Video: The Eucharist as the Tree of Life

Blessed Holy Thursday + Bellarmine on the Holy Eucharist (Day 34)

Blessed Holy Thursday! Nicky and I discuss Holy Week, the Easter Vigil, and the nature of Christ in the Eucharist as the Tree of Life, Manna in the Desert, and the Paschal Lamb. This is Episode 5 of a 6 part series (Chapter 4) on Timothy O'Malley's book, 'Becoming Eucharistic People.' I am doing a short online study with my church, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, as preparation for a Eucharistic revival.

DAY 34

IN ‘THE ART OF DYING WELL’ BY ST. ROBERT BELLARMINE

CH. 12 ON THE HOLY EUCHARIST.

Hear St. Chrysostom, in one of his Sermons to the people of Antioch: "How pure ought he to be that offers such a sacrifice! Ought not the hand that divides this flesh to be more pure than the rays of the sun? Ought not the tongue to be filled with a spiritual fire?”

Whoever desires to live well and die well, let him enter into the chamber of his heart, and shutting the door, alone before God, who searches the reins and the heart, let him attentively consider how often, and with what preparation, he has received the Body of the Lord.

St. Bonaventure writes, in his Life of St. Francis, of the admirable piety and love of this saint towards the holy Eucharist, that so from his burning love our tepidity and coldness may be inflamed: “He burned with the utmost love of his soul for this blessed Sacrament, being lost in wonder at this most endearing condescension and boundless charity. Often did he communicate, and so devoutly, that he made others devout also; for when he received the immaculate Lamb, being, as it were, inebriated in spirit, he frequently fell into raptures.” (*Vita St. Francisci, Cap. ix.)

How far distant from this saint are, not only many of the laity, but even many priests, who offer up the Sacrifice with such unseemly hurry, that neither they themselves seem to know what they are doing, nor do they allow others to fix their attention on the sacred service.

The Holy Eucharist is the greatest of all the sacraments: in which not only is grace most plentifully given unto us, but even the author of grace Himself is received…

It is first of all requisite that our soul be living in a state of grace, and not dead in mortal sin. For this reason it is called "food," and is given to us in the form of bread, because it is the food not of the dead but of the living. This sacrament is not only our food, but also a medicine, and the best and most salutary medicine against all spiritual diseases; therefore it is required in the second place, that the sick man should desire his health, and his deliverance from all diseases of his vices, and especially from the principal ones such as luxury, avarice, pride, & c.

That the holy Eucharist is a medicine, St. Ambrose teaches in his fifth book on the Sacraments (cap. iv.): "He that is wounded requires medicine; we are wounded, because we are under sin; and the medicine is the sacred and heavenly sacrament."

And St. Bonaventure says: "He that thinketh himself unworthy, let him consider how much the greater need he hath of a physician, by how much the more enfeebled he is." (De Profectu Religiosorum, cap. 78)

And St. Bernard, in his Sermon on the Supper of our Lord, admonishes his brethren, that when they feel evil propensities or any other disorders of the soul diminishing within them, they should attribute it to this blessed sacrament.

Lastly, this holy Sacrament is not only the food of travelers and the medicine of the sick, it is also a most skillful and loving physician, and therefore is to be received with great joy and reverence; and the house of our soul ought to be adorned with all kind of virtues, especially with faith, hope, charity, devotion, and the fruits of good works, such as prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds…

Reflect also, that the Physician who visits us is our King and our God, whose purity is infinite, and who therefore requires a most pure habitation.