Introduction

The three lectures are entitled: The Eucharist and God the Father; the Eucharist and God the Son; the Eucharist and God the Holy Spirit

These three lectures were published in 1938 in a small booklet titled “Cielo dei Cieli”. The content of these pages is a short theological and liturgical treatise on the Eucharist “behind the veil of the species”.

We are gradually conducted to relate to Jesus so that he may be for us what he is for God the Father, and for Mother Mary: “the son”! Fr. Justin develops the thought that our relationship with Jesus is not complete if we are not able to become also “mother”.

In the third part, in the light of the gospel, he talks about the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ, focusing on the works that re more proper to the third person of the Trinity, to what he is and what he does.

Fr. Justin in this work develops his basic spirituality that is based on our Vocation to holiness and Divine Union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Eucharist in itself, and especially through Holy Communion, is the greatest expression and the highest realization of Divine Union. The Eucharist is the center and heart of our spiritual life; in it we see, feel, experience, and enjoy every word, work, act, state and mystery of Jesus’ life. It is the beginning and end of our ascensional journey to the Father.

 

Part I

The Eucharist and God the Father. 

Let us accept and follow the great invitation of Jesus to every soul: “Come after me- Follow me!” At first, this invitation was addressed to a small number of people – the disciples, the apostles – now; it is addressed to all people; to each according to the way of life in which divine providence has placed him. 

As with every word of the Lord, this word not only means something specific; it realizes what it expresses. “Come after me, follow me” does not only express an invitation, a sweet command, it also creates in us the effect of divine attraction.

This attraction is perceived and experienced according to Jesus’ promise and prophecy: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:32). The higher we lift up Jesus in us, the more we will experience this attraction.

 We feel this attraction every time, everywhere we see Jesus exalted in any way, shape or form. Thus seeing the edifying behavior of a disciple and priest, we feel the attraction to Jesus to the point of feeling the calling to a life of consecration or higher perfection. Jesus is exalted in the person of the priest and of the saint; the same happens when we see Jesus exalted in the Blessed Sacrament, especially in the more solemn Eucharistic celebrations. 

“Come after me and follow me.” It is not simple “Come to me, all of you who are burdened, and I will restore you.” Nor it is just any grace of peace and rest that the soul finds in Jesus, like seating at his feet, or resting our head on his chest. This grace may be granted to us only for passing moments, but is reaffirmed and stands out in Jesus’ words: “I am the way!” The way that we must follow; that is clearly understood. Where does this way lead us to? Even when Jesus says: “Come to me,” he does not reveal himself nor offers himself as the last stop on our journey that is why he soon adds: “Take upon you my yoke, carry my burden”. A yoke under which to walk. But, how far? A burden to be carried- but where to?

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Lo: we understand well that life is a journey through barren deserts and mountain ridges, through every kind of obstacle and hostility of many enemies. Yet, we do not understand completely that Jesus is way, our way.

We easily understand the other word, “I am the truth” since in Jesus we find all the complex of truths that we must believe for our supernatural life; he is the supreme revelation of the divinity.

We also understand his other word “I am the life” because only in Jesus do we find the fountain of supernatural life; he is the supreme communication of the divinity.

We do not seem to equally understand that he is also our way. The way we must choose and follow throughout our life on earth, as long as we are pilgrims on this earth, precisely

In our condition as travelers on earth, before reaching and conquering heaven as our final, blessed goal.

Yes, he has  placed this principle and this word, “way”, this revealing of himself, this affirming and offering of himself as our way before all others.

It is not enough to take this word in the sense that he is the “Teacher”, whose lessons we must lean; and that he is the model whose examples we must imitate. Naturally- all this is implied in the proclamation: “I am the way”-; but there is something more, something we cannot miss if we want to have a complete- and consequently efficient –idea of our supernatural life.

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If  we want a true picture of what is and must be our spiritual reality, we will find it in the words of our blessed Lord: “I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world to go to the Father” (Jn 16:28)

A continuous elevation on a progressive return to the Father, which – in force of the grace infused in the soul – takes place and manifests itself in this ascension to the Father. This is the supernatural life.

If in addition to this picture we want the concrete vision, we must look for it in the most blatantly glorious events like the Assumption of the Virgin and the Ascension of Jesus into heaven; one in harmony with the other.

Our life must be: assumption of the body and ascension of the spirit. In his return to the Father, Jesus does not want to be alone, but attracts and takes with him the souls; to all those who had been invited: “Come after me, follow me”, now he explicitly sends  the other message which –at the same time – is exhortation, invitation, counsel and command: “Go and find  my brothers and tell them: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (Jn 20:17).  This is the way and its name is Jesus! It is masterly revealed and well determined by the point of arrival – to which it leads – God the Father!

If it is true – as it is – that all the acts and states of the Incarnate Word are perpetuated in the Eucharist, it follows that first and foremost, we must see in the Eucharist the event that is like the epilogue and crowning of all his life and work, his ascension to the Father: our way to the Father.

All the gifts of spiritual life are stored up in the Eucharist, synthesis and fountain of all graces, since it is the real presence and the gift of the author of grace. We must see in the Eucharist the ascension of the souls to the Father with Jesus, in Jesus and for Jesus, his Son. This is the end result of the action of grace, the supreme result of grace.

The memorial that Jesus left us when he said: “Do this in memory of me” (1Cor 11:25) would be incomplete if the Eucharist would remind us only of his passion, death and divine sacrifice. This is the reason why we explicitly see and recall in the Eucharist also his divine resurrection and ascension into heaven, the glorious fruit of his sacrifice:

“We ……recall his passion, his resurrection from the dead and his ascension into glory” (Eucharistic Prayer 1)

In Jesus’ passion and death we see the effect of sin… what men do to their Lord. In his resurrection from the dead and in his ascension to the Father we see the effect of grace… what the Lord does for us, in Jesus and in all his brothers.

As in the person of Jesus we must see, believe and consider not only the ‘man’, but also- and much more so- the Word of God, so that in the Eucharist we must see and contemplate not only what men do to Jesus, but also- and much more so- what Jesus does for us. Consequently we must think of this ascension to the Father of all the people for whom- throughout the ages- this sacrifice is offered and applied: Ascension to the Father precisely in force of and by virtue of the bread of eternal life, which is given to us in the Eucharist as communion with the divine sacrifice.

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Oh! That small host! Apparently there is nothing less significant than a host! To find something similar to a host we must go down to the lowest creatures, even lower than an insect or blade of grass to the mineral world.

And yet… there is nothing more overwhelming and dynamic, nothing more powerfully active, because there is nothing more divinely alive than a host!

It is the smallest piece of yeast that the Blessed Trinity has placed in the huge mass of dough that is the world… and all mankind is in ferment. The devil threw in the world, - through the forbidden fruit, - the yeast of sin, and mankind was in ferment of corruption:

Ferment which is hellish torment of attraction to the devil and of falling from one abyss to another.

The Lord, God Trinity, divinely placed in the world the host, the yeast of virtue, and consequently all mankind in the ferment of sanctification. Ferment, which is a divine torment of attraction to Jesus, and then – with Jesus – of elevation to the Father. This becomes a torment if and when we do not correspond to it, because the Love-God pursues and besieges the soul until they surrender; torment if and when we correspond only lukewarmly, since this gives us the wrong impression that the Love-Go is satisfied with little; it may be so at the beginning and temporarily but only in order to reach, absorb and possess everything in its entirety.

It remains a torment even if we correspond with all possible fervor, because the Love-God is infinite and is constantly expanding, replenishing and piercing, in order to ever more enlarge and fill the tremendous capacity of the soul, until we do reach the bosom of the Father, in the Eternal Sabbath.

We have to reach the bosom of the Father from whom eternally procedes the Son in force of the divine generation.

We tend to reach the bosom of the Father from whom– in time – has come to us the Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, and Jesus-Eucharist in force of the divine mission.

We want to ascend to the bosom of the Father, to whom Jesus is returning with all the redeemed, in order to hand over the conquered kingdom of the elects.

