. What heartless and wanton ingratitude!

‘I have not time,’ thou sayest, ‘to indulge interior recollection for any length of time after communion: other business urgently demands my attention.’ But the interest of thy soul is also business, and not merely the most important but the only really necessary business: and the time immediately succeeding communion is that most proper to treat of it. Besides, what is this occupation which is so pressing that thou givest p. 218it the precedence of that of thy salvation, and for which thou abandonest Jesus Christ, whose host thou art to-day? Institute a comparison between it and the care of thy salvation, and thou wilt be forced to admit that thou hast preferred glass to diamonds, dross to gold, trifles to thy most vitally important interests.

Granting, however, that thou art overwhelmed with care, and succumbing beneath the burden, thou wilt not deny that thou needest advice and support; but it is precisely in ‘the Angel of the great Council,’¹⁴²142Lit. of the Holy Name of Jesus. ‘in the Mighty God,’¹⁴³143Isaias ix. 6. who dwells within thee, that thou wilt find both, if thou confidently tellest Him thy difficulties and trials. For it is in consulting the Divine Wisdom that thou wilt learn how to fulfil thy duties, and in invoking infinite Power that thou wilt obtain the strength to do so.

But, oh, the folly! emulating the example of Saul, we forsake the Ark to recur to the pythoness, we despise the assistance of the God of armies to ‘make flesh our arm.’¹⁴⁴144Jerem. xvii. 5. We ‘do not consult’ the ‘Lord,’¹⁴⁵145Josue ix. 14. and we are deceived like Joshua by the Gabaonites; we are habitually conquered by our enemies, and very rarely are our efforts crowned with success. Let us examine how our soul stands. Do we not say with ungrateful Israel: ‘My soul loathes this food?’¹⁴⁶146Numb. xxi. 5. How much time are we resolved to devote henceforward to thanksgivings? What affections do we propose to elicit? It would be well to have some pious book at hand, containing appropriate acts, to which we could recur in moments of aridity.

Let us believe, let us hope, let us thank, let us love, let us expose the wounds of our soul, let us implore the p. 219gifts of God; transported with love, let us exclaim with the Sacred Spouse: ‘I have found Him whom my soul loveth: I will hold Him and I will not let Him go.’¹⁴⁷147Cant. iii. 4. He who has just come to dwell with us is our King, our God, our Spouse, our Physician, our Father, and our Brother: how can we find it difficult to love Him?

Let us, then, give ourselves up unreservedly to those holy affections, and we shall realise the truth of these words of St. Chrysostom: ‘The property of this Adorable Mystery is to make us find a heaven upon earth during this mortal life.’¹⁴⁸148Homil. on 1st to Corinth. Let us not abridge the time that should be spent in the preparation for the Holy Sacrifice, in the celebration of it, or in the thanksgiving after it; for in these happy moments we receive, as it were, an anticipated pledge of eternal happiness: but, on the contrary, the more we curtail them through indevotion, the more severe and long shall be our expiation in the other life.

Of all the means given by God for the attainment of solid virtue, that which is incontestably the most efficacious is always to approach the Holy Table with attention of mind, fervour, perfect purity of heart, and detachment from creatures, and to spend a suitable time in the participation of the divine mysteries.

Artic. IV., No. 3

Inferenda inde conclusio

Nunc ergo jam adeste, ô ‘Ministri Christi!’¹⁴⁹1492 Cor. xi. 23. ac muneris vestri statûsque dignitatem perpendite. ‘Vos enim estis sal terræ, lux mundi, lucerna super candelabrum, p. 220civitas supra montem posita,’¹⁵⁰150Matt. v. 13, et seqq. et ‘dispensatores mysteriorum Dei.’¹⁵¹1511 Cor. iv. 1. ‘Vos genus electum, regale sacerdotium, gens sancta, populus acquisitionis;’¹⁵²1521 Pet. ii. 9. quos Spiritus Sanctus ‘separavit ab omni plebe, jungens sibi;’¹⁵³153Num. xvi. 9. ‘ac segregavit in ministerium suum;’¹⁵⁴1541 Paral. xxv. 1. ‘erigens de stercore pauperes; ut collocet vos cum principibus:’¹⁵⁵155Ps. cxii. 7. ‘ut annuntietis virtutes ejus:’¹⁵⁶1561 Pet. ii. 19. ‘ut serviretis, et ministraretis ei:’¹⁵⁷157Num. xvi. 9. ut sitis oratores generis humani, consiliatores iratæ Nemesis, et omnipotentis misericordiæ instrumenta.

