On The Eucharist: Post #2

The following post-the second in a series-might be described as a very simplified presentation of the teaching of St Thomas Aquinas on the Eucharist, prepared by Father Rawes.  The purpose of his presentation was to provide people with points for meditation.  The text is in the public domain.  Scripture references follow the Latin Vulgate chapter and verse numbering (identical to the Greek), this may bring confusion if you use a modern Bible.  You can access the DR version here.  “Ecclus” is a reference to the book of Ecclesiasticus, named Sirach in our modern translations.

About The First Reason For The Institution Of The Holy Sacrament, That Is, The Remembrance Of Our Savior.

A.  Our Lord instituted the Sacrament of the Altar that we may always remember Him.  About this we must consider three things.

First, there is the kind of evil that follows us if we forget our Lord.  That evil is threefold:

(1) the loss of the grace of God;

(2) subjection to the power of the devil;

(3) the great hideousness of our guilt.

(1)The Loss of the grace of God: God hides His face; that is, we lose His grace.  When the fountain ceases to flow, the river is dried up.  Our souls become like deserts, because we forget God, our Maker.  Thou hast forsaken the God that made thee, and hast forgotten the God that created thee (Deut 32:18).  I will hide my face from them…for it is a perverse generation and unfaithful children (Deut 32:20)

(2)Subjection to the power of the devil: We cease to be children of God, and become the children of the devil.  He is a murderer from the beginning, and is always seeking to destroy us.  The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them up into the hands of Jabin, King of Chanaan (Judges 4:12).  They who in such manner receive matrimony as to shut out God from themselves and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lusts, as the horse and mule that ahve not understanding, over them the devil hath power (Tob 4:17).

(3)The great hideousness of our guilt: the guilt is often the guilt of mortal sin.  We are spiritually dead, and are without God in the world.  As they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all iniquity (Rom 1:28).  The beasts have rotted…the barns are destroyed; the store-houses are broken down (Joel 1:17).

Second, we ask in what things we are to have the remembrance our Savior.  As to this there are three things to be considered:

(1) the past;

(2) the present;

(3) the future.

(1) The past: In the past we think of the great charity of Jesus, in which He loved us and gave Himself for us, that He might save us from eterenal death by His own death.  He is our Redeemer.  Remember my poverty and transgression, the wormwood and the gall.  I will be mindful and remember, and my soul shall languish within me.  These things will I think over in my heart, therefore will I hope (Lam 3:19-21).  The Lord said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and mark an X upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and mourn for all the abominations that are committed in the midst thereof (Ezek 9:4).

(2) The Present: In the present we think of Him as the searcher of hearts, who by His hidden presence sees and knows our most secret thoughts, words, and deeds.  Know ye that the Lord is God.  He made us, and not we ourselves (Ps 99:3).  I set the Lord always in my sight; for He is at my right hand, that I be not moved (Ps 15:8).

(3) The future: In the future we think of Him as the just judge, who by His almighty power will destroy evil and judge the world by fire.  Behold the name of the Lord cometh from afar; His wrath burneth and is heavy to bear; His lips are filled with indignation, and His tongue is as a devouring fire; His breath is as a torrent overflowing (Isa 30:7).

St Jerome says, “Whether I eat or drink or whatever I do there is always ringing in my ears, like the shrilling of a trumpet, that voice of reverent fear, Rise, ye dead, and come to judgment.”

We take these three together thus: God has given us food, that is, Himself, that we may bear in mind His wondrous works; how He redeemed us in the past; how He now knows everything about us; and how hereafter He will judge us one by one.  He has made a remembrance of His wonderful works, being a merciful and gracious Lord (Ps 110:4)

Thirdly, there is the good that comes to us from bearing Jesus in mind, and that is to be considered in three ways:

(1) The remembrance of the first thing, that is, our Lord’s Passion, kindles our hearts with love.

(2) The remembrance of the second thing, that is, our Lord’s knowledge and watchfulness, keeps us from sin.

(3) The remembrance of the third thing, that is, the judgment of the Son of Man, makes us ready for His coming.

By the first we love what is good; by the second we hate what is evil; by the third we guard against the wrath to come.