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The prophet Isaiah exclaims: “Rain down, you heaves, from above, and let the clouds pour down saving justice, let the earth open up and blossom with salvation, and let justice sprout up with it.” (Is:45:8)

It is true, and we say to ourselves: Oh! If you, my soul, with strong faith would apply yourself to the interior vision of the mystery of the Eucharist. Oh! If you, my soul, would open up not only the veil of the Eucharistic species, but also the very dense veil of your ignorance of sacred science, the veil of your sloth in applying the sacred knowledge to your life, and the veils of your lukewarmness in living the sacred science to your life of prayer. If you were to open these veils you would find yourself facing the divine reality of he Son of God the Father; you would not only be attracted and totally immersed in humble adoration, but you would find yourself elevated and carried by the currents of supernatural life, to the divine relationship of sonship with the Father. In this divine relationship is condensed the whole being of the Son, the whole work of Jesus Christ within us.

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Everything in Jesus, and in Jesus – Eucharist talks to us about the Father, elevates us to the Father, unites us to the Father.

Whether we contemplate the Eucharist as a divine, perpetual mission, as the sacrifice of the New Law, or as the sacrament of life, it always talks to us about the Father. The Eucharist elevates us to the Father, and unites us to the Father The Eucharist is Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God the Father, who became man to re-establish our relationship with the Father, to teach and encourage us to live that relationship with the Father, and to ever more nurture this relationship with the Father.

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Before any thing else we consider the Eucharist as a divine, perpetual mission. When we talk of Jesus, it is not possible to use the terminology that applies to us while pilgrims on earth, nor in our final state after death.

Our human condition – as beings on our way – implies the condition in which we can be tested and either be victorious or losers. Every descendent of Adam, born in the state of original sin, finds himself in this situation. The fact that we are beings on our way to the Father implies the possibility of spiritual progress, and only in this sense can the life of the blessed Virgin, - conceived without original sin and conffirmed in grace, be considered as a permanent way.

Speaking of Jesus, during his life on earth, when he willingly submitted himself to suffering and death, we cannot speak of his passing or transient condition, but only of him as being on a divine mission.

St. Thomas says: “while on earth Jesus was a ‘comprehensor’, because he enjoyed the beatific vision;  this enjoyment, - through divine dispensation – was contained and retained in his mind; he had to obtain this blessedness in other faculties, in his soul and his mortal body, and in this sense Jesus was also a viator” (Summa, Part lll, Quest XV, n.10.)

When we talk about the person of Jesus, we are talking about things that are really special and entirely deriving from his will as Savior, and Savior at the cost of suffering not of an ordinary necessity of a test wanted by a superior will; consequently it would be very inappropriate to talk about a condition of ‘viator’ in Jesus; it is much better and more correct to refer to it as a state of mission. Now – in one way – this mission has been completed, as the whole life of the Savior, with his death, resurrection and ascension to the Father, and – in another sense – with all truthfulness we can say that it still continues as perpetuated in the Blessed Sacrament.

The Divine Eucharist places us in the real presence of Jesus, and of his divine mission in the world… the first divine mission.

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Every divine mission consists of three elements, and each one of these elements talks to us about the Father, elevates us to the Father and unites us with the Father.

 First element: the origin of a divine person, who proceeds from another divine person.

Second element: a mission to be accomplished by the divine person, who is sent.

Third element: a work to be accomplished which is worthy both of the divine person who sends, and of the divine person, who is sent.

All this is present in the great happening of the incarnation of the Word, and in the epilogue and synthesis of all acts, states and mysteries of the Incarnate Word, i.e.; ln therist. In all this we are elevated to the Father and united to the Father, in Jesus and with Jesus. The second divine person eternally proceeds from the first through generation, and because of this the first person is really the Father, and the second is really the Son. This is the first element of the divine mission: the origin in eternity of one person from the other.

God the Son, by the will of God the Father and through the work of the Holy Spirit, has come among us to assume our human nature, to become true man, as he is true God. This is the second element of the divine mission: the mission in time, outside of the divinity.

He has been sent to us by the Father. He has come to us becoming a man for a purpose worthy of God.

The object of this divine mission is “the good”. Even for God there can be no other object but the good.

For us, the object or goal is either a specific good, or the absolute good to be achieved. For the Lord, who is in himself infinite goodness, the object cannot be some good to be achieved but only some good to be communicated.

The purpose of creation, redemption and sanctification, triple-unique divine work of the one, triune God, is the divine good, the divine life to be communicated to the souls. This is the third element of the divine mission.

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In the prayer of the priestly preparation to Holy Communion we say: “Lord Jesus Christ, by the will of the Father, through the work of the Holy Spirit” thus expressing the divine origin of Jesus by another person; “Through your death”, i.e. the mission in time: the incarnation, passion and death of Jesus or the Eucharist as the sacrifice of the New Law;

“You gave life to the world”, i.e. the purpose of the divine mission, to give life to the world, to each individual soul and through them to the world. The Eucharist as the sacrament of life.

We usually consider only the “Lord Jesus Christ”, as the object of the divine mission, and thus instead of honoring him perfectly, we kind of diminish, cut him in half in our knowledge, and consequently in our adoration, as well as in our devotion and imitation, with great loss for our sanctification and for the glorification of the Lord God.

If we consider Jesus in the full, integral concept of his divine mission, we will be sanctified by it and God will be glorified.

Let us contemplate with all our faith, Jesus in his total entirety; let us long with full hope for the complete, total possession of Jesus in his entirety; let us finally embrace with perfect, intense charity the entire Jesus and we will thus be attracted and carried with him to the Father; we will feel and be with him – not so much sons of the Father – but as the only son of the Father! This is the great purpose of the divine mission of the Incarnate Word; this is the mandate that he received from the Father, who sent him.

This introduces us to the Eucharist considered as sacrifice.

Why did the Son of God come to this World? What did he want to accomplish becoming a man like us?

Did he come to us in order to go so soon back to the Father? What would be the purpose worthy of a divine mission?

Coming into the world he has taken a body and soul like ours, but not a human person like ours.

He began by taking a human nature like ours in order to attract to himself, one by one each and every living, human being.

The human nature that he took forms his physical body; the human persons that he attracts to himself form his mystical body and his physical body is a divine reality in different ways.

He has come in order to return to the father, even though not in the same way he had come. He has come as Son of God in order to return to the Father also as Son of Man. He has come as king of heaven of the angels, in order to return to the Father as king of the universe and of men. He has come as Creator of everything, in order to return as Savior of all souls. He has come alone, in order to return to the Father with each and every human being. In all fairness, I may consider the crated world, in which I live, as my garment, since the whole created world is like the vestment for man, the king of creation.

My garment is wherever I am; if I walk garment walks; if I go through dusty roads my garment gets dusty; if I go through mud, my garment gets muddy; if I elevate myself in space, my garment flies all around me and flies with me.

We may consider all souls as Jesus’ garment; garment not adhering externally like clothes to the body; the souls may be considered as Jesus garments – more or less – like the body is the garment of the soul; as the word is the garment of thought, as the rays are the dress of the light.

That is why he has come to attract all souls to himself.

He has come to attract all souls to himself not to bind them to himself through any bond of affection, or in any other bond which is possible among human beings. He wants to unite all souls to himself in a way and an intensity which is possible only to God. He is always the God who reveals and donates himself. Even though he wanted to come down to our level and become like one of us, he continues to reveal himself as infinitely superior to us in his works and in his ways, because he cannot cease being God.

God wants to do things always in a godly manner. He wants to be conceived and born as a man, but always from an ever Virgin Mother. This is God’s way of doing things!

Once again he wants to redeem us and he can do it with a simple act of his will, however, he wants to do it with an infinite effusion of merits, at the cost of his own blood Godly way!

He wants to prepare for us an eternal feast in a perpetual banquet of love, but he really wants us to eat and drink his own flesh and blood. Godly way!

He wants to bequeath to us an eternal, living me           morial of himself, of his life, death, resurrection and ascension, really his whole self. He wants to do it within a mystery of real presence, which is a web of miracles. God’s way!

He wants to attract all souls and unite them to himself in such a way that we become one life; his life! He wants us to become one relationship with him in his person; the relationship of Son of God! He unites himself to the soul in such a mysterious way that it can only be called “incorporation”! God’s way!

Why so much, and so mysterious union? Because he had to give them life! He has found us in a condition of death and perdition, in a condition of slavery to sin and to hell. He had to give us life!

The highest form of life is God’s life, origin and fountain of every other life!

