O precious and
wonderful banquet that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could
anything be of more indispensable worth? Under the old law it was the flesh of
calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is
set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are washed away, virtues increased and the soul enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Ultimately no one can fully express the sweetness of this
sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in
which we renew the memory of that incomparable love for us which Christ
revealed in his passion.
It
was to impress the magnitude of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the
faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was
about to leave the world to go to the Father,…he left it as a perpetual
memorial of his passion. It was the fulfillment of ancient symbols and the
greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow
of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation.
Photograph by Brother Casimir. Lines from Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Photograph by Brother Casimir. Lines from Saint Thomas Aquinas.
