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Eucharistic Heart: Fr. John Hardon |
Eucharistic Saints
Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.
In our closing conference on the Holy Eucharist, we address
ourselves to the immense subject of Eucharistic saints. The very
title is misleading. Every saint of the Catholic Church has been
deeply devoted to the Blessed Sacrament. In fact, there is no
sanctity without the Eucharist.
We have no choice but to choose just seven out of hundreds of
saintly men and women who have been outstanding in their devotion to
the sacrament of the altar.
I thought we would start with a saint from the fourth century. Why?
Because it was in the fourth century that the Church first assembled
what we now call a catechism of the principal doctrines of the
Catholic faith. Then we will jump to the thirteenth century, when
the first major heresies against the Real Presence began to plague
the Church. Our next choices will be from what is popularly called
the post-Reformation Age when Protestantism deprived whole nations
of their fidelity to the See of Peter. Finally we shall look at a
few modern saints whose Eucharistic holiness is an inspiration for
our day.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
This doctor of the Church, as Bishop of Jerusalem, suffered deeply
for his faith. He was the sworn enemy of the heretic, Arius, who
denied Christ’s divinity. His most important writing was the
catechetical compendium which has become the standard for all
catechisms since the end of the fourth century.
St. Cyril wrote extensively on the Holy Eucharist as Sacrifice,
Communion, and Real Presence. His writings are not only clear and
uncomplicated, they show us how unqualified was the faith of the
early Church in the priestly powers of changing bread and wine into
the living Jesus Christ. Among the classic passages that have been
quoted over the centuries, the following is typical:
The bread and wine of the Eucharist before the invocation of the
holy and adorable Trinity were simply bread and wine. But after the
invocation the bread becomes the Body of Christ and the wine becomes
the Blood of Christ. (Catechetical Discourses, 19,7).
What is most significant about this profession of faith in the Real
Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist is its unqualified clarity.
From the dawn of Christian history, faith in the Holy Eucharist as
the living Christ has been continuous. Thus we have writers like St.
Ignatius of Antioch, St. Justin the martyr, St. Ireneus, St.
Cyprian, and many others, all attesting to the presence of the
living Christ in the Holy Eucharist through the words of
consecration at Mass.
This is especially important in our day when professedly Catholic
theologians undermine this faith by claiming that it is a later
development of Christian thought. Moreover, the earliest Fathers of
the Church never dissociated the Real Presence of Christ in the
Eucharist from the priesthood, instituted by the Savior at the Last
Supper. So true is this that we may simply declare that Christian
Patrology always associates two sacraments: the Holy Eucharist and
the Priesthood. Without the priesthood there would be no Eucharist.
St. Thomas Aquinas
For the first thousand years of Christian history there was no
serious challenge to the Real Presence. Then Berengarius of Tours
(999-1088) attacked the Church’s doctrine by claiming that Christ
could not be simultaneously in heaven and in the Blessed Sacrament.
He was condemned by the pope and required to profess his faith in
the Real Presence. This Eucharistic creed was quoted verbatim by
Pope Paul VI during the Second Vatican Council to meet the crisis of
Eucharistic faith that has tormented the Church in our day.
By the thirteenth century, Eucharistic errors became so rampant that
a special feast was instituted, called Corpus Christi. The pope
ordered Thomas Aquinas to compose the hymns for the Divine Office of
this feast. Among these hymns was the Lauda Sion Salvatorem, which
is worth quoting at some length because it is such a treasure of our
faith.
Christ’s followers know by faith that bread is changed into His
flesh and wine into His blood. Man cannot understand this, cannot
perceive it; but a lively faith affirms that the change, which is
outside the natural course of things, takes place. Under the
different species, which are now signs only and not their own
reality, there lie hidden wonderful realities. His body is our food,
His blood our drink. And yet Christ remains entire under each
species. The communicant receives the complete Christ - uncut,
unbroken, and undivided. Whether one receives or a thousand, the one
receives as much as the thousand. Nor is Christ diminished by being
received. The good and the wicked alike receive Him, but with the
unlike destiny of life or death. To the wicked it is death, but life
to the good. See how different is the result, though each receives
the same. Last of all, if the sacrament is broken, have no doubt.
Remember there is as much in a fragment as in an unbroken host.