He wanted and could have infused in us so many others levels and forms of superior life – like that of angels- but within a mystery of predilection he wanted to give us his own life. God’s way!

One’s life can only be communicated either by generation or by incorporation! (Here. We are not talking about hypostatic union).

God’s life by generation can only be communicated within the divinity, between the Father and Son.

Outside of the divinity, divine life is communicated by participation. In Jesus, the Incarnate Word, divine life is communicated to us by incorporation. To get a very imperfect image, we could think of the food we eat, which by assimilation becomes part of our life. The food we eat, in the process of assimilation loses its own being in becoming part of our life. If the elements we eat were free and aware of what is going on they would like to retain their inferior level of life, rather than lose their own existence in order to share in a superior level of life. In our incorporation with Jesus, we retain our entire being, all our nature, all our person which is elevated, transfigured, deified in the Lord God, in Jesus Christ.

This is reason why he came. This is the mandate that the father gave to Jesus in sending him to us. Jesus himself says explicitly: “This is the command I have received from my Father” (Jn 10:18)

Jesus was given the command to give us supernatural life, participation in his divine life, union with the divine nature, relationship with the divine persons.

When we talk about life, and divine life, we must necessarily think of the Father, because only the Father is the eternal source of divine life within the Trinity.

In the Father, there  is  that principle of love that brings him to communicate life in its fullness, with the whole sweetness of love. The three divine persons communicate this infusion of divine life in us. The three divine persons act as a unique principle of grace; it remains true, however, that the Father is the first principle and source of divine life. The Father is life itself; he has granted that the Son and Holy Spirit be also life. All divine life proceeds from the Father.

Every thing at all time reveals the Father to us, leads us to the Father and unites us to the Father. Divine life had been communicated to us from the beginning of creation through the elevation to the supernatural level. The fact that we lost it, that w reject it, is the result of our sin, and consequently it is our fault.

Fault of an infinite gravity since it offends the divinity, the Trinity; and if we do not want to loose sight of the distinction of persons, we can say it is an infinite offense against the person who is the source of life, the principle of life, the giver of life: God the Father.

God the Father was infinitely offended by our rejection of his life, because he is God always infinitely eager to communicate life since he is God the Father, eternally in the act of being Father.

It was imperative to remove sin so that this divine life might flow again.

This is the command that the Son received from the Father in his divine mission. The Son has fulfilled it through his sacrifice on the cross.

He has claimed all souls by incorporating them to himself, and the faults of all mankind have taken away his life.

Accepting, wanting, offering his death out of love for the Father in the souls, Jesus has taken away all our sins, every offense against the Father, thus he has re-opened the flow of life tat comes to the souls from the Father. From the Father to the souls through Jesu’s passion and death, in his blood shed in sacrifice.

He has left at our disposal the renewal of this sacrifice; the possibility of offering it whenever we want, in order to apply it to the souls that need life. With the renewal and offering of this sacrifice we wipe away each and every sin committed by men.

All souls incorporated into Jesus through baptism, all souls who – thanks to the theological virtues- form the “holy people, royal priesthood” through the ministry of the priest and in union with the sacred ministers offer the divine Eucharist. The Eucharist is a sacrifice to the divinity considered expressly in God the Father, to the entire Trinity in the first person, the Father.

As it is impossible to think of life and of the communication of life without thinking of the Father author of life and principle of generation, so it is impossible to think of the sacrifice, the Eucharistic sacrifice without thinking of the divinity, of the Father to whom it is offered..

The Eucharist is the sacrifice that- with the death of Jesus- takes away death, due to our sins. It is the sacrifice that cancels the offense against God with the merit of the immolation of the incarnate Word. It is the sacrifice through which we receive once again divine life. The Eucharistic sacrifice necessarily elevates us to the Father, leads us to the Father and unites us with the Father.

Jesus graciously confides to us: “The Father  loves me, because I lay down my life …No one takes it from  me;  I  lay it down of my own free will” (Jn 10:18)  “ I have come so that they may have life and have it  to the full” (Jn 10:10). Adorable words! Adorable confidence!

“The Father loves me, because I lay down my life” sounds as “I would not be worthy of the Father, I would not be fulfilling the will of the Father, I would not satisfy the love of the Father if I were not offering myself in sacrifice for you.” What a splendid revelation of God the Father! He is always in the act of being a Father generating the fullness of life with the whole sweetness of love. St. Ignatius was moved to tears every time that in the celebration of the Mass, opening his arms and lifting his eyes to heaven he invoked: “te igitur clementissime Pater”; because of this Fr. Faber is right when he says that in the  Christian revelation there is no more moving mystery than the mystery of the Trinity!

We are before the Eucharist considered as the sacrament of life. We are full of confidence in Jesus’ proclamation of the mandate received by the Father, in his divine mission.

“The command I received from the father”, the mission “that they may have life and have it to the full”, that the souls may be alive! We are full of confidence and totally interested, because it is a question of the most important affair, and because we start to see the need of our cooperation. “That they may have life”, is to be referred to the first infusion of grace. We were granted this first infusion of grace in baptism, when we were infants, without our personal cooperation.

Whenever we need this first grace as adults, some cooperation – at least in form of convenient preparation – is needed on our part.

“That they may have it to the full”, always more abundantly, expresses the progressive growth of divine life, of grace and charity within our soul that already enjoys supernatural life. This growth is a must, and it depends largely on our positive cooperation; just like in or natural life, as adults we must nourish our daily life, foster its growth and perfect it with works of a human being, in order to live a life that is not routine nor mediocre, but always better in every aspect.

But is it a question of life? Is it the Son of God who is teaching us? Once again every thing is elevating us to the Father, leading us to the Father, uniting us with the Father, source and principle of life, always in the act of transmitting it in the fullness of which we are capable, with whole sweetness of love.

It is Jesus who said: “The Father loves me because I lay down my life… so that they may have life.” After having completed in a bloodless way his supreme sacrifice with the institution of the Eucharist, on eve of his bloody sacrifice on the cross, having raised his eyes to heaven, to the Father he says: “Father the hour has come glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you; so hat, just as you have given him power over all humanity, he may give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him.” (Jn 17:1)

Is this a hint of Jesus kingdom? We can certainly think so! Should we think of the prophetic, messianic psalm “Why this uproar among the nation…?” Oh! Why is the whole world in the ferment of sin, of death, and consequently of corruption and moral decay? All this is manifested in the most foolish rebellion to the Lord. The very same Lord who has said to me: “You are my Son, today I have fathered you” Ps. 2:7) “Today” here means the eternal present. “Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations as your birthright, the whole wide world as your possession. With an iron scepter you will break them, shatter them like so many pots. Yet, this fiery, scary psalm ends with a loving exhortation: “So now, you kings, come to your senses, you earthly rulers, learn your lesson! In fear be submissive to Yahweh; with trembling kiss his feet.” (Ps. 2:8-9) Embrace the Son of God! Kiss this divine Son! Spare yourselves and be pardoned!

In Jesus’ words, however, the kingdom received from the Father, the power of the Son of man is exercised in a different manner.

He has absolute power of life and death; but he exercises it only as power of life! Jesus says: “You have given him power over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him“. In theses words Jesus talks only of life with clemency and tenderness of love.

What has happened in the time that passed between the tremendous Psalm 2 threatens justice and sanctions of death against the rebels, and the priestly prayer of Jesus that announces life for all? The offering of Jesus’ sacrifice, already completed in its bloodless form, and just starting in its bloody form, in the bleeding Heart of Jesus.

This sacrifice marks the passing from the Old to the New Testament as the divine love of the Father and of the Son triumphs with his life over the immense evil of mankind’s death.

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Trying to focus the attention and increase the interest of the soul who seeks life, and an ever superior life, Jesus adds: “Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”, (Jn 17:3) and we like to add: “And the One whom you, Father with the Son have sent: the Holy Spirit!”

Eternal life that comes from the Father, through the Son, is this then: the knowledge of the divinity, the knowledge of the Trinity in the divinity, and more specifically so in the Father.

Evidently Jesus is not talking only about knowledge, limited to the intellect. Since it is the Lord Jesus who is talking, and as in his person there is every perfection, so in his teaching he talks of things in their outmost perfection. Here, then Jesus talks about the perfect knowledge of the Father.

