PART ONE

 

MAN OF GOD AND FOR GOD

 

 

“A man all God’s and all for God”: this is how Bishop Scala­brini was described.  His life was “theological,” consecrated to God and the cause of God.  The thoughts and texts we have gathered show the essentially Christological dimension of his life of faith.

Christ is God-in-us: Love itself made flesh in humanity and diffused into our hearts by the Spirit.

Christ is God-with-us: Love itself come to pitch his tent among us in the Eucharist.

Christ is God-for-us: Love itself enduring unto the end, Love dead and resurrected to make us sharers in his life, death, and resurrection.

Christians are justified and sanctified by faith in Christ.  Faith is the gift by which God gives himself completely to us.  We respond to him by the total gift of self, constantly directing our minds and hearts to God in prayer and receiving from the Spirit the light that unveils the mystery of man and of history as they move forward toward the realization of the Kingdom of heaven.

Bishop Scalabrini’s ideal of holiness is that of offering his own person to Christ so that in his person Christ will prolong his Incarnation, that is to say, will continue, through the person of Scalabrini, to love, see, speak and work in a visible and tangible way as He did during his earthly life: “I live, no longer I, but Christ Jesus lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

Christ, present in the Paschal mystery that is pro­longed in our everyday life, walks along with us.  He becomes our neighbor in the person of our fellow travelers, especially in those in whom he has more vividly engraved his image: Our Lady, the saints and the poor.

 

 

1. CHRIST, THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA

 

Christ is everything: divinity and humanity, transcendence and immanence, the beginning and the end of all creation, the center of the visible and invisible world, the primeval source and ultimate goal of our life, the Way, the Truth and the Life.  God is love: he embraces Christ and man in a single act of love, uniting all humanity in his Son.  Christ is the God who becomes “ours” in order to make us “his.”  We are an “extension” of Christ. Chris­tian life is Christ living in us.  The “imitation of Christ” means living as members of the Head who embodies all things in himself; it means loving in such a way as to become alike.

Christ is Emmanuel, God-with-us.  In the Eucharist, the Word made flesh “prolongs himself” in us.  He is the life of the Church and of its members, the food nourishing the new man, the viaticum -- the food-for-the-way -- for the earthly pilgrim­age, the diviniza­tion of created human beings, and the seed of eternal life.  Eucharistic piety is the essence of Christian piety.  By our sharing in the sacrifice and in the sacrament, by our adoration, by our reparation, we, in fact, share in the eternal high priest­hood of Christ.

Christ died on the cross for love of us.  His sacrifice calls for our sacrifice in return.  To rise with him we must also die with him.  This is the meaning of Christian penance, which despoils us of the old man and clothes us with the new man according to Christ.  The Cross alone redeems and saves.  In it Christians find their joy: “Fac me cruce inebriari” (Let me be intoxicated by your Cross)!

 

 

a) GOD IN US: RECAPITULATING ALL THINGS IN CHRIST

 

“He is the Word of God, the Alpha and the Omega, the Messi­ah.”

 

Who is Jesus Christ?  He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end (Rev 1:8).  He is before all things, the firstborn and prince of all created things (Col 1:15).  He is the heir, the center of the visible and invisible world (Heb 1-2), the compendium of the ages (Heb 13:8).  Without the light that blazes forth from him, there is only darkness.  Without his action, the order of nature and grace, mankind and the world, the past and the future are a book sealed with seven seals (Rev 5: 1).[1]

 

 

“The center of creation”

 

Jesus is creation’s point of convergence, the precious link that unites the work of the Almighty to the divine Creator.  He is the goal of all the works and plans of Divine Provi­dence, the supreme and ultimate end of all God’s designs for redeemed humanity, of which he (Jesus) is the head.  He is the model for all our progress since he is the only true light that enlightens every human being, in a word, all humanity.[2]

 

 

“The Word of God became flesh and pitched his tent among us”

 

A great mystery, an awesome mystery, a most sweet mystery!  In a word, the Word of God became flesh and made his home among us (Jn 1:14).  Divinity united itself to humanity; the Invisible One became visible; the Almighty One made himself weak; the Eternal One began to be; the Immense One became limited, becoming what he was not without ceasing to be what he was (Phil 2:6).  If nations once feared the very name of the divinity, we have a God who does not want to be feared but loved (Rom 8:15).  Hence, he puts aside his glory, conceals his majesty, and gives up every display of greatness so that he might not look like anything other than a man (Phil 2:7).

