The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1919. HOLY COMMUNION

New Zealand Tablet, 19 June 1919, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1919. HOLY COMMUNION

fROM the beginning God’s love for mankind was manifested by a desire for - union 1 with, the creature whom He had created to His own image and likeness. Not content with ■ breathing into Adam a living - souk which reflected as in a glass darkly the Divine Beauty of the Godhead, the Creator in 5 His : love; proceeded still further and raised that f ./r soul to supernatural^ heights by informing it with sanctifying grace, ' which in plain o and never-to-be-forgotten words means nothing else than that God dwells and c abides ’ in the man who is in the state of

grace. l t The first work of creation was surely stupendous ■ and ineffable: when into that *mortal form which was the crown of terrestrial creation an immortal spirit was breathed something was ' done beside which the making of the hills and the seas and the fashioning of the starry firmament was as nothing ; something which as a pious tradition would! tell us made, by its' very anticipation, Lucifer rebellious with envy. ; And yet a'greater- work remained, for the soul into which sanctifying grace has entered is as far above the soul in its state of natural innocence as Adam was above the animals that passed before him in the Garden of Eden in the faraway morning of life on earth. The creation of Adam proved God’s love, but the * regeneration of Magdalene proved it still * more, and meant a closer and more intimate union than ever between God and man. Another and a higher proof remained. God so loved the world that He sent His own Son amongst us to become our brother by taking our human nature to Himself and becoming man in the virginal womb of Mary Immaculate; so that the Son of, God was also true man, and the mother of the man who was called Christ was also the Mother of God. And yet another proof was possible. Another union was conceivable. When He who became man in order that He might die for us was to leave the world He instituted the Blessed Eucharist whereby He might still remain amongst us, not only to receive our visits and to hear our prayers, but even to become the food of our souls in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Se noscens dedlt sncium, Convescens in edulium, Se moriens in ■pretium, Se regnans dot in premium. Our brother in His Incarnation, our food at the Last Supper and for ever after in Holy Communion, our redemption in His Death, and our sure reward in glory : thus in a phrase St. Thomas sums up all the wonderful mysteries of which surely the culmination is the miracle of the Lord’s Body, after which to-day’s feast of Corpus Christi is named. What man of faith on hearing of this last proof of God’s love for the first time would not ask how best to make some return for all that God has done? The return He wants is none other than to make, as He wished, the Blessed Eucharist the food of our souls. “Unless ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man ye shall not have life in ye. My Flesh is true meat. My Blood is true drink.” All that God wants from man is that’ he should avail himself of this food and drink and come freely and lovingly into that union for which Christ lingers in our midst to-day. The best return we can make is to go to Holy Communion as often as the Church permits, and that will be every day if through our own sinfulness we place no obstacle in the way that would render us unworthy to make of our hearts the temples which Christ wants them to be. The Church exhorts her children to practise daily Communion ; all that is required on their part is that they be in the state of grace, which means freedom from grievous sin. And there can be no better proof of the depth of our faith or of the sincerity of our religion than our response to the yearning call of Our Lord in the Tabernacle of the Altar. For many reasons those who need it most remain away from Communion. In a striking pax-able Our Divine Lord Himself sums up the obstacles —the same now as when He spoke the words! One man would plead that he bought a farm ; another that he had to try a team of oxen ; a third that he had married a wife. Viliam emi, Jngn houm quinque emi, U xorem duxi: ambition, desire of getting on, preoccupation about business, the accursed thirst for money, inordinate attachments, and the fettering ; chains of the passions are all • covered by these three excuses which are as real and as new now as they were nearly 2000 years ago. v For such men the Church had to make a law* in past times, i in ; order to make it - clear that they - who < stayed da way from Holy , Communion could not be regarded as Catholics, and as followers of Christ. D The severity of the f law is relaxed but its force in the court of heaven ;; , remains s the same.

' # No man who refuses to go to Holy Communion r at least once a year, is a Catholic, -if 'by .Catholic we mean, a living member of Christ’s Church. jj No man who refuses to be united with Christ -by means of His Body and Blood is a true member of His mystical body, the Church. i - v - f - * , > , , , » . * r Again, no man who desires to save his soul can remain away from Holy Communion. Unless ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man ye shall not have life in ye. And no man who wishes to advance spiritually and. to grow' in the favor and love of God can stay away for long. Communion at least once a year is necessary for all who would be saved ; Communion every week and even every day is the surest means of bringing about that close and unending union between the soul and its Creator for which Christ longs. In this age of the world God is forgotten save of the few faithful ones. Fox* all His boundless Love the only return He receives is from them. In the early mornings in our churches you will see them going up to the Altar rails to receive Him, during the day in the dim twilight of the sanctuary lamp you will find them on their knees before Him. Wherever there is a Catholic church they are there, the faithful and the few who do not forget, who are not ungrateful, whose love is warm and real, and who remember so many others who will not remember themselves. But, alas! how few—how - few compared with the millions outside whose minds are bent on the eternal preoccupations : Viliam e-mi, Juga quinqne houm emi, U xorem duxi: they have their pleasures and their profits and they care little about Christ Who died for them. One other word, and that a terrible one, was said to such : Nemo virorum illorum qui vocafi sunt gu.dahif roenam meam -Not one of them that were called shall taste my supper. There, then, is a thought and a warning for this last fortnight of the Paschal season.