Perfect knowledge is only that, which after having filled the intellect with the splendor of the truth, fills our will with the ardor of charity in order to impregnate our entire life with the fervor of holiness. This is perfect knowledge. This is the knowledge ln which consists eternal life.

As life comes to us from the Father through the Son, so the knowledge, which is the seed of life, comes to us directly from the Son.

“It is God who said: ‘let light shine out of darkness,’ that has shone into our hearts to enlighten them with the knowledge of God’s glory, the glory on the face of Christ.” (2Cor 4:6) Thus we have the supreme revelation of the Father: Jesus Christ.

We can reach this conclusion with our own reasoning. Who makes us aware of our own selves? When do we begin to have a consciousness of our existence? When do we begin to have a consciousness of our thoughts? “Corgito ego sum” (I think therefore, I exist.) The consciousness of my thought reveals myself to me.)

And, when do I reveal myself to others? When my thought, translated into words, is manifested to them.

What happens in us, what is good, true beautiful in us, happens and it is true, first and foremost, in its highest level, in the one of whom we are an image and likeness.

It follows that even in the divinity, the revelation of God himself is his thought and his Word; the revelation of God the Father is God the Son, and the revelation of God the Father to us is in the Incarnate Son.

This explains why when Philip  exclaim to Jesus: “ Lord show us the Father and then we shall be satisfied”, Jesus says: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”. (Jn14:8-9) He who sees me sees the Father!

We can easily and correctly see in these divine words an imperative: “He who sees me must elevate himself to the Father; he who comes to me, must unite himself to the Father, otherwise he does not really know me, he does not understand me, he does not possess me”.

We can and must attribute to these words an exclusive value, because Jesus himself said: “No one can come to the Father except through me”(Jn 14:7). This is to be understood that no one can go to the Father through a simple, human knowledge, and much less through perfect knowledge, except through the Son. As a matter of fact: “No one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Lk 10:22).

Jesus reveals the Father to those to whom he chooses to reveal him, and he does this with his being and his actions. Every word and action of Jesus, every act, state and mystery of Jesus is a revelation of the Father.

Since Jesus is the supreme revelation of Father, and the Eucharist is the supreme revelation of Jesus, it follows that – in the vision of faith – the Eucharist is the supreme revelation of the Father. Consequently the Eucharist is the sacrament of life in the sense that in it we reach the perfect knowledge of the Father.

Likewise, the Eucharist is the perfect knowledge of the Father in the sense that in it we receive life, and the increase of life. This giving, infusing and increasing life is the Father in action; that adorable act that generates the fullness of life with infinite sweetness of love.

The Eucharist is the sacrament of life also in the sense that in it we receive the nourishment of life and growth of life; the bread of life for the long journey of our accessional return to heaven, to the Father; the flesh and blood of the Son of God.

Practically, this second sense is even more important than the first. Even in this sense the Eucharist reveals the Father to us, elevates us to the Father and unites us to the Father. Who can decide what the Son should do but the Father? Who can send him to us except the Father? Who can give him to us if not the Father? As Jesus himself emphatically proclaims: “In all truth I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread, for the bread of God, is the bread which comes down from heaven and gives life to the World.” (Jn 6:32-33)

We love to contemplate these brightening words! When we go to receive the Eucharist, we know that we are receiving Jesus from the Father himself! Receiving Jesus, we cannot think of the Father of the Son of God without also thinking of the mother of the Son of God, who became man! From the mother of God, from God the Father, we receive Jesus.

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Jesus can receive a worthy welcome only from his Father!  As from the cross, I seem to hear from the host the voice: “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46), this explains why to state of grace is needed to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. There must be grace in the soul, that is, the Father, must be in the soul to receive his Son!

Grace transforms the soul into God’s heaven. In this heaven, grace builds a royal palace. In this royal palace, grace erects a throne. On this throne seats God the Father and he attends his Son, as from Calvary at the time of the supreme sacrifice, or as on the morning of the Ascension!

The Eucharist is the supreme act of adoration to the Trinity, and Holy Communion is the supreme act of adoration to the Trinity indwelling in our soul.

I, poor human being, cannot receive Jesus, if the Father is not in me to welcome him in the bosom of his divine complacence.

I, as a priest, cannot give Jesus to just anybody who comes by; I need to think not only of the Guardian Angel, at the side of the communicant, but also of the Father, present and living in the act of welcoming the Son in the soul of the communicant.

Welcoming Jesus, his Son by nature, and the Father welcomes us too, since we are incorporated into him, and - through grace - have become sons of God, because the Father wanted us as his children. And the Father introduces us in the innermost part of our being and in the most intimate essence of his being.

There we find the banquet hall that the Father has prepared for the Son, and there takes place the celebration of the wedding feast of the soul with the Blessed Trinity in Jesus Christ. There, as in the mystic nuptial bed, the soul receives the fecundity of holy deeds for the kingdom of God. There the soul has the experience of how true it is that spiritual sweetness deriving from the Eucharist, as its spring, because only with and through the Eucharist, we reach the bosom of the Father.

Oh! How important it is that every priestly soul renews itself completely in the resolution, or vow, to ever more contemplate for himself, and make known to the souls these Eucharistic-Trinitarian truths, which are springs of immense good for us, and of great glory for the Lord.

It is very important that every faithful, while approaching the altar, while participating in the divine sacrifice, while receiving the Blessed Sacrament,  be united to the divine complacence of the Father for the Son, as at Jordan River, as on Mount Tabor, since no other thought or feeling can please Jesus more than this.

“This is my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on him. Listen to him” (Mt 3:17 & 17:5).

Finding his favor in Jesus, listening to and receiving the Son of God, the communicant should unite himself to Jesus in his ascension to the Father and in the intention of his Sacred Heart: “ I do not seek my own glory, but the glory of him who sent me” (Jn 8:50).

The communicant should unite himself to the divine disposition of the Sacred Heart, who says: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me. And to complete his work” (Jn 4:34).

Thus, day after day we will see in our life the fulfillment of the divine work, which is the formation of every elect according to Jesus, the formation of Jesus in every elect, the realization of the ascension of every elect with Jesus to the Father, to the glory of the same Father.

Part II

THE EUCHARIST AND GOD THE SON.

 The Eucharist is the mystery of faith ‘Misterium Fidei”. This mystery requires our most complete profession of faith not only in the incarnation of the Word, in his passion and death for us, in his resurrection and ascension into heaven, in his real presence in our midst, but also in the first and greatest mystery of the divinity: the unity and Trinity of God.

According to the revelation, and within the infallible teaching of the Catholic Church, our faith requires that “ut unum Deum in Trinitate et Trinitatem in Unitate veneremur, neque confundentes Personas, neque substantiam separantes (that we venerate the unity of God in the Trinity, and the Trinity in the unity, without confusing the Persons and without separating the substance”).

This faith is the basis, the foundation, the root of justification as well as of our entire religion and of our life of relationship with the Lord.

Consequently our faith must be manifested in every external expression of adoration and in every form and level of prayer, according to the axiom: “Lex credendi legem statuit supplicandi”, i.e. the norm of faith dictates the norm of prayer.

In our liturgy and in our prayer we must express not only the unity of God as far as nature is concerned, but also the Trinity of God as persons. We like to say “always the Trinity in the unity and the unity in the Trinity”. As human beings, when we talk, when we listen, when we offer or give, when we ask and when we receive, we direct ourselves always to the person and not to the nature of the individual we deal with, to the person in that nature, but always to the person.

Whenever and wherever the divinity works something “ad extra” in his creatures, the divine wok is unique; there is one divine nature, not withstanding the fact that the three divine persons are at work, since they work as God –in nature- they are one; but even there, as always one cannot ignore the distinction of persons, even though they are working as one single principle. If it were not so, the theological terminology attributing divine perfections and operations to the distinct divine persons, would make no sense.

The foundation of this correct terminology of appropriation of divine perfections and operations is ultimately found in reasons of divine convenience, corresponding to the distinction of the divine persons.

To the divinity, considered in its unity we offer our homage of adoration, thanksgiving and reparation, especially through the sacrifice, which is the supreme act of adoration. In our case the sacrifice is no other than the sacrifice of Jesus Crucified and Jesus Eucharist.

We are united with the divinity, considered in its unity, through our consortium, participation in the unique divine nature.

