‘STAND FAST IN THE FAITH’

New Zealand Tablet, 4 September 1913, Page 3

‘STAND FAST IN THE FAITH ’

(A Weekly Instruction specially written 1 for the N.Z. ' ■ t Tablet by 'Ghimel'.)

FREQUENT AND DAILY COMMUNION. VI.— SOME STRAY THOUGHTS The main purpose of Holy Communion is not to worship God—though, of course, this idea can never be wholly excluded— to maintain and nourish the spiritual life of grace. The Council of Trent reminds us that our Lord 'wished this Sacrament to be received as a spiritual food by which those who live in the world are nourished and comforted by the life of Him Who said: "He that eats Me, the same shall live by Me." ' It adds that the Blessed Eucharist ' frees us from our daily faults, and preserves us from mortal sin.' This, indeed, is but a repetition of our Saviour's words: 'I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever. ... Amen, amen, I say to you, except you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh. My Blood hath everlasting life and I -will raise him up on the last day. .-..,-.. .' My Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed.' Notwithstanding this persistent invitation from our Lord Himself, backed up by the teaching of Council and Pope, many, have difficulties about frequent Communion—nature and the enemy of souls will readily suggest them. That there is something in the dim-/ culties and hesitations cannot be denied: no reverence .'or worship can be too great to offer to our God thus dwelling amongst us. But neither can any love be too' great, and surely it is the highest, as well as the first, duty of love to yield to His wishes. It is top much for! us, but not too much for God. Some strange compassion moved Him to come on earth and share the lot of His fallen children, and then to give Himself to them as their food: 'I will not leave you orphans.' In His loving thoughtfulness and self-forgetfulness He thinks of us, looks to our good. And who are we to presume. to tell God how He shall act, to set Him lessons of wisdom and propriety? ,: The prayer of Blessed Thomas More, High Chancellor of England, may well find an echo in our hearts : : ' Take from me, O Lord, this lukewarm or rather stark cold manner of meditating, this dulness in praying to Thee, and give me warmth, delight, and guidance in thinking upon Thee. Grant me the grace to long for Thy holy Sacraments, and especially to rejoice in the presence of Thy very Blessed Body, sweet Saviour Jesus, in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar.' ' There are two extremes to be avoided—neglect of Holy Communion until the spiritual life sinks lower and lower within us, and dies almost for want of nourishment on the other hand, that familiarity which breeds contempt, that frequent reception of our Divine Lordwithout reverence, without fear, without adequate preparation of our soul,until finally we come to forget and to ignore the awful truth that we are receiving the very Incarnate God Himself. Perhaps the very best test which we may apply practically to the value of our reception of this Sacrament, is to be found in its effect upon our lives. As long as we can perceive in ourselves a growing aversion from sin, a sincere desire to serve God, a dissatisfaction with ourselves and what we do for God, we may have a confident hope that, however unworthy we may be, our Holy Communions are doing God's work within us and nourishing the sources of spiritual life. . But if with ' frequent Communion we fall away from prayer, fail to correct our daily faults, make light of venial sin, or dally with grievous temptation, then we have reason to be on our guard lest the very source of life should prove the occasion of our ruin' (Father Matthew Kussell, S.J.). ■•■..-' If the Incarnation be indeed the one Divine event to which the whole' creation moves, the miracle of the altar may well seem its restful shadow cast over a dry

and thirsty land for the help of man,-who is apt to be discouraged, if perpetually told that everything really important and interesting happened once for all, long ago, in a chill, historic past. It is the Mass that matters.' So wrote •■ a few years ago the distinguished essayist, Augustine Birrell, now Chief Secretary for Ireland. A Catholic can read into these striking words a deeper meaning than' was ever intended, when he •remembers the Real Presence, where our Saviour Through ever swift vicissitude - Of changeful time, unchanged had stood,' .and the Holy Communion, which enables him to be united in sacramental union with his God '....' * , The queen of English poetry, Alice Meynell, published in the Dublin Review of October, 1911, a short meditation on the Eucharist. She explains in chaste, concise language how the devoted Lord, though multiplied for Communion, is yet ever one and unparted; how those who receive are all fed at one only board 'I saw the throng, so deeply separate, Fed at one only board, The devout people, moved, intent, elate, And the devoted Lord. ■ -' 'Oh struck apart! not side from human side, , But soul from human soul, As each asunder absorbed the Multiplied, The ever unparted Whole. 'I saw this people as a field of flowers, Each grown at such a price, , The sum of unimaginable powers Did no more than suffice. A thousand single central daisies they, A thousand of the one; For each, the entire monopoly of the day ; For each, the whole of the devoted sun.'