 

He is the one who abides in the highest heavens, who walks on the wings of the wind and measures the earth with a glance; he is God (Jn 1:1).  But he is almost afraid to appear so.  He tries, it seems, to let only his humanity come through and thus make his clemency absolutely endearing (Ti 3:4).[3]

 

 

“We are wrapped up in him by the Father in a single act of love”

 

God loves his Son and loves him essentially.  He  cannot take pleasure in anybody other than him because the love of God is infinite and can have only an infinite object: “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 17:5).  But that beloved Son of his became man.  So, in his Son God loves man.  With a single act of complacent love God, in Jesus, embraces everything: even the body, even the flesh, even the soul.  We are now that flesh and those bones.  We are that nature.  We are one body with Christ.  In him and through him we have become sons and daughters of God, indeed the very Son of God who prolongs himself in us.  So, in him we too are encompassed and embraced by the Father in a single act of love.  Just as the sonship by which Christ is Son of God spreads and extends to us and over us, in the same way the Father’s love spreads and extends to us as well.  Hence, in his Son who, by his very nature, is pleasing to and beloved of the Father, we too have become pleasing to and beloved of the Father: “in his beloved Son he took pleasure in us.”[4]

 

 

“In Christ we have everything”

 

Jesus Christ is the light of the world (Jn 8:12).  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn 14:6).  He is the bond of union, the kiss of peace between heaven and earth, between God and man (Eph 2:14).  Jesus is our Redeemer, our Teacher, our Advocate, our Exemplar, our Doctor, our Head, our Companion, our Brother, our Friend, our Comfort, our Refuge, our Glory, our Joy, and our Greatness.  He is the High Priest of the new covenant, the eternal Priest, the Mediator between God and man, the victim for our sins, our true and only happiness.  He is the door we must enter to reach his kingdom, the Cornerstone and Foundation on which the spiritu­al edifice must be built.  He is the Bread of our souls, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, our Reward, our Crown, our Life, and our All. 

 

To Jesus we owe the grace and friendship of the Father, the confidence and freedom of the sons and daughters of God.  To Jesus we owe all the gifts of nature, grace, and glory that we receive from God.  To Jesus we owe it if God preserves us, sustains us, and defends us; if he does not punish us as we deserve; if he continues to bear with us and wait for us.  From Jesus we get all wisdom and prudence, all inspirations and good thoughts, all pious desires.  From Jesus comes courage in time of danger, strength in time of temptation, long-suffering in time of pain, patience in time of adversity, and perseverance in doing good: “In Christ you have become rich in all things” (I Cor I). Yes, we have everything in Jesus, we can do everything in Jesus, we can hope everything and obtain everything from Jesus, since it was Jesus who wanted to humiliate himself for us, sacrifice himself for us, and become all things for us (I Cor 1).[5]

 

 

“He is ours, really ours, entirely ours”

 

Behold, by becoming man, he, the Eternal One, the Immense One, the Creator and Lord of the universe, the Immortal King of the ages has become our friend, our brother, the compan­ion of our exile.  From that day, until the end of time, he would never abandon us, first living thirty years of our mortal existence and then continuing to abide with us under the Eucharistic veils: “When he was born, he became our companion.”

 

With truly singular and exquisite love, he makes himself our food.  Nothing is more intimate to us than food, which, by becoming our substance, preserves and renews our energies.  And it is precisely under this form that Jesus wants to belong to us: “by being our food at his banquet.”

 

 

And if this were not enough, on the Cross he will become our victim.  To redeem us from sin and death, he will pour out his blood to the last drop and will sacrifice his life, making himself the price for our ransom: “dying he gave himself up as a ransom.”