.The distinction of the divine persons must be evident both in the liturgy and in our union, in the sense that in the practice of our devotion, there must be some religious acts more appropriate for the Father, some for the Son and some for the Holy Spirit.

Divine union, through grace which is participation of nature, must be personal. Because the human being is a person and three divine persons are the divinity. We say that this divine union must be realized in a distinct manner with each divine person. We live divine union and we cultivate it in a different way with each one of the divine person. The way we relate to one divine person is distinct, somehow different, but not totally different from the way we relate to the other divine persons.

It is not easy, nor proper, for us to suggest the way we should relate with God in our religious practice, whether to let prevail the concept of unity - always keeping in mind that in the unity there is the Trinity of persons-, or let prevail the concept of trinity – always keeping in mind that in the trinity of person we see and worship the unity of nature.

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It seems that the more we actually keep in mind the unity and the trinity, as a unique mystery, the more perfect would be our religious practice.

Our Liturgy, our relationship with God is a deep expression of the human and divine personality. Considering that the nature of a human being is successive, and  reflecting on how for a particular soul, specific things are always of greater efficiency than the general ones, we are inclined to give a spiritual preference to the trinity in the unity, rather than to the unity in the trinity. At the beginning of its spiritual journey the soul practically tends to direct itself to the Lord God in its unity, because at this stage it is moved by the spirit of fear and by the law of duty, and does not invest all possible spiritual interest in its spiritual practice; religion does not yet impregnate, shape and direct all its interior life and its external activity.

As the soul progress through spiritual ascensions and becomes more filled with the spirit of love, it invites all possible spiritual interest in the relationship with God; it places all its being in the divine union and all its activities in the divine apostolate. The soul then lives, feels its own personal relationship with each of the distinct, divine relationships, which are the three divine persons. From experience we know that this focusing of the personal relationship with the three divine persons opens new horizons for the soul, and elevates it to new ascension heights; it becomes like a personal divine epiphany for the soul. This happens when the individual starts to really understand and experience that in a very exclusive and personal manner, God is father, God is Son, and God is Holy Spirit!

The souls usually receive this epiphany through the Eucharist; in God, it is the Word, the one who reveals! Of anybody else we say: “Non erat ille lux” (He was not the light), but a sign, and hint of light.

We focus on Jesus considering him as the Savior that he really is, this, however, is only one aspect of his work. If we consider Jesus in all his work, and his divine person in both natures, he stands out more as the one who reveals, both in the divinity and in the humanity.

The Eucharist is the summary, the epilogue, the synthesis of the divine revelations of the truth, and of all divine effusions of love.

The Eucharist provides for us the special, unique homage, sacrifice and adoration that we must establish and develop ever more with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In the divine Eucharist we have the maximum of everything! The maximum of the divine presence with us, “Non est. alia nation quae habeat deos approprinquantes sibi sicut Deus noster adest nobis” (Indeed no other great nation has its gods as near as Yahweh our God is to us- Dt 4:7). St. Thomas appropriately applies this biblical text to the Eucharist, in both the liturgy of the hours and in the Mass for the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.

Mankind, in and through the holy Catholic Church, the only true religion, offers the greatest adoration to the divinity in the Eucharist, as the eternal sacrifice of God-Man.

In the Eucharist as sacrament, we have the greatest of God’s gifts and the highest possible level of intimacy of the divine love for us.

In the Eucharist, we have the best and greatest opportunity to understand and practice divine union with the divinity, and the distinct (not totally different) way to nurture it with each divine person.

In the Eucharist everything elevates us, re-connects us and unites us to the Father, because the Eucharist is God the Son in the supreme revelation and communication of the Father.

The divine distinction of the first person in the divinity is made possible only and exclusively by the eternal generation of the Son. Everything else is so perfectly the same among the three divine person, that it is the same thing.

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As we elevate ourselves to the Father, we cannot consider him in any other aspect but that of his divine paternity, in the act of his eternal generation. We cannot but ask him for the gift of life; we cannot connect ourselves to him in any other way but accepting life from him.

With infinite sweetness the Father gives divine life in all its fullness to the Son by nature, and then in time to the souls, proportionately and by grace.

The Father in the divinity is the principle that gives; he gives eternally without ever receiving from anybody; he gives all himself; he gives all his life to his eternal only begotten Son by nature, and then he gives it to so many people, but in them he sees the image of his only begotten Son; on account of his love for his only begotten Son the Father is Father for all souls. Through Jesus, exemplary cause of everything, the Father calls each soul from nothingness into being. Likewise, for Jesus’ glory, the Father created us in image and likeness.

So, we elevate ourselves to the Father, we unite ourselves with the Father in everything that has to do with life, or is needed for the development and realization of life at its various stage and levels. Everything that pertains to life, and to supernatural life is participation in the divine life.

We cannot give anything to the Father that would add to his being, to his happiness. We can only present to him this ability to receive, our willingness to receive, our hunger and thirst for life. We can only present to the Father our unlimited and connatural disposition to expand and grow in supernatural life, as he himself wanted us and created us.

Even when we have the impression that we are giving something to the Father, in reality we are receiving. In what we seem to offer, we are only presenting to the Father an empty container, in order to receive new graces of life. This eternal receiving on our part becomes eminently true in the same Eucharistic sacrifice which we offer to the Father as the supreme expression of our adoration. As matter of fact, this divine victim is given to us by the Father, and we offer it in order to receive ever greater effusions of divine life in us and in all souls; all these effusions are proportioned to the intensity of our participation in the sacrifice and of our communion with the divine victim.

The divine Eucharist, as sacrifice, in which we offer Jesus in lieu of our ownselves, represents every soul and all mankind in the act of opening up through his death the boundaries of our limitations, in order to more and more receive the divine good of the glory, love and will of the Father.

All our internal, religious acts, if we were to keep in mind the distinction of persons in the divinity, if we ere to direct them explicitly to the Father as Father, consist in asking and receiving for us and for others, perpetual petition for us, intercession for others.

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This life that the Father gives to us ever more abundantly, is given to us not only because he is God the Father, but precisely because he is the Father of the Son, of that Son, in the sense that in giving us his life he wants us to be as many living, personal images of himself for the Son.

So the Father directs us to the Son, as the object of every complacence, of every sweetness, of all attentions, of all attractions of our being in love.

We want to see all that our life must be in relation to the Father in Jesus’ words: “Ascendo ad Patrem meum et Patrem vestrum, Deum meum et Deum vestrum- I ascend to my Father and your father, to my God and your God” (Jn 20:17). Likewise we want to see all that our life must be in relation to the Son in these divine words: “Filius datus est nobis, puer natus est nobis- a son has been born for us, a Son has been given to us” (Is 9:6)

Behold, the Epiphany of the Son, to which we are led by the star of the Father, by the angel of the Father. Here we are facing a marvelous spiritual novelty, in a Spiritual world that is already full of wonder: “A Son has been born for us, a Son has been given to us.”

 We should not restrict the meaning of these words as if they were addressed to humankind only in a generic sense or to humankind only as far as it is represented in the Blessed Mother. It seems that in order to prevent such a restrictive interpretation, responding to the question of the person who tells him “Your mother is here looking for you” Jesus adds: “who is my mother?” And stretching out his hand towards the disciples he said: “Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is …my mother” (Mt 12:39-40)

Concerning our Lord Jesus Christ we must distinguish between the object of public worship and private worship; concerning the functions and missions of Jesus, we must distinguish between those which derive from his own Person and those which he does in lieu of the Father.

Only thus can we really understand the special adoration due him, and the special relationship that we have with him, as well as the religious, personal acts through which we can live and practice such a relationship.

In the Eucharist, because of the divine presence, we may contemplate the glorious array of Man-God; we may contemplate it behind the veil of the sacred species, a real web of wonders; as we can contemplate it behind the veil of the precious Blood shed for us on the cross, so now we can contemplate it as eternal fountain of rivers of light springing forth from the sacred wounds.

This glorious array of the Man-God is formed by his supreme functions corresponding to his supreme dignity as savior, teacher, king, priest, judge, attributions to which he is entitled for so many reasons.

