Meditation for the Fourth Wednesday after Pentecost

Subscribe here to receive by email.

Meditation for the Fourth Wednesday after Pentecost

Let us adore the infinite goodness of Our Lord identifying Himself with us by Holy Communion, and making of our heart an earthly paradise, wherein He delights to dwell (Prov. 8:31). Can we ever be sufficiently grateful for such great love?

FIRST POINT

Sacramental Communion

Holy Communion exercises its beneficent action on our souls and our bodies. Through it we unite ourselves so intimately with Jesus Christ that He dwells in us and we dwell in Him (John 6:57), and are so entirely transformed into Him that we become, in a manner, but one flesh and one blood with Him (Cyr., Cat. My si. 4); that we are as so many Jesus Christs; not that Jesus Christ changes Himself into us, but that we are changed into Him. In fact, the more worthily we approach Holy Communion, the better we become; and in the same degree that we separate ourselves from it, the farther we go away from virtue. When we communicate with faith, we feel that it would not be right that the tongue on which has been laid the body of a God should be profaned by indulging in frivolous or uncharitable conversations; that the body which has been the living ciborium of the sacred Host should be soiled by the slightest indecency; that the heart which has been the sanctuary of the Divinity should open itself to anything that is not holy and pure. Hence it is that Holy Communion corrects vices, moderates passions, deadens the furnace of concupiscence, cures our spiritual languors. Afflicted, it consoles us; discouraged, it revives us; cast down, it raises us; cold, it warms us. The woman who suffered from a bloody flux felt certain that she should be healed if she could only touch the robe of the Savior; what is it then to receive His body, His blood, His soul, His divinity? It would be impossible to express what blessings Holy Communion, properly received, brings to us. It is the wheat of the elect; it is the vine which makes virgins, and gives to the soul a love for purity and innocence. The presence of Jesus Christ in us strengthens our will in regard to charity and all the other virtues. “He that eateth Me” says Jesus Christ, “the same also shall live by Me,” (John 6:58) that is to say, he will no longer lead an earthly and animal life, but the life of Jesus Christ, a life of humility, of purity, of obedience, of meekness, and patience, and he will be able to say: “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20). To these effects of Holy Communion upon our souls we must associate its beneficent action upon our bodies. First, it sanctifies them by consecrating them to be as it were the ciborium of the body of Jesus Christ, and by teaching us to keep them in perfect purity, as though they were so many sacred vessels. Second, it cools the ardor of concupiscence. If you do not so often feel, says St. Bernard, fits of anger, of envy, of sensuality, and other vices, render thanks to the body of Jesus Christ (Serm. 19, in Cant.). Lastly, it lays in our souls the germ of a glorious resurrection. “He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood,” Jesus Christ says, “Hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the last day.”(John 6:55) Let us thank Jesus Christ for so many graces attached to a good communion.

SECOND POINT

Spiritual Communion

Spiritual Communion consists in the ardent desires of a heart full of love and which hungers and thirsts after Jesus Christ (Ps. 62:2). O God! It says to Him, how I desire to receive Thee within me, to bear Thee in my bosom, to unite myself with Thee heart to heart, and henceforth to be only one with Thee! Jealous of enjoying so great happiness, I will endeavor to lead a better life, that I may communicate oftener. This Communion through desire, otherwise called spiritual, is infinitely useful to the soul. It gives it a taste for divine things, it animates it to lead. A perfect life, it strengthens it in practicing virtue, and even sometimes produces more fruit than does sacramental Communion made with less love. It has also this advantage, that it may be made every day, at every moment during the day and night, and in all places, whether profane or sacred. Do we make this Communion, at any rate at each Mass at which we assist and at each visit to the Blessed Sacrament?

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.