There is no division of the reality, but only a breaking of the
sign; nor does the breaking diminish the condition or size of the
One hidden under the sign.
There is an ocean of doctrinal implications in the words we have
just quoted from St. Thomas. What should be emphasized, however, is
the unquestioning reality of Christ’s complete, which means total,
presence in every particle of the consecrated Host and in every drop
of the consecrated Chalice.
Over the centuries since the Lauda Sion was composed, this teaching
of Aquinas has been the unshaken foundation of what Catholics
believe takes place at the double consecration in the Sacrifice of
the Mass.
Also to be stressed is the careful distinction that St. Thomas makes
between the objective reality of Christ’s presence and the
subjective state of soul of those who receive Holy Communion. Those
in the state of grace and those estranged from God both receive the
same Jesus Christ. But the first grow in God’s friendship and the
second deepen their sinful guilt. In today’s world, when so many
people receive Communion and so few receive the sacrament of
Penance, this disjunction is crucial. Pope John Paul II on his first
pilgrimage to the United States pleaded with the American bishops to
promote the frequent reception of the sacrament of Confession for
the obvious reasons spelled out by St. Thomas Aquinas.
St. Margaret Mary
St. Margaret Mary (1647 - 1690) is the apostle of the modern
devotion to the Sacred Heart. From early childhood she was intensely
devoted to the Blessed Sacrament. After four years suffering from
paralysis, she was miraculously cured by our Lady. Having vowed to
consecrate herself to the religious life, she entered the Visitation
convent at Peray, where she was distinguished for obedience,
humility, and love of suffering. Among the many visions she received
of Christ, the most important were those in which Our Lord told her
she was to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The writings of St. Margaret Mary are not extensive but they are
eminently practical. Besides her autobiography, she wrote many
letters to people who asked for her counsel. Among these is a long
letter to a religious in which Margaret Mary describes the diverse
lives of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Each is a method of
honoring Christ during the Octave of the feast of Corpus Christi.
Today the Lord destines you to honor His glorified life in the
Blessed Sacrament. That is why He wishes you to enthrone yourself on
the Cross. He wants you to glorify Him by carrying lovingly all
those crosses which He presents to you, without ever letting
yourself grow weary or complaining of their length or weight.
Today the Lord chooses you to honor His life of sacrifice in the
Holy Eucharist. Therefore, you must offer yourself to His Sacred
Heart as a victim of immolation before the Divine Sacrificing
Priest.
Today the Lord has chosen you to honor His humiliated life in the
Blessed Sacrament. So you must offer yourself to Him as nothingness
to its All. Your whole attention must be concentrated on
annihilating self and rejoicing when others help you to do so.
Today the Lord has chosen you to honor His active life in the
Blessed Sacrament. As a faithful servant, you must do violence to
yourself to labor fervently in the service of your master.
Today the Lord wants you to honor His life wholly given to us in the
Blessed Sacrament. You must be as a burning candle with no other
desire than to be consumed in His honor. Surrender yourself to the
Mercy of Providence and let Him do with you according to His
designs.
Today you will be the Sulamitess, the spouse of the Well-Beloved who
wishes to honor the Life of love of Jesus Christ in the Blessed
Sacrament. Thus you must attend carefully surrendering yourself pure
and innocent to please this Divine Spouse.
St. Alphonsus Liguori
The so called Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century was
really a revolution. Among the doctrines of faith which the
followers of Martin Luther denied was that Christ instituted the
priesthood in order to perpetuate His human and divine presence on
earth till the end of time. Among the results of this iconoclasm was
the martyrdom of many priests who were put to death, even while
celebrating Mass, because they were charged with the idolatry of
claiming they had the power to bring Jesus Christ on earth in the
Holy Eucharist.
By the eighteenth century, God raised up courageous defenders who
spoke and wrote extensively in witness of the Real Presence. Among
these, the most famous was St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787). During
his long life he published some one hundred volumes on every aspect
of Christian morals and spirituality. Among these, the most
important for our purpose was his book on The Holy Eucharist. Once
again the quotation will be extensive but deserves to be made.
Our holy faith teaches us, and we are bound to believe, that in the
consecrated Host, Jesus Christ is really present under the species
of bread. But we must also understand that He is thus present on our
altars as on a throne of love and mercy, to dispense graces and
there to show us the love which He bears us, by being pleased to
dwell night and day hidden in the midst of us.