Each and every one of these various aspects of the glory of the Lord is a legitimate foundation to his cult, and it is the object of a special relationship of the soul with the Man-God. Each and every one of these attributions can be related to the souls, and can be object of prayer to the Lord. Each and everyone of this attribution are like the spring of a particular spirituality; many of these aspects or functions as a matter of fact do give life to large religious congregations, who consecrate themselves to glorify the Lord in that light. Each and every one of these titles may give origin and growth to great devotions that blossom around to adorable humanity of Jesus-God-with us.

We do not find in any of these titles the supreme object of our relationship with the incarnate Word. We do not find in any of them those intimate, personal, religious acts with which we can live and cultivate our intimate, personal relationship with Jesus, because while each and everyone of these titles expresses a certain dignity, function and glory of Jesus, none of them is the essence of Jesus personality, from which all the other titles derive.

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Jesus is judge of men and angels, of the living and of the dead. Every moment his tribunal is crowded with the many souls, which moment after moment, pass fro this earth to eternity, as the harvest that the earth produces for heaven.

Jesus exercises this function as judge in the name of the Father. The Father has removed from himself any act that might cause fear in the souls; any act that is not fullness of Fatherhood and sweetness of Fatherhood. As the Father gives life to the Son, so he communicates to him all divine powers.

While on one side the assigning of places in heaven is reserved to the Father, on the other Jesus says: “The Father judges no one; has entrusted all judgment to the Son” (Jn 5:22). So while Jesus is the judge, he is always judging in the name of the Father.

 His sentences sound like this: “Come, blessed by my Father… Go away,  you cursed by my Father.” (Mt 25:33, 41)

Today or tomorrow the Holy Spirit may inspire some one to be apostle of a devotion to Jesus-Judge, supreme judge, judge of last appeal for angels and men, for the living and the dead. Such devotion would be a very effective refrain to our human passions and a stop to neo-paganism with the repressive and preventive power of the eternal sanctions. This inspired apostle of the devotion to Jesus-Judge could not neglect in any way, in the doctrinal and devotional part, the idea of the Father whose place Jesus exercises in his dignity and function as judge.

It is not under this aspect, we were saying, that we find per se, directly ad essentially Jesus, the incarnate Word, and it is not under this aspect that the Eucharist gives us Jesus, our Lord.

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Jesus Christ is the great and only teacher of truth for all men. This dignity of teacher and this teaching role appears to derive directly from  his person; it is intimately connected with his person.

He is the eternal Word of the Father! Teaching is an activity proper of the Son. Jesus proclaims himself as teacher.

With the same solemnity and jealousy exclusively with which he proclaims the universal fatherhood of the Father, he asserts his supreme and universal magisterium.

“You must call no one on earth your Father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven.” (Mt 23:10) St. Paul adds that  from him comes every other paternity on earth.

Likewise you “must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one Master.” Your one and only teacher is Jesus the Lord. In the great theophanies at the Jordan and on Tabor, the Father reveals the Son to us as such when he says; “ipsum audite” listen to him becoming his disciples, because he is your teacher.

With this, are we in the presence of the essential dignity and function of the incarnate Word and of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament? Here is how he proclaims it: “One is your teacher, Christ”; likewise of his teaching he says: “Mea doctrina non est mea, sed eius qui misit me Patris.” The word that you hear is not my own: it is the word of the Father who sent me. (Jn 14:24)

As the teacher that he is and proclaims himself to be, he does not want us to stop at him, because even his teaching is a revelation and communication of his Father. Jesus is the teacher, precisely because he is the divine Word. He is the Word of the Father!

The teaching function in Jesus is universal in the sense that it directly affects all masses, every age, all human beings of every level or condition, and indirectly each individual.

As the particular teacher that we need, as interior director of our spiritual life he refers us and sends to us the Holy Spirit. “Ille vos docebit omnia, et suggeret vobis omnia quacumque dixero vobis” (The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you. (Jn 14:26)

He will apply all my principles and criteria to your individual cases. He will suggest to you, moment by moment, what my teaching is and how to apply it specifically to the circumstances of time or events of your every day life.

We would love to know the Jesus of the individual, more than the Jesus of the Masses; Jesus as an intimate friend, more than Jesus as a public figure; the Jesus of Bethany or of Nazareth, more than the Jesus of the triumph entry into Jerusalem; Jesus as he was for Mary of Magdala, for Mary of Nazareth, more than what he was with the excited or cursing crowds;  the crowds that were crying “Hosannas” or “Crucify him”!

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Behold, Jesus the good shepherd, who goes out in search of the lost sheep, who gives his life to snatch tem from the grasp the death, who nourishes them with his flesh and blood. The good shepherd and Savior!

Did we finally arrive at the real Jesus? Is Jesus truly the Father of the prodigal son, who is waiting for the ungrateful son, and when he sees him coming back offers him such a great honor, and with so much love? Behold, this is the truth.

The lost sheep, the prodigal son, the invited guests to the banquet, to which they refuse to participate, the workers in the vineyard who refuse to give the produce of the land to the king, they all symbolize the sinner, mankind in different turmoil, in its various levels of guilt, in the various dispositions of indifference or apathy, of hidden hostility or open rebellion toward the Lord God, our Father.

In every case and circumstance the Lord God sends his messengers to call, to invite to conversion, to save, in order to unite to him all his children. After having sent many ambassadors, he finally sends his Son.

We have to see the Son of the Father in all our missions, both the ones that end up in tragic failure and the ones that are crowned with a happy ending.

To the rebellious tenants in the vineyard at last he sends his son. The Father expects them to respect his Son even though they have been harsh, or even abused the messengers. “Verebuntur filium meum.” They will respect my Son!

Sadly enough we know how those ungrateful, greedy tenants respected his Son; still how miserable, ungodly people treat him today! They killed him.

At the side of the prodigal Son, in the determining moment of his conversion, when he starts his return to the Father, we must feel and see the invisible presence of the Son, who manifests himself in the words: “Surgam et ibo ad Patrem meum” – I will leave this place and go to my Father- (Lk 15:18)

Only the spirit of the Son can inspire such humility and such a confidence; only the spirit of the Son can rekindle that flame in order to console the Father! Certainly we will not see the image, nor feel the presence of Jesus at the side of the older son, who while always obedient has so little understanding for the heart of his Father, trying to make him feel the burden of his paternity and embitter his victorious sense of fatherhood.

In the good shepherd and in the father of the prodigal son, we see the fusion of a unique symbol of the goodness and work of the Father and of the Son. It is clear however, that Jesus always makes the point of elevating us to the Father; even while talking about his sheep, he stresses the fact and affirms that he has received them from the Father. The Father loves the Son because he shepherds them not like a mercenary, but as a true Son, to the point of giving his life for them.

We have not yet reach Jesus, in what he is, in what he has that makes that he is, most distinctly and exclusively himself.

When will we finally arrive at him? Since ultimately Jesus is one God with the Father, he is also the first principle and the ultimate goal of the spiritual ascension of the soul, of the journey of our life. We come to Christ the King! Here we have some magnificent modern, liturgical and apostolic forms of devotion. At the outset we say that they are social forms. They concern the kingdom of heaven n earth, the kingdom of the Lord God, and so all people, all social relationships, all the expressions of life.

Again, we seek first and foremost the Jesus of the individual, the Jesus in the intimacy of our hearts, the Jesus of our supernatural family.

Every king, while remaining always king does not live or exhibit his royal dignity and function in the intimacy of his family, but only with friend of his heart, with his own mother.

If we wish to allow private, personal forms of devotion in Jesus’ kingdom, we say that Jesus even as a King elevates us to the Father, he leads us to the Father, and he shows us the Father. The human heart is never as free as when it is animated by the true spirit of prayer, which is ultimately the Holy Spirit in the act of spreading his gifts, fruits and beatitudes.

“I am king and I could ask and immediately have twelve legions of angels from my Father! He is the one who told me ask and I will give you all the nations as your possession. It is the Father who has made me king in Zion”.

The Father has sent him to conquer again the kingdom which had been invaded  by  the enemy. At the end of time, Jesus will return the kingdom of the elects to the Father; the kingdom which has been conquered by Jesus with his blood, has been made prosperous and worthy of the Father.

The soul, who in its private devotion, would like to cultivate this relationship with Jesus King, would get closer to the heart of Jesus, considering, honoring and calling him its King.