 

Finally, after giving himself for us in all these ways, he will crown his favors by giving himself to the elect as their eternal reward in the splendors and glory of heaven: “Reigning he will be their reward.”

 

Yes, from now on, Jesus is ours, really ours, completely ours.  May he be everything for us.  Blessed is the soul that understands this and therefore seeks, desires and longs only for Jesus in everything![6]

 

 

“Jesus Christ must live in us”

 

Jesus Christ must live in us.  Jesus Christ must continu­ously work in us because he alone can reconcile heaven and earth.  He alone can love God as much as God deserves to be loved.  He alone can give God the honor due to him.

 

But how can Jesus Christ live in us?  We have already said how.  He lives in us through his Spirit: “This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit” (I Jn 5:13).  The spirit of Jesus Christ is the spirit of humility; it is the spirit of charity; above all, it is the spirit of self-denial, sacrifice and penance.[7]

 

 

“He comes to earth to make us live of his life”

 

Jesus comes to earth to make us share his life, to make us one single thing with him, so to speak.  I have come, he himself says, so that they may have life and have it in abundance.  Now, this life that Jesus comes to give us by uniting himself to our soul is his very own life.

 

The union of Jesus with the Christian soul is the very foundation of the whole supernatural order.  By this union, human beings raise themselves up to share in the divine nature; and by this union, they in turn raise up all creation.  Everything belongs to you, the Apostle exclaims, be it the world, be it life or death, be it the present or the future.  You, in turn, belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God: “All things belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.”

 

These are magnificent words indeed.  They reveal to us the sublime harmony of the Gospel.  United to the Word through the Incarnation, the sacred humanity of Jesus Christ became one sole person in him.  United as we are to Jesus Christ by a less perfect union ‑- but one that is intimate beyond imagination ‑- we are like an extension of him.  We belong to him as the members belong to the body.  “We are one body in Christ.”[8]

 

 

“He himself must be our life”

 

We must not simply live in Jesus Christ.  Rather he himself must be our life and must live in us.  He must live in us with his spirit, with his grace, with the impression of his mysteries, with the application of his merits, with the efficacy of his Sacraments, above all, with the Sacrament of his Body and Blood, so that we can say with the Apostle: It is not I who live; it is Christ who lives in me: “I live now not I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).  According to St. Francis De Sales, the golden-tongued Doctor of Geneva, this means that Christ lives in our heart and reigns there like a master and king.  It means that Christ’s spirit expands and grows in us and that, like life-giving heat, Christ encompasses us, sets everything right again, warms everything, sanctifies everything, and divinizes everything.  He loves with our heart, thinks with our mind, speaks with our tongue, and works with our hands.  For him we consume ourselves; for his glory we study; with his grace we perform our duties; for love of him we bear pain; to give him pleasure we enjoy pastimes and partake of nourishment itself.  His throne is established in the heart of every Christian: The Kingdom of God is in your midst (Lk 17:21).

 

A coin must have the image of the sovereign; otherwise it would not be worth anything and could not circulate in the marketplace.  In the same way, the works of Christians cannot earn heaven because nothing pleases the eternal Father if it does not display the image of his Son and does not, in some way, bear his likeness.  We, we ourselves, venerable Brothers and dearest children, will not be allowed to enter into glory, if we do not conform to this divine model (Rom 8:29).[9]

 

 

“Jesus the mirror, Jesus the model, Jesus the seal”

 

Our manner of speaking must be that of Jesus (...), the look of our eyes that of Jesus, the meekness of our behavior that of Jesus.  Jesus must be the mirror, Jesus ­must be the model, Jesus must be the seal.  Jesus must pronounce judgment, mark out the paths, and make deci­sions.  He is to govern, to direct, and to rule our life.  Finally, he is our love, our joy, our crown, the thought of our minds, the beat of our heart, the wings of our aspirations, the sound that is music to our ears, the balm that soothes our hurts, the staff that sustains us on our earthly pilgrimage, the anthem and canticle that echo on our lips and accompany us from time into eternity.[10]

 

 

“Making ourselves copies of him”

 

What does a painter do if he wants to faithfully portray a beloved person on canvass?  He keeps his eyes constantly fixed on that person so as not to make one stroke of the brush that does not help in depicting some trait of the original.  In some way, this is what we have to do.  All our thoughts, all our words, all our actions, all our aspira­tions, all our dispositions, all our suffering must be strokes of the brush that form and depict in us some trait of the life of Jesus Christ, to the point of making ourselves other copies of him, as it were.

