A great solemnity has this day risen upon our earth; a
feast both to God and to men: for it is the feast of Christ the
Mediator, who is present in the Sacred Host, that God may
be given to man, and man to God. Divine union – such is the
dignity to which man is permitted to aspire; and to this
aspiration God has responded, even here below, by an
invention which is all of heaven. It is today that man
celebrates this marvel of God’s goodness…
The Holy Eucharist, both as Sacrifice and Sacrament, is
the very center of the Christian religion; and therefore our
Lord would have a fourfold testimony to be given, in the
inspired writings, to its institution. Besides the accounts
given by Saints Mathew, Mark, and Luke, we have also that
of St. Paul…which he received from the lips of Jesus
Himself, who vouchsafed to appear to him, after his
conversion, and instruct him.
St. Paul lays particular stress on the power, given by
our Lord to His disciples, of renewing the act which He
Himself had just been doing. He tells us what the evangelists
had not explicitly mentioned, that as often as a priest
consecrates the Body and Blood of Christ, he shows (he
announces) the death of the Lord: by that expression he tells
us that the Sacrifice of the Cross, and that of our altars, is
one and the same…The sinner, who has made his peace with
God, will partake of this sacred Body with deep
compunction, reproaching himself for having shed its Blood
by his sins: the just man will approach the holy Table with
humility, remembering how he, also, has had but too great a
share in causing the innocent Lamb to suffer; and that, if he
be at present in the state of grace, he owes it to the Blood of
the Victim whose Flesh is about to be given to him for his
nourishment. Liturgical Year X, Book I, from pages 185 & 256