We are now in the presence of Jesus in his supreme function as head of mankind, founder of the Holy Church. The type of the eternal priesthood. In this dignity and function are contained and worthily crowned all other dignities and functions; while all other dignities and functions are mostly related to men, this one leads directly to the divinity, to the Trinity in its principle, the Father!

The priesthood of Jesus expresses better than anything else the dignity and function of Jesus as the only mediator between the Father and the souls. The priesthood is the essence of divine mediation in its specific and highest acts of sacrifice and communion. It is sacrifice to God, one of the two ends to be connected, and communion to man, the other end.

We are already saying that Jesus as priest and victim represents the whole world, socially and individually; more directly and more properly he is priest and victim for the collective community. As priest and victim, more so than in any other of his dignities or functions, he elevates us to the Father, and it couldn’t be otherwise, because regardless of the way we look at him, or the light in which we consider him, he is always the Son, and consequently by nature he is always the one who reveals the Father to the souls, and leads the souls to the Father.

Everything in Jesus is equal to the Father, because he is one God with the Father! But everything in him is for the Father, because he is God the Son.

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 We see all the attributes of the divinity as being dependent, emanating and rooted in the fact that God is the only independent, uncreated, self sufficient being: “I am who I am”; likewise we see all the attributes, functions, dignities and glory of Jesus deriving and rooted in his being “God the Son”.

Son of God by essence, both in the divine and human nature. The Son of God is the Son of Man. Puer natus est nobis, Filius datus est nobis.” Only in his “being the Son”, Jesus is most distinctly and most clearly himself. As Son, Jesus is the object of our particular relationship; To Jesus, as the Son, are directed all our religious acts so that he may be for us what he is for the Father, and for Mother-Mary, and we may be for him a living and personal image of the Father, and of Mother Mary, because it is always true that “A Son has been born for us, a child has been given to us”. All this is true especially in the Eucharist, the God with us, the God for us, our Jesus Christ!

Jesus is certainly our savior and teacher, our king, judge and priest, our all; but above all and in everything he is the Son of God.

Our relationship with Jesus is not complete, is not perfect if we do not go beyond our being redeemed, disciples, subjects, ministers, friends and brothers, until we become his “mother”!

Oh! How many Christmas nights have gone by, oh, how many times the mystery of the incarnation has been renewed and taken place in our little world and under our own eyes, and, Oh! How many times as priests we have given a new being or presence to Jesus in the Eucharist and in the souls, without forming in us, without having the heart and the life of the mother pounding within us!

We have seen him, we have contemplated and glorified him in his dignity and function of teacher and king, judge, savior and priest, but we did not love him as being totally, exclusively, personally ours.

He has been shining before us, in the sky of our faith, as the Son of God, the God with the Father in the union of the Holy Spirit, but he is not yet for us the Son of Man, of that humanity that we share, of that man that is us!

And so before the manger and the cross our being has remained mute; his glories and triumphs have filled us with joy only at the surface, his suffering and his joys have only brushed us, they did not cause in us those profound repercussions of an unlimited love such as a mother’s love.

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On our own we could have taken the initiative, the idea to understand him. Oh! How legitimate is the process from us to God and especially from us to God the Son! Because we are not just any effect of the First Cause (and it is always not only proper, but a must to go from the effect to cause), we are his personal, living image. The personal, living image enables us to know and understand the one who is represented b the image, much more so than the effect can enable us to know the cause.

We come into being as sons, not as fathers, nor as spouses, but uniquely, exclusively as sons. Essentially, we are as he was in his human nature. Even as adults when we develop other relationships, in the depth of our being we are always “sons”.

We need a mother; we want to find a mother in our superiors, in our sisters, in our friends; we come to expect some kind of motherly love also from those who depend upon us or from us. From ourselves we want some kind of mother, some motherly qualities in the servant, in the disciple, in or dependants. Everywhere and at all times we want to be treated with motherly care and love.

More than each and every one of the children of men, Jesus is the Son of Man, because even in his divine nature he is the Son, the Son of God!

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It is not enough that Jesus be in himself the Son both in the divine and human nature, to give us the right to feel authorized to cultivate toward him this relationship of Spiritual motherhood. It is needed that somehow he may consider himself and, in some supernatural reality, be our Son. Otherwise our internal religious acts corresponding to that relationship and status could not be natural and spontaneous.

We are all born only as children. Later on one may become father or mother, when we voluntarily embrace another relationship, thus originating that relationship.

By nature we are inclined or made capable of becoming father or mother; but this is not a necessity of nature for the individual, and therefore becoming father or mother remains a free election on the part of the individual. The same happens in the supernatural world.

We are all pre-disposed and empowered to become mother of the one who is the Son of all mankind, and wants to be the child of every soul to whom, by grace, is given a share in divine nature; he wants to be the Son of every soul, who is the image and likeness of his Father.

We ought to freely and willingly want to initiate and cultivate that relationship with Jesus, which is image and likeness of the relationship that he has with God the Father and the Virgin Mother. In order for this relationship to be real, something must happen through which we give a new existence to Jesus, so that he, who is the Son of God and the Son of Man, begins to be our Son.

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In the great sphere, in the immense skies of God’s grace, we are allowed to call ourselves and really be sons of God. (We are children of God, especially in relation to the Father). We are also granted the privileged of being called mothers of God the Son from the very mouth of Jesus; if Jesus calls us his mother, somehow, in a spiritual reality, we must be able to be such. “Whoever does the will of my Father, this is my mother”, proclaims Jesus! He makes such a proclamation comparing it or contrasting it to the very divine motherhood of the Virgin Mary.

“Your mother is here, looking for you!” My Mother? He says, certainly not ignoring nor denying his beloved Virgin Mother! My Mother? Who is my Mother? Who can exercise this function of mother toward me? Certainly the one who has exercised this function of Mother, giving me life! First and foremost the Virgin Mother, and then, behold, a new spiritual reality;“He who does the will of my Father is my mother.”

He establishes the following progression: he who does the will of my Father is friend, brother and mother! He who does the will of my Father, means he who unites himself with the Father.

He who is at the first stage of union with my Father is my friend; he who unites himself at a more advanced stage is my brother; he who united himself perfectly (as far as it is possible on earth) with my Father becomes my mother.

It is easily understood that through grace we become friends of Jesus, since grace is inseparable from charity and charity is essentially a relationship of friendship. It is likewise well understood that through grace we become brothers of Jesus, because grace is for the soul participation in the divine nature that the Father gives to the Son through generation; so by grace we are brothers of the one who is by nature Son of God the Father.

But, how can one become his mother?

To unite ourselves perfectly to the Father means to be united to him in his status and nature of Father to the Son, and through grace being made capable of somehow giving a new existence to the Son.

“Labor est ante me, donec intrem in sanctuarium Dei” (Ps 73:17) (How difficult it is for me, until I enter in the sanctuary of God). I am facing a grace difficulty. This difficulty will be solved for me once I enter in the sanctuary of God.

Before the tabernacle, before the Eucharist, are solved all the theoretical and practical difficulties for the soul who truly enters into sanctuary, for the soul who truly gets into the tabernacle, in Jesus himself! Because Jesus, and Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, is always the supreme revelation of the Lord God Trinity.

In the Eucharist, man is elevated to the priesthood and gives a new existence to Jesus, the sacramental presence!

He is not simply the minister of the kingdom of God. He is not only the mediator between heaven and earth. He is much more, much more than the angels, much more than St. Joseph, the Vice Roy. He is very close to the Virgin Mary and to the eternal Father, precisely in their relationship of fatherhood and motherhood.

We are not sure; we are unable to determine whether this giving a new, sacramental existence to Jesus comes closer to the act of creating or to the act of generating. It is a fact that through consecration, the church, the Christian people, those who participate in the divine sacrifice, but most of all the celebrant can  somehow and with truthfulness say to Jesus with the Father and with the Virgin Mary: “Filius meus est tu, ego hodie genui te”. “Filius meus est tu!” (Heb 1:5) (You are my son, today I fathered you.)

He can say to his consecrated host: “Filius meus est tu, ego hodie genui te”. With my word of sacramental consecration, like eternal word of the intellectual generation, in the divinity of God the Father, “Today, I have fathered you”.

Oh! How important it is for all faithful to cultivate their participation in the priesthood of Jesus, which we all receive in baptism, and that special, direct union to his sacrifice in order to have a greater part and exercise this supreme, most sweet relationship with the divine Son, Jesus Christ!