 

Venerable brothers and beloved children, would you like to know when this will happen?  When we will judge all things the way Jesus Christ himself judged them; when we will love what he loved and in the very way he loved; when we will have in our hearts the very sentiments and dispositions he had in his heart.

 

Not all of us, of course, are obliged to live in such great exterior poverty as was the poverty Jesus lived in.  Nor are we all obliged to suffer the indescribable torments he suffered.  But all of us, great and small, rich and poor, priests and lay people, are obliged to have the same interior dispositions of poverty, humility, charity, sacrifice and all the other Christian virtues, so as to be ready to sacrifice everything and suffer everything, even death, rather than betray his holy law: “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5).

 

But we must not deceive ourselves, beloved.  We will never have this interior conformity with Jesus Christ, if we do not have even some exterior conformity with Jesus Christ.  The life of Jesus Christ, says the Apostle, must manifest itself in our mortal flesh (Cor 4:11).[11]

 

 

“Disciples of a poor, humble, crucified God”

 

 

Yes, even in our exterior we must appear to be disciples of a poor, humble, crucified God.  Without this, what is the use of protesting and boasting that we are Christians?  It will always be true that whatever we do will be inspired either by the spirit of the old man or by the spirit of the new man.  If we conform our exterior to the sentiments of the former, we are reprehensible.  If we conform our exterior to the spirit of the latter, everything in us is holy; everything in us shares in the life of Jesus Christ since Jesus Christ lives in us only through his spirit (...).

 

Therefore, for our life to be considered Christian, it is not enough to work well, to be upright, to live honorably, to struggle and suffer any which way.  It is not enough.  We must absolutely do all these things with our gaze on God, out of love for Jesus Christ, with the submission, love, and spirit of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ must be the Alpha and the Omega of our works, the soul of our soul, the life of our life.[12]

 

 

“It is Christ who enkindles love”

 

Life consists primarily in love, without which, as St. John says, one remains in death.  And what fills the soul with this balm of life is the grace that comes from the Savior.  It is Christ who enkindles this love, giving us the unfathom­able marvel of his death, which prods us, spurs us with sweet violence to love him in return and to sacrifice ourselves for his glory and the salvation of our brothers and sisters: “The love of Christ impels us.”  It is Christ who enkindles this love, giving us in his Resurrection the most radiant proof of his divinity and the surest pledge of our future Resurrec­tion.  It is Christ who enkindles this love with the continu­al miracle of the Eucharist, the mystery of love par excellence, with which he perpetuates himself on our altars.[13]

 

 

“Love never says: enough”

 

He is ablaze with the most burning love for us.  Love never says: enough.  Christ lived a life of continual hardship for us.  He cannot wait to sacrifice this life for us (Lk 12:50).  And his hour did arrive.  The hour of his sacrifice arrived, and the world beheld the tragic scene of a God who dies, who dies crucified for his people (Rom 5:9)!  Can we think of anything more marvelous, more awesome than this extravagant love?

 

Surely, no one, as Jesus Christ himself assures us, no one can show greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends (Jn 15:3).  But how much he must have loved us to want to die for us his enemies, he who is our God, our Creator whom we have offended and insulted!  With this thought in mind, the Apostle said that only with difficulty does one die for a just person.  But God, he says, proves his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:7).  And why did he die?  Because he himself wanted to (Is 53:7): no one could force him to do this, as he himself said (Jn 10:17).  But why did he want to do this?  For one simple reason: he loved us.  “He loved us and gave himself up for us” (Eph 5:2).[14]

 

 

“Love Jesus”

 

0 Jesus, you are the true source of all our good: you always were, you constantly were and you still are.  Jesus!  Pronouncing this name makes the heart glow, the spirit quicken, and the soul soar on the wings of hope.  Jesus!  This name is sweeter to the mouth than honey, more melodious to the ear than the sound of the harp, more satisfying to the heart than the purest joy!  Oh, let us love Jesus, let us love him!  Whom else shall we love if not this most gentle Savior? (...).