1°. Jam vero ‘audite cœli, quæ loquor: audiat terra verba oris mei!’¹⁵⁸158Deut. xxxii. 1. et sequelæ, quam hinc infero, æquitatem dijudicent. Hæc ergo cum ita sint, ô Ministri Dei!¹⁵⁹159Joel i. 13. tanta, tam augusta ac excellens cum sit vestri ordinis prærogativa, vos ipsi decernite, ‘quanta igitur cordis contritione et fervore, quanta reverentia’ et timore illud divinum et cœleste Sacrificium sit celebrandum.¹⁶⁰160Ambros. in præpar. ad missam.

Vos ipsi concludite; ‘quo crystallo non oporteat esse puriorem animam, tali fruentem convivio? quo solari radio non splendidiorem manum, quæ carnem hanc dividit? os, quod igne spirituali repletur? linguam, quæ tremendo nimis sanguine rubescit? qua denique re non sanctiorem esse conveniat animam, quæ tantum illum tamque dignum receperit Dominum?’¹⁶¹161Chrys. vi. de sacr.

Vos ipsi judicate, ‘(ut prudentibus loquor) vos ipsi judicate;’¹⁶²1621 Cor. x. 15. an non indigna prorsus, horribilis et execranda res sit, sutorem majori cum solertia conficere calceum, quam vos hoc Sacramentum: cum majori attentione vos ambulantes confabulari cum socio, quam altari adstantes colloqui Dei: majori cum præsentia animi vos ludere, scribere, studere, quam ad aras litare?

O Superi! exclamat os aureum: ‘oporteret mystam liturgiæ incumbentem, omnem carnis cogitationem abjicere, è vestigio ad astra transferri, et nudo animo, mente pura solum circumspicere quæ ætherea sunt.’¹⁶³163Chrys. iii. de sacer., 4. Deberet sic esse purus et attentus, eoque ardoris æstu flagrare, ‘ut, si in cœlis ipsis collocaretur, inter cœlestes illas virtutes medius stare posset.’¹⁶⁴164Ibid. c. 3.

Quam horrendum ergo (hominum hic cœlitumque fidem appello) quam fœdum, triste et abominandum erit spectaculum, eumdem mentis glacie totum quantum algere: cum ineptis cogitationibus velut cum totidem catellis pueriliter nugari, et quasi stupidum non attendere, quid agat: non intelligere, quid legat, in sacros calices non secus ac in pocula irruere: ‘corpus Servatoris velut carnes pecudum manducare,’¹⁶⁵165S. Bonav. de præpar. ad missam, c. 4. et mimicis gestibus sui gradus ac dignitatis caracterem petulanter profanare; idque agere—ô sidera occulite radios!—idque agere (vah eloqui horreo!) ministrum Divinitatis, vicarium Redemptoris, internuncium sacrosanctæ Trinitatis, circumdatum Angelis, immixtum Sanctis, tota cœlesti curia stipatum; et quidem illo ipso tempore id agere, quo Jesum cœlis evocat, Verbum manibus tenet, et stupenda prodigia patrat: quo ‘Christi cooperator, Dei adjutor, et sacramentorum dispensator existit:’¹⁶⁶166S. Petrus Damiani, Op. de communi vita Canonicorum. quo Ecclesiæ caduceatorem, fidelium conciliatorem, divinæ humanæque naturæ sequestrum agit; et coram justitiæ throno ‘pro universo terrarum orbe legatus ac deprecator intercedit.’¹⁶⁷167Chrys. de sacer., 3. Enimvero verba me deficiunt, quibus hujus rei indignitatem pro meritis exprimam.

Clamat quidem hypocrita contra Novatores, in altaris Sacramento Salvatorem ipsum præsentem adesse, et interim ita se gerit, ac si ipse de hoc fidei dogmate dubitaret: ita tepide ac oscitanter sacrificam hanc oblationem peragit, ac si Numen non nisi ligneum aut plumbeum haberemus, quod ejusmodi irreverentias nec videat, nec sentiat: sacram liturgiam ea linguæ volubilitate deproperat, ac si latrones à tergo instarent, qui necem ei strictis mucronibus jamjam intentent.

