Since it was the will of God's
only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature
in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took
our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered
his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our
reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we
might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin.
But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever,
he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in
the form of bread and wine.
O precious and wonderful banquet that brings
us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic
value? 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 purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is
enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church
for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of
all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, 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 surpassing love for us
which Christ revealed in his passion.
It was to impress the vastness of this love
more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this
sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go
to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as
a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfillment of ancient figures
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."
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