 

Love Jesus.  Keep united with Jesus because a Christian’s whole perfec­tion lies precisely in his or her union with Jesus Christ.  Herein dwells the principle of every good, the founda­tion and origin of all our greatness.  The Lord says: “I am the true vine and you are the branches” (Jn 15:5).  Now, just as a branch detached from the vine withers and dies, so you too will die if separated from Jesus Christ.  Union with Jesus Christ is something vital for us.  Without it, we are dead and dead is everything that is ours.  We become corpses, just as a body without a soul is a corpse (...).

 

Jesus Christ is a dear brother, to whom we must hold on tight during the journey of life.  On him we must lean.  With him we must walk because, as we said, from him comes every grace, the value of every action, the strength to perform it, in a word, our life, and also the breath of our souls.[15]

 

 

b) GOD WITH US: CHRIST IN THE EUCHARIST

 

 

“He who believes in the Eucharist believes in all Christian truths”

 

We can say that he who believes in the Eucharist believes in all Christian truths.  He believes in the ineffable Trinity of persons in the absolute unity of divine being.  He believes in the Incarnation of the Word, in his immolation for us.  He believes in his glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven.  He believes in the divine motherhood of the Virgin and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles gathered around her.  He believes in the divine institution of the Church, in its indefectibility and in the need to be members of it to attain eternal life (...).

 

The Eucharist is the masterpiece of God’s mind and heart, the center of our religion, the point of contact where the infinite and the finite, nature and grace, come together in the ineffable embrace of truth and love itself (...).

 

On our altars we find Golgotha where we clasp the cross in tears; we find Tabor where we build tabernacles to intoxicate ourself in heavenly peace. On our altars takes place the agony of Gethsemani, the morning of the resurrection, the mystical death and the source of life.[16]

 

 

“The perfect solution to the problem of the Emmanuel”

 

In your preaching, you must show how the words, “This is my body, this is my blood,” contain the perfect solution to the problem of the Emmanuel, the God-with-us, a solution which for such a long time humanity had feverishly hungered for.  Indeed, because of its divine origin, humanity unceasingly seeks to communicate personally with its source and last end.  Through those words, in fact, not only does Bethlehem, Nazareth, Capernaum, Tiberias, and Jerusalem, in a word Palestine, become the dwelling place of the Man-God, but the whole earth as well.  Now he dwells equally in the basilicas of great cities, in the rustic churches built for him by poor peasants, as well as in thatched huts, where primitive people worship him.  Now he is accessible to everybody, to the Greeks as well as to the barbarians, to the people of Israel as well as to the children of the desert.[17]

 

 

“The Eucharist is the center of the Church”

 

The Eucharist is the heart of the Church, the compendium of divine worship, the tree of life planted in the midst of the Church, whose foliage gives comfort to all people.  The Eucharist is the leaven hidden by the Incarnate Wisdom in this sacrament.  If the Christian soul applies this leaven to the three faculties, to the rational, the concupiscent and the irascible, that is to say, to the mind, the spirit and the heart, the whole person becomes spiritual.  Moreover, when introduced by the Church through the ministry of her priests into the various classes of society -­- ruling class, youth and family -- this leaven will make this foolish world wise, will unite the separated peoples of the world into the one body of the Church, and will make those previously listless in the face of what is good, staunch and steadfast in the performance of all manner of virtuous deeds.[18]

 

 

 

“Everything gravitates toward the Eucharist”

 

In the spiritual world, the Eucharist is what the sun is in the physical world.  Just as everything in the firmament gravitates toward that magnificent celestial body, whose light and warmth disseminate fertility and life everywhere, in the same way everything gravitates toward the most adorable Eucharist.  Because of the Eucharist and the Eucharist alone, all created things, which unceasingly descend from the Creator, unceas­ingly return to him.[19]

 

 

“The Eucharist is the extension of the Incarnation”

 

Besides the supernatural help that will sustain us in the bitter battles of life, we also need -- as long as we are pilgrims on this earth -- an immaculate victim to offer to God in expiation for our sins.  We find this help in Holy Communion.  We find this victim in the Mass, which is none other than the sacrifice of the cross, continuing across the ages in the sight of all generations (...).