(1) The Lord’s Passion helps us love what is good: Hardly can we help loving much if we think of the Passion of Jesus.  St Bernard says, “O good Jesus, that which endears Thee to me above all things is the chalice which Thou didst drink, that is, the work of my redemption.”  “The viler that my Lord was made for me, the dearer He is made to me.”  I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I but that it be kindled? (Lk 12:49).  My heart grew hot within me; and in my meditation a fire shall flame out (Ps 38:4).

(2) Remembering our Lord’s watchfulness and knowledge helps us hate what is evil: If we would always think of our Lord present, and seeing all things, and always judging us, hardly ever, or even never, would we sin.  Boethius says, “A great necessity of good living is laid upon us, when we do everything before the eyes of the Judge from whom nothing is hid.”  The fear of the Lord hateth evil.  I hate arrogance and pride and every wicked way, and a mouth with a double tongue (Prov 8:13).  Darkness compasseth me about, and the walls cover me, and no man seeth me.  Whom do I fear? The most High will not remember my sins.  And he understandeth  not that His eyes seeth all things, for such a man’s fears driveth from him the fear of God (Ecclus 23:26-2).  He said to me, Surely thou seest, O son of man, what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every one in private in his chamber; for they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth (Ezek 8:12).

(3) Remembering our Lord’s coming as Son of Man helps us guard against the wrath to come: We have to be ready for our third day.  Our first day is the day of our birth; our second day is the day of our life; our third day is the day of our death or of the judgment.  Let them be ready against the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down, in the sight of all the people, upon Mount Sinai (Ex 19:11).  Be you then also ready, for at what hour you think not the Son of Man will come (Lk 12:40).

In preparing for the judgment we must be careful to think about: a. the manner; b. watchfulness, not to share the punishment of the unprepared; c. the gain of entering into eternal life with those that are ready.

a. Concerning the manner: We must make ourselves ready for the day of the Lord, by keeping from sin and by doing penance.  Before judgment prepare thee justice, and learn before thou speakest…Before judgment examine thyself, and thou shalt find mercy in the sight of God (Ecclus 28:19-20).  Do penance for the Kingdom of God is at hand (Matt 3:2).  Now therefore saith the Lord, Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting and in mourning and in weeping (Joel 2:12).

b.  Concerning watchfulness: We must be very careful not to follow others into sin, nor to share their forgetfulness of God.  I heard another voice from Heaven saying, Go out from her, My people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues; for her sins have reached unto Heaven, and the Lord hath remembered her iniquities (Apoc 18:4-5).  This know ye, that if the householder knew at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and not suffer his house to be broken open (Lk 12:39).

c.  Concerning the readiness of  gaining of eternal life: We must set great store on that life of blessedness which the servants of God enjoy forever in His Kingdom.  Now, while they went to buy, the Bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with Him to the marriage, and the door was shut (Matt 15:10)

Now consider the greatness of the reward, if you are ready; you have: a. the possession of Heaven; b. the company of the beloved Spouse (the Lord); c. the delights of the fulness of all good.

a. You have entered the Heavenly City to possess the Kingdom of Heaven.  Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world (Matt 25:34).

b.  You have entered it with Him, that is, with Jesus the Spouse of your soul.  Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so shall we be always with the Lord (1 Thess 4:16).  Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me, that they may see My glory which Thou hast given Me, because Thou hast loved Me before the foundation of the world (Jn 17:24).

c. You have entered into the fulness of eternal joy.  Rejoice with jerusalem and be glad with her, all ye that love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her (Isa 66:10).

Prayer

Jesus, Thou standest behind our wall, being hidden in the Blessed Sacrament.  Thence Thou lookest through the lattices, searching our most secret thoughts.  Give me the grace to wait for Thee, and watch for Thee, that I may be always ready to meet Thee at Thy coming.  Thy head is full of dew, for as God Thou art all-merciful; and Thy locks are full of the drops of the night, for Thou wast a man of sorrows, and didst carry Thy Cross for me.  I love Thee and adore Thee, Jesus, God and man.  With hunger and thirst of soul I long to receive Thee in the mystery of the Altar.  Send forth Thy Spirit more and more into my soul, that I may be ever nearer to Thee, my King and my God.

Coming soon: Post #3 About the second reason for the institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, that is to say, the sacrifice of the Altar.