There it was that St. Francis Xavier found refreshment in the midst
of his many labors in India; for he employed his days in toiling for
souls, and his nights in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. St.
John Francis Regis did the same thing; and sometimes finding the
church closed, he endeavored to satisfy his longings by remaining on
his knees, outside the door exposed to the rain and cold so that at
least at a distance he might attend upon his Comforter concealed
under the sacramental species. St. Francis of Assisi used to go to
communicate all his labors and undertakings to Jesus in the most
Holy Sacrament.
So the litany of devotees of the Eucharist goes on. They realize
that the Holy Eucharist is a sacrament three times over: as
Sacrifice Sacrament of the Mass, Communion Sacrament of Holy
Communion, and Presence Sacrament. It is this latter sacrament of
the Eucharist which the present Holy Father keeps insisting is so
desperately needed in our day. The modern world needs a series of
moral miracles to be reconverted to the God from whom it has
strayed. Who else but the Incarnate Son of God, present on earth in
the Blessed Sacrament, can perform these miracles. But His
omnipotence, dare we say it, is at the mercy of our faith.
St. Teresa of Avila
The Church in the sixteenth century was in desperate need of reform.
So true is this that we may correctly speak of the Catholic
Reformation which took place after the Protestant revolution. Among
the Catholic reformers was a contemplative nun who has since been
declared a Doctor of the Church, St. Teresa of Avila (1515 - 1582)
As might be expected, Teresa of Avila was one of the staunch
defenders of the Catholic faith in her day. Unlike her contemporary,
St. Ignatius Loyola, she did not organize an academic crusade to
defend the teachings of the one, true Church. She was a
contemplative who spent the latter half of her life restoring
Carmelite spirituality to its historic authenticity. However, under
obedience of her spiritual directors she published some of the
deepest and clearest expositions of Catholic Christianity. Her
published writings span the whole gamut of the Church’s teaching.
Among the doctrines undermined by the followers of Luther and Calvin
was the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. The key
factor was their denial that the Eucharist is literally the
Incarnate Son of God. The crucial issue was the humanity of Christ.
There was no problem admitting that the Eucharist somehow signifies
or symbolizes the presence of God. What the “Reformers” would not
admit is that the Holy Eucharist is the whole Christ with the
fullness of His humanity united with His divinity. The following
passage from St. Teresa was written in 1575. She describes the deep
secrets that God revealed to her after she had received Holy
Communion.
Once after receiving Communion, I was given understanding of how the
Father receives within our soul the most holy Body of Christ, and of
how I know and have seen that these Divine Persons are present, and
how pleasing to the Father this offering of His Son is, because He
delights and rejoices with Him here - let us say - on earth. For His
humanity is not present with us in the soul, but His divinity is.
Thus the humanity is so welcome and pleasing to the Father and
bestows on us so many favors.
What is St. Teresa saying? She is saying that God the Father bestows
on us indescribable blessings through the humanity of His Only Son.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this truth.
Certainly the graces we receive come to us from God. But they come
to us through the humanity which the Second Person of the Holy
Trinity assumed when He became man.
That is why the Holy Eucharist is called The Mystery of Faith. The
Eucharist is nothing less than Jesus Christ. It is not only that God
became man to redeem the world by His death on Calvary. God is
constantly redeeming the world by communicating through the humanity
of Jesus the graces that He won for us on Good Friday. At the heart
of our faith is the belief that God assumed our human nature in
order to serve as the channel of the graces that we need to reach
our heavenly destiny. The Holy Eucharist, therefore, is the
principal channel of the light and strength we need to embrace the
cross in this valley of tears in order to join the Savior in His
eternal glory.
St. Peter Julian Eymard
If there is one person who qualifies as a Eucharistic saint it is
Peter Julian Eymard (1811 - 1868). He had been a member of the
Society of Mary, but received a dispensation to organize the
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament for men, and the Servants of
the Blessed Sacrament for women.
His apostolate of the Eucharist met with widespread opposition,
especially among priests of his own day. The focus of the opposition
was Peter Julian’s emphasis on the real, corporeal and physical
presence of the living Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. What Eymard
discovered was what the Church had always believed. But he
contributed to a major development of doctrine in understanding the
reality of Christ’s Eucharistic presence now on earth.