 

Just as the Eucharist is an extension of the Incarnation, in the same way the Eucharist is an extension of the sacrifice of Golgotha.  True, the sacrifice of Golgotha was offered only once, in a few hours, in Jerusalem, while the other sacrifice is offered at every moment of the day and in all the corners of the earth.  We all know that, while our hemisphere is at rest, the other hemisphere watches.  Other brothers and sisters pray for us.  Other priests hold aloft, between heaven and earth, the Eucharistic victim, from which the blood of Christ pours forth, like a mysterious life-giving stream covering the universe from one end to the other (...).

 

If in his first offering the Son of God gave himself up for all, in the offering of the Mass he offers himself for each one of us in particular.  At every moment, he comes to cancel the bond entered against us because of our sins.  He removes it and nails it, together with his adorable body, to the altar of the cross.  And if the debts we have incurred with God because of our sins are great, much greater is the price of our redemption.  However, we have been ransomed not at the price of perishable things, like gold or silver, but at the price of the blood of the spotless Lamb.  This blood is of infinite value, because it belongs to a divine person.  One single drop of this blood would be enough to redeem the world.  Hence, just as the ocean surpasses one drop of water, in the same way Christ’s merits at Mass surpass our sins.[20]

 

 

At Mass “the supernatural life of the Church is enkindled”

 

Not only is the Mass the world’s daily redemption and salvation, but it is also the nourishment of true and solid piety, the furnace in which the supernatural life of the Church is enkindled.  In fact, ask the Church, this virgin spouse of the Nazarene, how she is able to nourish and awaken in so many of her children the spirit of sacrifice to the point of heroism and why the meanness and weaknesses afflicting us make her love us all the more.  She would answer by pointing to the inscription adorning her altar: “This is how God loved his people.”  These are sublime words expressing an even more sublime truth.  In fact, ever since eternity begot time, the horizon of Christian charity has never expanded so much as it has since the moment the Word of God immolated himself under the appearances of bread and wine.  Only then did Christian charity realize that sacrifice is the culmination of a pure, noble and holy life; only then did it desire to repay life with life, love with love.[21]

 

 

“The Mass!”

 

The Mass!  The Mass epitomizes all the ancient sacrifices, through which the religious acts uniting mankind with God took place.  The Mass is the one and only sacri­fice, at once holocaust, peace offering and victim for sin.  The Mass!  The Mass is the sacrifice of the cross drawing close to us, thus sparing our faith the arduous return to a distant past, sparing us efforts so utterly ineffectual because of our weakness and sloth.  The Mass!  The Mass is the immolation of a God who, in some way, has been placed into our hands, so that we might take as much as we need in accordance with the times and conditions, in the measure and for the purposes determined by divine Providence.  The Mass!  The Mass is a God who adores, a God who gives thanks, a God who appeases, a God who implores.  The Mass!  The Mass is the crown of religious worship, the center of the Christian life, the most resplendent seal of the priest’s greatness and power.[22]

 

 

“In the Eucharist we have a marvelous banquet”

 

I appeal to your experience, venerable brothers.  Is it not true that, after celebrating the divine Sacrifice, you find insipid everything the world considers good?  Doesn’t everything urge you to be generous?  Don’t you embrace all adversity as an exercise of virtue?  From the celebration of the Mass we derive a greater inclination to recollection, a greater longing for prayer, an inner joy in self-contempt, a desire for perpetual immolation, the choice of a life hidden in Christ, and the wondrous ascents unto God.

