Sixth Day in the Octave of Corpus Christi Thanksgiving for Communion. Read Hab. iii: 17-19; Song of Songs iii: 1-4 I. Our thanksgiving for the Blessed Sacrament ought to be far above that which we so readily make for temporal benefits. Habakkuk was but a Jew, who had never known the inexpressible sweetness of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, yet he counted it far more blessed to have the Lord for his own than to possess great material wealth. "Although the fig tree shall not blossom," he declared, "neither shall fruit be on the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." II. We must treasure the first few moments after receiving the Holy Sacrament. It is then that our hearts should be full of love for God and for man. It is the time of all times to make an intercession, a resolution, or an act of love. Like the blessed Magdalen we may at least fall down and clasp His sacred Feet, ere He ascend to His Father, although we may not cling to Him. Then for a space we ought to give ourselves up to thanksgiving. Psalmist promised, 'If I may go unto the altar of God, upon the harp will I give thanks unto Thee, O Lord my God.' He was grateful, although he approached only the altar of burnt offering. How much more grateful I ought to be when I have been admitted to the altar of the Divine Holocaust. The III. But the thanksgiving of my Eucharistic life is even more essential than my prayers and praise immediately after communion. Let me not receive the grace of God in vain, nor fritter it away by little faults. Like the bride in her dream, I in glorious reality have "found Him Whom my soul loveth"; let me also be, like her, tenacious of Him, so that I can say, "I held Him and would not let Him go." Seventh Day in the Detabe of Corpus Christi I. Our reading to-day describes the one offering which Zacharias had waited all his life to make, although it was only an offering of incense. On this, the greatest occasion of his whole life, he had long planned to ask God for the blessing he most desired; for it was especially a time of prayer, just as is the Eucharist for Catholics. The whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.' Now the prayer he made was for a seeming impossibility, for he asked that he and his aged wife should have a child. Yet as he sprinkled the incense upon the coals, performing his priestly office, St. Gabriel appeared by the side of the altar and told him that his petition was heard and that Elizabeth should bear a son in her old age. Suppose there were but one Eucharist for us, as there was only one sacrifice of incense for Zacharias. How we would all flock to that one Service that we might ask our Lord for what we most desired! Yet every Eucharist is as full of divine love and power as if it were the only one, since the Victim of each unbloody Sacrifice is Incarnate God, offering Himself afresh for the souls of His people. II. At communion, each one of us has the opportunity of pleading Christ's sacrifice, if he will, for some soul he desires to be greatly blessed. "For," St. Paul instructs us, "as often as ye eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come.' Let us often make our communion with the intention of intercession, "Showing," or "offering," our Crucified Redeemer unto His Father, sure that thus we gain His favor for the persons or objects we would help. III. The Eucharist is our highest and worthiest thanksgiving. "What reward," cries the Psalmist, "shall I give unto the Lord for all the benefits that He hath done unto me? I will receive the cup of Salvation" (Ps. cxvi: 11 f.). And even if we are simply assisting at the Holy Eucharist without communicating, we can still offer to God the "sacrifice of thanksgiving" in accordance with that promise which the sacred writer makes in our name: "the Memorial of Thine abundant kindness shall be showed." (Ps. cxlv: 7.) Eighth Day in the Dctave of Corpus Christi Visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Read St. John i: 45-51 I. Our Lord's greeting to St. Nathanael showed him that the Divine Eyes had beheld him and had perceived the subject of his meditations while he was under the fig tree in his garden. "Behold an Israelite indeed," Jesus said, "in whom is no guile." In this, as appears from the context, He contrasted his new disciple with guileful Jacob, when he was fleeing from the brother he had deceived, the night he lay and slept at Bethel. For presently, after St. Nathanael had mounted to a higher act of faith, our Lord rewarded him with this promise: "Hereafter ye shall see Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." As Nathanael is in contrast with that other Israelite in whom was guile, so also should the vision his eyes of faith would see transcend the vision which Jacob had beheld. The patriarch lay in a "House of God," wherein presently he erected an altar, but the Lord he beheld was the Son of God, in Heaven, and the angels only ascended from the Church to Him. How much greater things should St. Nathanael see, through his glorious faith! Not now would the angels be ascending to a God in Heaven and then descending into an empty church, but they would be descending upon an altar whereon was the Son of Man, Incarnate Jehovah. As I, like St. Nathanael, look up to the altar I must by faith perceive the highest ranks of Heaven's hosts gathered about the Blessed Sacrament. II. My own mother Church applies for me this great lesson, teaching me that the holy angels assemble about every true altar. For immediately before the consecration she directs her priests to make in the name of the people a special act of adoration there with those unseen hosts. "It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty," he confesses first, "that we should at all times and in all places" make our acts of praise to God; but here "with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify" His glorious Name, "evermore praising" Him with the Tersanctus of the seraphim in Isaiah's vision. III. Let me learn a lesson from the unselfish love of these dear "sons of God." They cannot make their communion, yet they continually visit Christ in the holy Mysteries to offer Him their adoration. Friday after the First Sunday after Trinity Read Hosea xi: 5-11 The Sacred Heart of Jesus. I. Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, was the Eternal Word in the Blessed Trinity. And before His Incarnation He was infinitely tender toward His people. After the long course of Israel's infidelity, when idolatry and hideous vices merited the most fearful curses upon people and land, still He could not bear to visit his full wrath upon them. "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah . . . [and] Zeboim?" (the ruined cities of the Dead Sea Valley). "Mine Heart is turned within Me, My compassions are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, for I am God, and not man." There was but one way in which Jehovah could bring His tenderness closer to us, and that was by taking a human heart in which He would experience every sorrow and every temptation which is possible to us. In the Sacred Heart of Jesus are combined the boundless charity of His Person and the unspeakable compassion of that Humanity in which He endured our very own woes. II. This dear human Heart of Jehovah was opened on Good Friday that I might take refuge within It, and find shelter in every time of need. In that Heart I have a never-failing well of grace, and from within It I obtain a new and more loving outlook on life and my fellow-men. Then let me say to Jesus in the words of blessed John Keble : O let my heart no further roam, 'Tis Thine by vows, and hopes and fears, Long since - O call Thy wanderer home; To that dear home, safe in Thy wounded Side, Where only broken hearts their sin and shame may hide. |