Et hæc videtis, ô Potestates! nec tamen ‘effunditis septem phialas iræ Dei in terram?’¹⁶⁸168Apoc. xvi. 1. Hæc cernitis ô Dominationes! nec tamen ‘accipit armaturam zelus’ vester, ‘armando creaturam ad ultionem?’¹⁶⁹169Sap. v. 18. Hæc spectatis, ô Virtutes! nec tamen fiunt ‘fulgura, tonitrua, et terræ motus?’¹⁷⁰170Apoc. xvi. 18.

Ah! ‘tenebrescant sol, et luna!’¹⁷¹171Eccli. xii. 2. ‘obtenebrentur stellæ’ caligine!¹⁷²172Job iii. 6. ne hanc ‘abominationem desolationis, stantem in loco sancto!’¹⁷³173Matt. xxiv. 15. oculis usurpare cogamur. Heu! spectaculum detestabile! minatur DEUS, terret Christus, pavent dæmones; et en! distractus adstat sacerdos. Venerabundi contremiscunt Angeli, ardent amore Sancti, oppressa miseriis gemit Ecclesia; et en! solus in medio positus languet sacerdos. ‘Corpus Servatoris de panis transubstantiatur materia: descendit de cœlo in carne Verbum;’¹⁷⁴174Laur. Justin. Serm. de Euch. et irreverenti gestu mysterii celsitatem infamat miraculi patrator mysta. ‘Obstupescite, cœli, super hoc, portæ ejus, desolamini vehementer!’¹⁷⁵175Jerem. ii. 12. Horrore concussa tremant fundamenta terræ, cum orbis Conditorem à petulanti vermiculo adeo viliter haberi cernant.

2°. ‘At væ tali animæ! retributio enim manuum ejus fiet ei.’¹⁷⁶176Isaias iii. 11. Nam teste Apostolo ‘judicium sibi manducat et bibit, non dijudicans corpus Domini;’¹⁷⁷1771 Cor. xi. 29. id est (quæ Salmeronis expositio est), per ejusmodi languorem, præsertim diuturnior si sit, proxime disponitur ad prolapsionem in noxam gravem.¹⁷⁸178Disput. xix. in 1 Cor. xi.

O fulmen terrificum! heu! ad hujus ferale tonitru cui non ‘tinniant ambæ aures?’¹⁷⁹1794 Reg. xxi. 12. quid enim terribilius, quam quod ejusmodi homini ‘panis vitæ’¹⁸⁰180Joan v. 35. fiat ‘plaga mortis,’¹⁸¹181Apoc. xiii. 12. et ‘calix benedictionis’¹⁸²1821 Cor. x. 16. vertatur in ‘calicem furoris?’¹⁸³183Jerem. xxv. 15. quod ‘auctor salutis’¹⁸⁴184Heb. ii. 10. ‘illi sit causa perditionis,’¹⁸⁵185Phil. i. 28. et scala ad cœlum ei evadat præcipitium ad orcum? quod ipse caracter sacerdotalis non nisi suspensa è collo asinaria sit mola, eo profundius illum ad ima demergens, quo altius super alios per illius præcellentiam fuerat evectus?

Proinde, ô minister Dei viventis! per aræ, cui adstas, sanctitatem te adjuro: cogita, quæso, ‘quali sis insignitus honore, quali mensa fruaris;’ et cave, ne ‘sit honor sublimis, et vita deformis:’¹⁸⁶186Chrys. Hom. iv. ad. pap. ne tuo in sacris operando tepore summæ dignitati labem inuras, ‘et spiritui gratiæ contumeliam facias;’¹⁸⁷187Heb. x. 29. ‘monstrosa enim res est (ait Bernardus), gradus summus, et animus infimus.’ Secus, time vindicem Nemesis manum.

Si enim ultrix ira Numinis, ab Oza et Bethsamitis levi irreverentia læsum, arcæ honorem tanta strage punivit, quid tibi, ô miser! fiet? Inde enim elucet, ait sanctus Thomas de Villanova, ‘quanti piaculi, simul et periculi res sit, indigne tractare, aut languide sumere sacrosanctum Christi corpus in hostia salutari, cujus in typum sic vindicavit. Væ ergo tepidis immolatoribus! p. 223si enim talis ultio in umbra, qualis fiet in veritate? si ignoranter aut imprudenter videntes, aut tangentes typicam illam similitudinem, tam acerba morte damnati sunt, qua animadversio fiet in contemptores majestatis?’ ita Archipræsul Valentinus.¹⁸⁸188Conc. iii. in Fest. Christi. Et jure; nam (verba sunt Petri Damiani) ‘alias peccantes, quasi Dominum in rebus ejus offendimus; oscitanter vero sacrificantes, velut in personam ejus manus injicere non timemus.’¹⁸⁹189In opusc. de comm. vita Canonic.

