Meditation 11: The Blessed Eucharist lessens in us our tendency to evilWE read in the Gospel that when Jesus Christ went into St. Peter’s house, he asked Him to cure his mother-in-law who was sick of a violent fever. Jesus Christ commanded the fever to leave her, and instantly she was so completely cured that she was able to serve them at table.
The fever, says St. Ambrose, is our avarice, our anger, our sensuality. These passions boil up in our flesh, and agitate the soul, the spirit and the senses. They have their remedy in the Blessed Eucharist, the food and strength of the Christian soul. Let us thank Our Lord for this healing and sanctifying gift.
The Holy Eucharist weakens our inclinations to evil.
The precious Blood of Jesus Christ which flows in our veins, and His adorable Body which is blended with ours, can it do less than destroy, or at least greatly diminish the attraction towards forbidden pleasures that the sin of Adam has left in us.
This is so true that when one receives Jesus Christ one feels a new taste for the things of Heaven, and a new contempt for created things.
Tell me, how could you let pride find its way into a heart that is about to receive a God, humiliated even to annihilation? Can one consent to think anything of one’s self! On the contrary, would he not find matter enough to cause him to abase and despise himself? A heart that is about to receive a God who is so pure, who is holiness itself, will it not feel born in it an invincible horror of all sins of impurity, and would it not rather let itself be cut in pieces rather than consent, I do not say to a bad action, but even to a bad thought?
A tongue which a short time ago has been so happy as to bear its Creator and Saviour, could it dare to lend itself to lascivious words, to sensual kisses? No, without doubt, it would never dare to act thus.
Eyes which just now desired so earnestly to contemplate their Creator, who is more pure than the sun’s rays, could they after such happiness, look on indecent objects? That would seem to be impossible.
If we could comprehend all the good things contained in Holy Communion, nothing more would be wanting to content the heart of man. The miser would run no more after his treasures, or the ambitious after his glory; each would shake off the dust of earth, leave the world, and fly away towards heaven.
O blessed Jean-Marie, pray for us, and obtain for us also grace to find in the Holy Communion the remedy for our evil inclinations, and the victory over our passions. Amen.
4 comments:
I really like this a lot. It also, to me, shows the importance of going to Confession before going to Eucharist, as well as observing the Eucharistic fast. If we are prepared to receive the grace given in the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus. If we are prepared we may receive an abundance of grace to overcome the enemy withing and the enemy around us.
Sorry, I should have corrected that before I posted it. I had a trigger finger.
"a new taste for the things of Heaven and a new contempt for created things." - Gnostic, much? Or just theology lost in translation?
Anonymous it is created things in the sense of worldly things. That seems pretty obvious being that he is a realist in his view of Eucharistic presence.
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