Behold the “Son who has been born to us, the child that has been given to us!” Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.

How wonderful it is to see how the altar recalls Bethlehem, the house of bread, and the tabernacle recalls the manger all the time (even when his house of God, as kept in some places where there is little faith, may evoke the image of the stable and the night!)

How rightly so the preface of the Eucharist is  the same as the one for Christmas! Behold our child! He needs everything; he is entrusted to us for all his needs! God the Father and the Virgin Mary have entrusted him to us completely. We cannot leave him alone or treat him badly!

Wherever the altar is not surrounded by motherly hearts, Jesus is simply abandoned, left alone, a little victim.

Only the Mother, and the pious women, who are a reflection of the mother, and that young, affectionate disciple, John, who loves Jesus like his mother, is at foot of the cross! The same happens around the altar.

Others will take care of so many other things concerning the liturgy and the house of the Lord to obtain some many supernatural effects.

Only the heart, which is simultaneously virgin and mother (and through the grace of the Holy Spirit even a poor sinner can become such) can be passionately in love and do all that Jesus personally needs, in order to cover him with infinite sweetness, lavish upon him all tenderness of love, and surround him with an eternal court of glory, a family of loving hearts, and bring to him endless scores of souls who dedicate themselves to perpetual adoration, daily communion with a spiritual program that is totally eucharistic.

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So that every fervent faithful, every chosen of the Lord may ever more enter into that motherly relationship, exercise that motherly function, even outside of the priesthood.

“For even though you might have ten thousand slaves to look after you in Christ, you still have no more than one father, and it was I who fathered you in Christ Jesus by the gospel.” (1 Cor 4:15). But wow! Did not Jesus say: “Do not call anyone your Father?”

The imperative and the prohibition of the Lord are still valid, because the Father is only one; but the ones who unite themselves to the Father become one Father with him toward the souls. Oh! Does the same happen toward Jesus? St. Paul seems to say: Through the Gospel, I preached to you, I have generated you; I have generated you to supernatural life, I have given you a new existence that is why I am your Father.

In the supernatural life the soul acquires a new existence in God; or is it God, and in our case, God-Jesus, who acquires a new existence in the soul? In reality, they are both true!

Reflecting more and more on this, we can understand that in the supernatural world; Christ lives in us more than we live in Him; the same Apostle Paul says it: “Vivo iam non ego, vivit vero in me Christus- I am alive, yet it is no longer I, but Christ living in me” (Gal 2:20).

If I can say to the souls I have evangelized: “Per evangelium ego vos genui- I fathered you by the gospel” (1 Cor 4:15); much more I can say to Jesus: “Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te- you are my son, today I have fathered you (in this or that soul”)

To the voice that comes from one among the crowd and that proclaims: “Blessed the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you” (Lk 11:27), Jesus answers: “more blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk 11:28), because by listening to him we welcome him as a Son, and caring for him we nurture him as a Son in a function and a reality like that of the Virgin Mother.

Even more blessed are those, who after having welcomed me, become for him father and mother in the hearts of people, through that form of generation, that is the preaching (as St. Bede explains so well in his homily on this passage.)

Jesus wants to live in each and every soul! This happens every time that someone accepting the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tries to give to Jesus this new, individual existence, this new life in a soul. Oh! What a most glorious, most blessed opportunity is offered by grace to the souls in the world of their particular relationship with the Lord!

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So we can never separate the banquet of the Eucharist from the banquet of the Word; in both of them is present the same Jesus, in differing form, but the same Word of God.

Both in the banquet of the Eucharist and of the Word of God we can receive him and at the same time communicate him to others; again, the same Word in different forms.

Not only the most perfect souls, the most mature in the spiritual order, but each and every soul can long for, aim at establishing this relationship, exercising this function of mother toward Jesus; everyone can be the servant who- when the banquet is ready- will go time and again, insist and pressure all he finds to come the divine Eucharist. We can always find people that know less than we do about the faith; we can always find people who practice God’s love a little less than we do, and for them we may be catechists, evangelists, missionaries of the word, everyone, in every occasion, in every situation.

With the apostolate of the Eucharist communion and of the Word of God, we reach our highest relationship with the Word of the Father, the Son of God and the Son of man. We achieve the most perfect union with Mother-Mary and with God the Father. This is what we hope to achieve in the Holy Spirit.

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Father is the one who is always giving; the one who gives always with divine fullness, with divine sweetness, because he is essentially God the Father; so the Son of God is the one who receives, and receives always with divine fullness, with divine sweetness, because he is always and essentially God the Son, both in the divine and human nature.

Giving and receiving are equally divine within the Trinity.

Even from us God wants always graciously to receive, and so that we may always have something to give to God the Son, God the Father is always giving us his life. God the Holy Spirit is essentially the Gift for us. The gift to his creature, the gift of God to God in his creature.

In the Eucharist, more than anywhere else Jesus presents himself to us as being in need of everything; to him we can and must always offer all our things outside of Holy Communion, and all of ourselves in Holy Communion. So that as Jesus is an eternal oblation to the Father, we too may be an eternal oblation to the Son.

He is our eternal oblation to the Father in order to be the powerful intercessor for all mankind’s needs, perfection and blessedness. We in turn are for Jesus an eternal oblation to Jesus himself, in order to be with him an eternal, powerful glorification of the Trinity.

The mother is the only one who offers herself with true fullness and sweetness, as the image of the fullness and sweetness of God the Father! In this ongoing oblation, he wants us as his mother. We want it and we hope to achieve it in the Holy  Spirit.

We are given the privilege of giving a new existence of Jesus both in the Eucharist and in our neighbor; likewise Jesus wants always to receive from us in our neighbor love and tenderness with the same fullness and sweetness that a mother has for her child.

Sublime, supernatural Christian ideal! To receive always from God! To give always to our neighbor!

To God the Son in his humanity, and especially in the Eucharist and in his other humanity that is our neighbor, his mystical body is all glory, love, honor and service. In this vein we understand Jesus’ words: “In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me” (Mt.25:41)

The Holy Spirit, with his gift of piety, implants within us a divine tenderness of motherly love in our relationship with God and with our neighbor. In this same Spirit we want to be able to relate, to love and to serve Jesus in our neighbor.

Amen.

 

Part III

The Holy Spirit and the Eucharist.

In the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the only divine person from whom no other person proceeds. From the Father proceeds the Son; from the Father and the Son, proceeds the Holy Spirit.

To use the expression of Fr. Faber, the Holy Spirit is the unlimited boundary of the unlimited Trinity.

From all eternity, he is the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of love of the Father who generates his Word; from all eternity, he is the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of the Word who reveals the Father in the very act of his proceeding forth from the Father.

Even though everything is eternal and co-eternal in God, it remains true that only the Father and the Son are principle of another person in the divinity.

Divine life finds in the Holy Spirit not the seal that shuts it up or ends it, but the outpouring, the opening that allows the free flow of this divine life in and through all intelligent creatures, both human and angelic, because God, in his infinite love has wanted them sharers in the divine nature, associates in the divine works and united to the divine persons.

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This appears clearly from the very beginning of creation; when everything was in darkness and chaos; when neither light nor the sons of light (the angels), neither the earth nor the temporary inhabitants of the earth (men) had come into existence. Scripture says: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, with a divine wind sweeping over the waters”. (Gen1:1-2)

The Spirit of the Lord was floating freely as a dove sitting on its eggs in order to open up from the created elements the whole world of  beauty and the beauty of the whole universe, since all this flow of life was going to be like a smile of love of the Trinity over the inferior creature; a breath of love of the Trinity over the superior creatures; all was going to be work of the Trinity in the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit!

It is true that the whole world, all creation, being a work “ad extra” is equally common to all three divine persons of the Trinity. It is also true, however, that even though they are one God, and act as one God, they are ever three distinct persons, and this distinction in their being is always echoed in their work.

In the work of creation we see and feel a hint of the omnipotence of the Father, who through the wisdom of his Word, in the bounty and love of his Spirit calls all things into being, out of nothingness. Everything comes from the Father, through the Word, in the Holy Spirit!

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In that creation, even though still formless, dark and chaotic, there was the germ, the seed of all mankind, which one day would be dignified and elev