St. Peter had his critics but he also had his friends. Not the least
of his admirers was the Cure of Ars who knew Eymard personally. The
Cure wrote of Eymard, “He is a saint. The world hinders his work,
but not knowingly, and it will do great things for the glory of God.
Adoration by priests! How wonderful! Tell the good Fr. Eymard I will
pray for his work every day.”
The published writings of St. Peter Julian are now popularly printed
in small paperback volumes. I dare say they have been read by
millions. One focus of these writings deserves to be specially
emphasized. It is the virtues that Our Lord in the Eucharist is now
practicing in order to inspire us to follow His example. Among these
virtues, none is more basic than His poverty.
Jesus wanted to be the poorest of the poor, in order to be able to
stretch out His hand to the lowliest of men and say to them, “I am
your brother.”
No man, in fact, was ever born in more wretched conditions than the
Word Incarnate, who had the litter of animals for His cradle and
their shelter for His home.
As a child, he fed on barley bread, the bread of the poor and during
His apostolic life he lived on alms.
He died in a state of destitution that will never be equaled.
And now that He is risen and glorious, He still takes poverty for
His companion. Jesus, dwelling in our midst in His Sacrament, is
poorer than during the days of His mortal life. His home may be but
a poor church, worse perhaps than the cave of Bethlehem; His
tabernacle consists of four boards, which often are worm-eaten.
His priests or His faithful people must give Him everything; the
matter of the sacrament, the bread and the wine; the linen on which
to place Him or with which to cover Him; the corporals, the altar
cloths. He brings nothing from heaven except his adorable person and
His love.
So Peter Julian goes on. What is he teaching us? He is teaching us
that Jesus Christ is to be imitated twice over: once as the God-man
who lived a mortal life in Palestine and once again as the same
Incarnate God who is now living His glorified life in the Blessed
Sacrament. Both levels of imitation are part of our faith. It takes
a spiritual genius like Eymard to remind us that Christ is to be
followed and His virtues imitated here and now as they are lived by
Him in the Holy Eucharist.
Of course this places a heavy demand on our faith. But this is
precisely what the Mystery of Faith is all about. It is the Mystery
that we are called upon not only to venerate or adore. It is the
Mystery on which we are to model our lives here in the valley of
tears as a condition for reaching our heavenly home.
St. Therese of Lisieux
We close this conference on Eucharistic saints with the Little
Flower, better known as St. Therese of Lisieux (1873 - 1897). Her
mother died when Therese was still a young child. She entered the
Carmelite order at the age of fifteen and became directress of
novices in 1895. The young Carmelite was remarkable for her
humility, simplicity, piety, and patience in enduring the acute
physical suffering caused by pulmonary hemorrhages.
There is one of her published writings that has been translated into
all modern languages and has deeply affected the spiritual life of
whole nations. Pope Pius XI had a great devotion to the Little
Flower and canonized her in 1925 shortly after he began his
pontificate.
In this autobiography, St. Therese is so clear in expressing her
thoughts that the reader honestly feels that she is in conversation
with Him. One episode that she describes took place when she with
her father and sister, Celine, visited the Holy House of Loreto. It
is a place where tradition tells us the Holy Family lived during
their years at Nazareth. A priest in Loreto was preparing to offer
Mass in the Holy House. There Therese expresses the joy she
experienced after receiving Holy Communion on that occasion.
It was a totally heavenly happiness which words cannot express. And
what shall our happiness be when we receive Communion in the eternal
abode of the King of Heaven? Then we shall see our joy never coming
to an end; there will no longer be the sadness of departings, and it
will be no longer necessary to have some souvenir to dig fervently
into the walls sanctified by His divine presence, for His home will
be ours for all eternity.
What the Little Flower is saying deserves to be memorized. The
Eucharist on earth is both the anticipation and the promise of the
heaven where the Christ, who is hidden in the Blessed Sacrament will
be seen face to face in the heavenly home where He is awaiting us.
One more quotation from St. Therese should be made. She declares,
without reservation, that “The best means to reach perfection is
through receiving Holy Communion frequently. Experience sufficiently
proves it in those who practice it.” In other words, receiving our
Lord in the Eucharist here on earth is the surest guarantee of
joining Him in that everlasting home where He is waiting for us.
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
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