3. It is most true that under the species of bread, as also under the species of wine, Christ is present, God and man, whole and entire.
Where the body and blood of Christ are, there He must be present, not in part, but in His whole person; for now He hath risen from the dead to die no more, and consequently the body can no more be separated from the blood than the body and blood can be separated from the soul of Christ. Our Lord’s words: “This is My body which is given for you,” and: “This is My blood, which shall be shed for many,” demonstrate that it is His living body, His living blood, that are present under the appearance of bread and wine, and therefore the living, not the dead Christ Who is present upon the altar. As a whole landscape may be seen in the pupil of the eye, so Christ is contained whole and entire in the sacred Host.
4. Our Lord is present in every particle, however minute, of the consecrated bread and wine.
We have seen that Christ is present in every Host, and when the priest breaks the Host, He is equally present in every fragment of it. If a magnet be broken in pieces, each part forms a separate magnet with the property of pointing to the north. And if a mirror is broken, in each portion one’s face is reflected. But the body of Christ is not multiplied; His body is but one, animated and pervaded by His divinity, which fills all space. It is not increased by each fresh consecration, nor diminished by the numbers who receive it. As the light of a candle is not lessened, however many other candles are lighted at its flame, so Our Lord’s body suffers no diminution when it is given to thousands of communicants. Thus St. Andrew said to the proconsul at Achaia: “I daily offer upon the altar to the almighty and true God the immaculate Lamb of God. And when all the faithful have received His sacred body, the Victim that was slain is yet alive and unconsumed.”
5. Christ is present in the consecrated elements as long as the accidents of bread and wine remain.
Our Lord is not only present in the Sacrament of the Altar at the moment of communion, but both before and after the Host is consumed. Had this been otherwise, He would not have said: “Take and eat this, for this is My body.” And He is present in those who receive the sacred Host as long as the accidents of bread remain unconsumed. Thus after communion we bear in our body the body of Christ.
6. The duties of the Christian in regard to the Holy Sacrament of the Altar are these: He ought to visit it frequently, to adore it, and to receive it.
We ought to visit the Blessed Sacrament frequently. In this respect the shepherds and the three kings, who came to worship the Infant Saviour in the manger, set us an excellent example. The saints spent many hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. Cardinal Bellarmine, when a student, was accustomed whenever he passed by a church to go in and say an Our Father. When asked why ho did this, he replied: “It would be ill manners to go by a friend’s house without a word of greeting.” He was distinguished while yet a youth for his great wisdom. Access to Our Lord is not denied us; the church door stands open, and from the tabernacle the voice of Our Lord calls to us: “Come unto Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Matt. xi. 28). St. Teresa declares that Our Lord in the Adorable Sacrament of the Altar affords us far more satisfaction than can be derived from the whole world, with its festivities and pleasures. In His presence the sorrowful are comforted, the foolish learn wisdom, the feeble are strengthened, and the poor are enriched. Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together; and in like manner the faithful should hasten to the Blessed Sacrament, the food of the soul. The saints loved to drink of this river of paradise, as the hart pants to quench his thirst at the fountains of water. Unwise indeed are they who in the hour of need, choose rather to seek human aid, to pour their troubles into a human ear; they do not betake themselves to the church, to Christ, Who is so willing, so able to help them.
The Church admonishes us to pay homage to the Holy Sacrament of the Altar by the sanctuary lamp; by the bell rung at Mass and when the Viaticum is carried to the sick, by the processions of Corpus Christi, and by frequent Expositions of the Blessed Sacrament.
It is customary on entering or leaving a church to genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament; to kneel down reverently at the consecration, and when benediction is given with the Blessed Sacrament. In former times people used to kneel whenever they met a priest carrying the sacred Host to the sick; it is related cf Rudolph of Hapsburg that once when he was out hunting, he met a priest going to give communion to a dying man; immediately he dismounted, and kneeling by the roadside, gave his horse to the priest; nor would he allow the animal to be again used except in the service of the Church. Before receiving holy communion, we ought to make an act of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Unhappily many among us possess no living faith; they pass by the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar with cold indifference. The procession of Corpus Christi was instituted by Pope Urban IV. in 1264, with a view to increase our faith in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and the Exposition of the Forty Hours has the same object. The Confraternity of the Perpetual Adoration is intended to keep up the worship of the Blessed Sacrament uninterruptedly; each member has to spend at least one hour every month in adoration before the altar. This Sacrament was instituted by Our Lord immediately before His death in order to give it greater importance in our eyes, as we treasure more the last gift of a dying friend. If the Jews were not permitted to behold, much less to touch, the Ark of the Covenant, which was a type of the Adorable Sacrament of the Altar, what dread ought we not to feel in presence of the reality!
Christ invites us to receive the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar when He says: “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you” (John vi. 54).
The reception of this Sacrament is known as communion, that is, Union with Christ. In communion we receive Our Lord, as Zacheus did, into our house. In the Scriptures there are many types of the Holy Eucharist; for instance, the tree of life in the midst of paradise, which gave immortality to our first parents; the manna; the paschal lamb; the bread that gave Elias strength to go the forty days’ journey to Mount Horeb; the miraculous multiplication of the loaves; the water made wine at the marriage of Cana. And holy communion is itself an earnest of the spiritual food wherewith we shall be nourished in heaven.
The faithful receive the Holy Eucharist under the form of bread only; the priest alone, at Mass, receives it under both kinds.
The priest at the altar offers an oblation, the very same as the one Christ offered on Calvary. On the cross Christ shed almost all His blood, so that His body and blood were separated one from the other. The two several species of bread and wine in the Mass signify this separation of Our Lord’s body and blood. The faithful, on the other hand, do not sacrifice the Victim, but receive the Sacrament; it is unnecessary for them to receive the chalice, as Our Lord is contained wholly under either species. He Himself says: “He that eateth this bread shall live forever” (John vi. 59). There are many reasons for withholding the chalice from the laity; the precious blood might easily be spilled in passing from one to another; there is the difficulty of procuring wine in some places; the difficulty of reserving it and bearing it to the sick; and some people cannot bear the taste of wine. Communion in both kinds was, it is true, enjoined on the laity by the Holy See in the fifth century, but this was only done to combat the error of the Manichees, who declared wine to be an invention of the devil and wholly to be avoided. And in 1433 the chalice was for a time given to the laity, to induce the followers of Huss to return to the unity of the Church.
Keep the Faith!