Quid ergo mirum quod, teste Apostolo, ‘pro’ ejusmodi ‘peccatis jam non relinquatur hostia:’¹⁹⁰190Heb. x. 16. et ‘Dominus juraverit domui Heli, quod iniquitas domus ejus non expietur victimis et muneribus in æternum?’¹⁹¹1911 Reg. iii. 13. Quid mirum quod orbem multiplici malorum cataclysmo toties inundatum cernamus! Nam quæ alia est causa, quod in Europa, à tumultuante, rebelli ferocia, hæresi, tot vastata fuerint regna, violata templa, polluta altaria, direpti calices, pulsi necatique sacerdotes? Verbo: cur sacra nostra fuerint data ‘in conculcationem, mutatus color optimus, et dispersi lapides sanctuarii?’¹⁹²192Thren. iv. 12. quæ, inquam, alia tot damnorum (saltem aliqua ex parte) origo fuit, quam tepor obiter et cursim sacrificantium? Hic enim, hic erat ille ‘ventus turbinis veniens ab Aquilone,’¹⁹³193Ezec. i. 4. qui tam atras errorum, plagarum, et calamitatum nubes patriæ invexit. Hic illas ‘septem phialas aureas plenas iracundiæ Dei per exeuntes de templo Angelos’¹⁹⁴194Apoc. xv. 6. in terras nostras effudit.

Nempe mavult summa illa nullius indiga Majestas omnino carere victimis, altaribus, et templis, quam ea sacrilego mystarum languore profanata conspicere. Argumento nobis sunt gemina illa veteris testamenti p. 224monumenta, arca scilicet et templum, quæ ambo ob sacerdotum culpas primum hosti, demum et igni in spolium cessere. Nam (ut narrant divinæ paginæ) non solum duo ‘filii Heli mortui sunt, Ophni et Phines,’ utpote ‘nescientes Dominum; sed et arca Dei capta est.’¹⁹⁵1951 Reg. iv. 11. Non solum Levitæ captivi Babylonem fuerunt adducti, sed ipsum quoque Solymæ templum ultricibus flammis fuit consumptum.¹⁹⁶1964 Reg. xxv. 9.

Nimirum (ut ait S. Prosper) ‘sic Deus Israel peccantibus sacrorum ministris irascitur, ut etiam sacratis locis vasisque non parcat.’¹⁹⁷197‘De promiss.’ p. ii. Licet enim aurei sint calices, cum tamen vos lignei sitis, ô sacerdotes! ‘non est mihi voluntas in vobis, dicit Dominus exercituum; et munus non suscipiam de manu vestra.’¹⁹⁸198Malach. i. 10. Licet ecclesiæ sint magnificæ, quia tamen mentes vestræ sunt frigidæ, ‘ne offeratis ultra sacrificium, dicit Dominus, solemnitates enim vestras odivit anima mea, et incensum abominatio est mihi.’¹⁹⁹199Isaias i. 13, 14.

Væ itaque illis qui ea ipsa actione tantas in iras exasperant lenitatem Numinis, qua ejus justitiam placare debuissent. ‘Hos enim manet terribilis quædam exspectatio judicii, et ignis’ saltem lustrici horrenda ‘æmulatio.’²⁰⁰200Heb. x. 27. Si enim magnus ille Avila, audita morte inopina cujusdam juvenis mystæ, qui unica solum vice ad aras litaverat, attonitus exclamavit: heu! multum defert ad judicem! si unicam eamque primam et hoc ipso magis fervidam sacrificationem tam rigida olim disquisitio manet; ô Superi! quam severa, terribilis, et metuenda ratio erit reddenda pro tot, tanto cum torpore, inter meras dissipationes, præcipitatas litationes?

