The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-09-30
CONTINUED trompage ID
THE EUCHARIST THE COMPILE
MENT AND THE SAFEGUARD
OF THE INCARNATION.


is Omnipotence Incarnate.
1t was the evening before the drama
of Calvary. For the last time Jesus
was taking food and drink with His
Apostles. The farewell was to be
spoken-the farewell of God Incar-
nate to those for love of whom He,
the Son of God, had been made the
Son of man. Having loved His own
who were in the world, He loved them
unto the end" Await the elimination
of divine love- Taking bread, He gave
thanks and brake, and gave to them
saying: This is my body, which is
given for YOU Do this for common
Grafton of me. In like manner the
chalice, also, after He had supped
saying: "This is the chalice OF the
new testament in my blood, Wnlcn
shall be shed for you" "This is my
body-This is the chalice, the new
testament in my blood" Jesus
speaks: His words are truth, His
power knows no limitation: there
fore. what had been bread is changed
into the body of Jesus, and what mad
been wine, is changed into His blood.
1t is the living not the dead Jesus:
therefore where the part is the whole
is, and whether under the appearance
of bread, or under the appearance OF
wine. it is Jesus, whole and entire,
humanity and divinity.
eDo this in commemoration of me. /"
Therefore, the Apostles to whom He
spoke. we're then and there constitut-
ed the agents of Jesus to do what He
Himself had done-to change bread
into the body of Jesus and wine into
His blood And therefore since in the
Apostles seated at the last supper
Jesus viewed not so much the Apos-
ties there present as the whole apos-
tleship which later he was to endoW
with perpetuity of existence even
unto the consummation of the world,
the lineal and direct successors OF the
men seated. with Jesus at the Last
Supper, wherever and whenever they
speak within the terms of the com
mission, possess the power given to
them and work the mystic wonders
thew were authorized to work.
Priests of the Holy Catholic Church
you are the successors of the first
twelve: you are the heirs OF their
privileges and powers. You celebrate
your mass. At the moment of the con
secration you repeat the words OF
Jesus-"This is my body-Thls is
the chalice, the new testament In
my blood You speak under no
power, no authority of your own:
you speak as Jesus did speak, under
the spell of His Omnipotence-
He did, you do: the bread is changed
into His body and the wine into His
blood: Jesus is on the altar, fully man,
fully God. The bodily eye does not
discern Him. neither does the ear
hear Him: yet our Christian faith
bids us proclaim His presence. He is
there: we have "the more firm pro-
phetical word" from which there
must be no dissent.
The Eucharist, the Perpetuation of the
incarnation.
Do you now ask in what relation the
Eucharist holds itself to the lncarna
ton? The Eucharist is the Incarna
ton itself, continued through the ages
that men, wherever in time or space
may feast upon the sweetness OF Its
immediate presence and receive from
it the fullness of it's supernal blessed
ness, as truly and as really as ii in
the long ago they had adored Jesus
with Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem
with the early apostles in the cham
Der of the Last Supper, with Mary AND
her faithful attendants at the foot Of
the cross on Mount Calvary. Having
loved His own, He loved them to the
end''-even to the end of time. The
Eucharist is the complement of Beth
lehem and Calvary: through it the
Incarnation abides among men, in the
fullness of the original gift, adown the
ages even unto the contamination OF
the world.
The Eucharist is the Incarnation
dwelling among us, realizing by i'm
mediate contact with souls the mighty
purposes the Word had in mind, when
in the counsels of the Godhead, he
first exclaimed: Behold come"
Gods Love For men-The Motive o.
the incarnation.
From eternity God reigns, the Crea
tor, Lord and Sovereign of all created
beings. So human reason teaches
''For the invisible things of Him from
the creation of the world are clearly
seem being understood by the things
that are made: His eternal power anC
His divinity: so that they (who know
Him not) are inexcusable.' But
Brethren, with reason as our only
guidance, how inexpressibly wide the
abyss between God and man! how pro
found and ever-unsatisfied the long
ings of the human soul for closer prox
unity, for more intimate union! God
we know, reigns in the realm of the
Infinite: but what is He to me, beyond
L. o. II