 

In the Eucharist, then, we have such a marvelous banquet that there is nothing more precious and more beneficial.  It is the food that nourished our spiritual infancy, that makes our adolescence develop, that fortifies our adulthood, that keeps us from getting old and staves off death altogether (...).

 

The Eucharist is the center of all religion, the compendium of all God’s works and, as it were, a summary of the Word.  Hence, it has always been the first and essential devotion of Christians.  Without this devotion one cannot call himself a Christian, because he is missing the head, which is Christ.

 

The Eucharist is the most beneficial of all devotions.  In it Christ addresses this invitation to us: Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28).  In it he entertains sinners at his table, forgets all sins, and clothes his guests with grace.  In the Eucharist, like an eagle that incites her nestlings forth by hovering over her brood, Christ spreads out his wings over the righteous.  He gathers them together, carries them on his back and raises them aloft to the heights of holiness (Deut 22).

 

In the Eucharist, Christ creates apostles, fortifies martyrs for the crown of victory and raises up virgins.  In fact, the Eucharist is “the sacred Banquet in which Christ is eaten as food, the memory of his passion is recalled, the mind is filled with grace, and we are given the pledge of future glory” (Of­fice of Corpus Christi).[23]

 

 

“The Eucharist was the first rule of life in the Church”

 

The Eucharist was truly the first rule of life in the Church.  Christ was fully present in everyone.  In the Eucharist, he was the life of all Christians.  Thus it was in the Church at the beginning.  Now, we see that times have changed and other forms of piety have, in some sense, replaced faith in Christ and love for him, namely, devotion to the saints and filial devotion to the Mother of God.

 

I do not say this to deplore these devotions or belittle them in the least.  There is no disparagement in my words.  I enthusiastically applaud these manifestations of piety.  In fact, I make every effort to have them take root and become ever more diffused.  They are, in fact, very useful for a life of piety and are desired by our good God.

 

The contemplation of the blessed souls in heaven has a twofold “theology”: the morning one, which, from the divine perfections seen in God, descends to the contemplation of the work of the Lord, and the evening one, which, from the divine works rises to the contemplation of God himself.  This is true also of the piety of the faithful.  Some want to reach God by using the cult of the saints and the Mother of God like steps.  Instead, others -- more effectively -- take possession of Christ himself through faith and, through Christ, approach the Father, thus encompassing  also the saints.  Both ways lead to the same goal.  Neverthe­less we must see to it that imitation of the saints and devotion to them do not lessen our faith in Christ and our love for him.

 

Hence, I ardently hope that the love we all have for Christ will emulate and surpass our devotion to the Mother of God and the saints.  Christ, in fact, is “the way, the truth and the life,” as he himself said; and “no one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6, 17). Even Paul says: “Through him we have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph 2:18).[24]

 

 

“He Christianizes our whole person”

 

Holy Communion is the source from which the soul draws the water that rises to eternal life, the place where the soul heals its wounds.  In a word, Holy Commu­nion is the origin and goal of union with God raised to the highest power and brought to the ultimate degree of perfection possible in the present order of things.  In fact, if, in the Incarnation, the Word of God united himself personally to human nature, in Holy Communion he unites himself even more intimately to our person.  In this way, he divinizes our essence and, in fact, Christianiz­es our whole person.  His union with us is patterned after the transformation of food into the substance of the body that is nourished.  And so, as a holy doctor of the Church once wrote, those who receive Communion have Jesus in their mind, in their heart, in their soul, before their eyes and on their tongue.  This Savior sets everything straight, purifies everything, gives life to everything.  He loves with our heart, thinks with our mind, invigorates our soul, sees through our eyes, speaks with our tongue, and moves all other facul­ties in us.  He works all things in all people, so that they no longer live for them­selves.  The Word of God now lives in them and sets down for their actions nobler and more sublime goals, purer and more perfect motives.[25]

 

 

“The radiant seed of the resurrection”

 