Igitur quicumque super Angelos cœlique Reginam evectus, et quasi Deus terrestris effectus, supremæ dignitatis culmen obtines, cave, ne tremendum illud sacrificium irreligiose peragendo, ‘inducas super te maledictionem pro benedictione.’²⁰¹201Gen. xvii. 12. Noli cum Nadab et Abiu filiis Aaron offerre ignem alienum, rubricas (ut vocant) temerarie negligendo; ne ultor ‘ignis egressus à Domino devoret etiam te.’²⁰²202Levit. x. 1, 2.

Potius sancta sancte tracta; ‘oleum quippe sacræ unctionis est super te;’²⁰³203Ibid. x. 7. et morem gerendo Venetorum Patriarchæ Justiniano, ‘munda te compunctionis et lacrymarum lavacro: carnis lumbos castitatis funiculo succinge: devotionis affectu te compone: virtutum te orna gemmis, sicque memor Dominicæ passionis ad sanctum accedas altare, divina suscepturus mysteria.’²⁰⁴204Laur. Just. de casto connub. 24 n. 6.

‘O Pontifex magne, Jesu fili DEI,’²⁰⁵205Heb. iv. 14. ‘qui me famulum tuum nullis, suffragantibus meritis, sed immensa clementiæ tuæ largitate cœlestibus mysteriis servire tribuisti, dignum, quæso, sacris altaribus fac ministrum, ut tuæ Majestati rite merear famulari. Præsta, ut hoc tuum Sacramentum non sit mihi reatus ad pœnam, sed intercessio salutaris ad veniam; ut sit ablutio scelerum, fortitudo fragilium, et contra omnia pericula firmamentum.’²⁰⁶206Ecclesia. in orationibus miss.

Da, ut fervoris æstu et ego conflagrans cum illis Seraphinis²⁰⁷207Isai. vi. 2. duabus alis velem faciem, summa demissione in abyssum nihili me dejiciendo: duabus velem pedes, intenso dolore commissos defectus execrando: duabus vero volem, intellectus et voluntatis exercitatione animum ad tui amorem inflammando.

Artic. V., No. 4

Quædam puncta

Quam triste igitur est videre ministros Dei viventis, qui ratione status ad sublissimam perfectionem tendere tenentur (nam cum his præcipue nunc mihi res est) hos, inquam, quam triste est videre, ex ipso negotiorum tumultu, a studiis, collocutione, conventiculis, manuali labore, a nugis et vanis occupationibus: imo non raro ex ipsis stragulis adhuc fumantes, animo dissipato, corde arido, sensibus incompositis, sine ulla pietatis stilla in Sancta Sanctorum tumultuarios irrumpere et eodem vix non habitu a rebus profanis, sine interposita mentis collectione, ad illa mysteria pertractanda prosilire, ad quæ circumstantes Angeli, rei majestate stupefacti, cernui contremiscunt. . . .

. . . 2°. Ad moram temporis quod attinet, ‘ipsi sacrificationi’ consecrandam, semihoram eidem tribuendam esse declarat piorum usus, suisque imperat parens Ignatius. Et certe hoc temporis spatium exigere summo jure videtur tum operationis majestas, tum operantis dignitas.

Nam, ô sacerdos? instrumentum es, et vicarius Christi tanquam immolatoris præcipui: amplissima legatione ad Deum pro Ecclesia fungeris: conciliatorem agis inter Numen offensum, et rebelle genus humanum. En! quem manibus tenes, universi Monarcha, Dominus tuus, et Judex est: functio, quam obis, omnium possibilium sanctissima, gravissima est: cœlorum Throni et Dominationes, qui præsentes circumstant, motus omnes censorio obtutu observant. Et interim tu profano languore, mimicis moribus, indecoris gestibus, inter continuas (ut p. 226vocant) rubricarum violationes, formidandum hoc sacrificium ita deproperas, ac si lictores tergori, latrones capiti jamjam proximi imminerent.

O Superi! procumbunt Principatus, pavent Potestates, adorant Cherubini, deficiunt præ rei admiratione Seraphini: et eodem tempore Sacrorum minister, inter illos medius, veredaria celeritate, sine ullo pietatis indicio, ita actiones præcipitat, orationes deblaterat, tremendaque hæc mysteria tractat, ac si solum fictile præ manibus haberet Numen. Quis tam probrosam templis execrationem non detestetur!

Quid enim? an non pudor est, eadem linguæ volubilitate sacratum mystam recitare epistolas Pauli in ara, qua puer Ciceronis declamitat in schola? eadem incitatione et verborum syncope eumdem perlegere Evangelii paginas, qua alii bajulas rerum novarum pagellas? eadem sermonis agilitate ab eodem decurri symbolum, summis fidei dogmatibus plenum, qua narratur commentum inanibus fabulis fartum?

Profecto si quis illatam rustico injuriam eodem modo deprecaretur, quo talis enuntiat ‘Kyrie eleison,’ indignaretur is potius, quam misereretur. Si quis ab homine beneficium eadem labiorum velocitate, et quasi vocis protervia peteret, qua is orationem dominicam præcipitat, certo repulsam ferret.

Ad illud cœleste trisagion: ‘Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,’ indicto cœlis silentio, illi quatuor et viginti Seniores, detractis vertice coronis, coram sedente in throno in genua procidunt, phialis aureis suum adorationis thymiana adolentes. Et interim hæc eadem verba, litans ad aram mysta, adeo festinanter conglobando accelerat, ac si Trinitatis sanctitatem Atheistis exsibilandam propinare vellet.

Vox sacerdotis altari adstantis, Psalmographo teste, p. 227deberet esse ‘vox virtutis,’²⁰⁸208Ps. lxvii. 34. latentem corde religionem prodentis, eamque in assistentes medio fervore propagantis. Verum proh dolor! non raro est proditor interni teporis, quem pariter contagioso exemplo circumstantibus afflat; est index dominantis intus juvenilis pruritus. Quid enim! an non puerile id et prætextatum quid est, puerorum instar sacrificando ludere par impar, et mutuo quasi certare, quis palmam alterutri in deproperanda liturgia præripere queat! idque agere presbyteros Altissimi, adjutores Christi, populi patres: et quidem cœlesti curia inspectante; eoque ipso tempore id agere, quo Ecclesiæ apud Deum in re summi momenti legatorum munere funguntur. Enimvero vel solis his vocibus tantus inest horror, ut rem fidei lumine perlustranti, artus stupore, animum dolore compleri necessum sit.

At dices: mundani homines ejusmodi lentulos aversantur, eorum sacra refugiunt, ‘devotulos, ceri-perdas, scrupulosos’ vocitant. Dandum aliquid etiam mundo est; itaque serviendum pietati propriæ, ne offendiculo sit alienæ. Verbo: singulares ne simus, qua itur, eamus; sequamur communem, qui jam invaluit, morem.

Vah! devovendum mille diris respectum humanum qui sacrilega temeritate in ipsa etiam Sancta Sanctorum, ipsas in aras impius irrepere non veretur. Ita enim si res se habet, ergo imprudenter egit S. Ignatius, suis rem divinam facturis, semihoram præscribendo. Ergo insigniter desipiunt tot excellentes prælati, hujus regulæ observationem urgendo. Ergo aperte errant tot alii virtute et scientia præstantes viri, ad altare semihoram explendo.

Sed quid dicent homines, inquis, ad podagrosam ejusmodi, elumbem, et testudineam sacrificationem? At quid dicet Deus, aio ego, ad cursoriam ejusmodi, histrionicam præcipitemque litationem? Quid Christus olim in judicio sentiet de tot vocibus præcipitatis, actionibus indecoris, gestibus mimicis: de tot irreverentiis, evagationibus, immodestiis, tamque petulanti rubricarum neglectione?

Tuam hic fidem appello, quisquis tam immaniter ineptis; edic, an non stultitia sit, velle displicere Numini, ut placeas homini? an non insania sit, flammas lustralis rogi per illam ipsam functionem augere, qua illæ extingui debuissent, manducare sibi, et bibere judicium divinum, ut evites humanum? Vah! ipsa rei impudentia bilem movet, et silentium imperat.

Quid? quod ipsi etiam sectatores mundi veredarios ejusmodi sacrificulos, irreligiosos cursores, sacriolas mimos, et venaticos mystas potius vilipendant, teporis arguant, et impietatis condemnent, utpote qui sua scurrili festinatione hæreticis scandalo, catholicis offendiculo, Ecclesiæ probro sunt.

Itaque cum sacrificando simus ‘spectaculum DEO, Angelis et hominibus,’²⁰⁹2091 Cor. iv. 9. firmum concipiamus propositum huic tam sanctæ operationi semihoram accurate impendendi, et observandas in ea rubricas, certis per annum temporibus, iterato relegendi; ne fors eæ culpandâ oblivione ex animo deleantur.