St. Macarius says that the common bread that comes from the earth cannot give us eternal life.  But the bread that has its origin in Christ’s blessed body united to the divinity confers immortality to the one receiving this bread.  The flesh of Christ, once eaten, is not destroyed; and the blood, once drunk, does not cease to exist because both are indissolubly united to the divinity.  Hence, the glorious body of Christ puts the radiant seed of resurrec­tion and incorruptibility into the corruptible body of a human being.  This seed, animated by the blood of him who conquered death, develops and grows until the renewed human being lays aside his mortal flesh like a useless garment and, showing all the splendor of his life hidden in God, enters into the eternal tabernacles[26]

 

 

“Getting into the spirit of the sacred liturgy”

 

Abstract and speculative instruction, excellent though it may be, is not enough by itself.  It must be accompanied by practice.  If so many Christians, while celebrating the divine mysteries, seem undignified and listless in church and indifferent to everything that is taking place, the reason is that they see only the outward appearance of the sacred rites.  Well, then, teach them to understand the differ­ent parts of the sacred rites.  If, in some way, you help them get into the spirit of the sacred liturgy, their minds will at once begin to focus on God and their lips will instinc­tively move to prayer.  As long as they are able to ascend from the sensible to the intelligible, people, no matter how cold and indifferent they may be, are enraptured by Catholic worship, which converges wholly on the Eucharist, just as all the architectural lines in our churches, built by great Christian minds, converge on the sanctuary.[27]

 

 

“Wasting time with confessions?”

 

I cannot keep quiet about some priests who think they are wasting their time when they have to minister to good souls who love to go to confession often and, even more often, to nourish themselves with the flesh of the spotless Lamb.  The most charitable thing I can say about these priests is that they do not know that, just as you cannot have life without a soul, in the same way you cannot have a parish alive with the exuberant life of Christ if it does not have a certain number of the faithful who confess often and go to Communion almost daily.  These are the people who, with the example of their good lives, stimulate the others to goodness.  They make the ideal of Christian perfection shine forth.  In a word, they are the dedicated people who accomplish all the good works that are done in the parish.  Blessed is the pastor who forms people of this kind and cares for them with particular solicitude.  The time he can wisely spend with them is time well spent, because these godly souls will draw down upon our people the graces that will keep them from wickedness.  And if our people are already wicked, these graces will transform them as they transformed the Greek and Roman world in apostolic times and, down through the centuries, led many other nations to the foot of the cross.[28]

 

 

“Frequent Communion”

 

So, even if they have imperfections and fall into venial sins, Christians adorned with sanctifying grace are nonetheless sons and daughters of God and heirs of heaven and, as such, are worthy to sit even daily at the great banquet Jesus Christ prepares in his Church, as long as they depart from it with ever increasing fervor and with a greater desire to go back to it.  So why should we demand of our good people an extraordinary purity of mind, of heart and deeds before admitting them to such a banquet?  Is not frequent Communion precisely the best disposition for approaching the Eucharist worthily?  If everybody had a loftier appreciation of the beauty and nobility of a soul in grace, the restoration of frequent Communion would surely not be long delayed, to the great and inestima­ble benefit of the Christian people and of civil society itself.[29]

 

 

“The pious practice of the daily visit”

 

You will find that one of the most efficacious ways of engendering and developing devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is, first of all, the pious practice of the daily visit to him, a prisoner of love in our tabernacles.  This practice is surely positive proof of the sincere love people have for the divine Eucha­rist, just as, on the contrary, the deplorable neglect in which many leave the Eucharist seems to belie their faith.

 

How beautiful it is to engage in frequent and familiar conversation with Jesus through such a salutary practice!  “Blessed is he who abides near the holy tabernacle,” exclaims the prophet.  The Lord is his strength and his light, the remedy for all his ills, the balm for all his wounds, his solace in all pain.  At the foot of the altar, we forget the world and the misfortunes of life because, wherever there is Jesus, pain fades away; and only joy remains, even in the midst of tribulations.  This is the place where the faithful hear mysterious and gentle voices in the depths of their hearts, the place they leave with a burning desire to get back to it, with that holy desire that always draws them to the place where their treasure lies and where they are able to store up supernatural energies.