XIX About the second manner of eating, namely, that which is only spiritual
XIX
About the second manner of eating, namely, that which is only spiritual
B. The second manner of receiving Jesus is that which is spiritual only, and in this way all those have eaten who have been saved from the beginning, and in this way all those who will be saved eat now. St. Ambrose says, ‘Though he does not eat, yet he eats, and though he eats, he does not eat, because he who does not eat sacramentally does yet eat spiritually; and he often does not eat spiritually who yet eats sacramentally.’ The Scripture speaks of a stranger who shall eat, that is to say, who will have a great desire of eating spiritually. About this spiritual eating three things have to be considered: (1) the difference between the persons thus eating; (2) the nature of spiritual eating; (3) the effect of this eating.
(1) There are three kinds of persons, namely, beginners, the advanced, and the perfect. When Jesus fed four thousand men besides women and children, we understand beginners by the children, the advanced by the women, and the perfect by the men.
(2) Then there is the way in which these persons eat spiritually. Now to understand this we must know that beginners eat spiritually by a life-giving faith; the advanced, by good lives; the perfect, by devout meditation.
1. St. Augustin says, ‘Believe, and thou hast eaten.’ For to believe in Christ is by believing to go to Him, to cling to Him with our hearts, to find our delight in Him, and by true charity to be united to His members.
2. The food of good lives consists of three virtues, as if of three accompaniments: a, innocence; b, penance; c, mercy.
a. St. Augustin says, ‘To eat bread spiritually at the Altar is to bring innocence to the Altar, and forgive those that trespass against us.’
b. When we sin we must do penance for our sins, and carry the Cross after our Divine Master.
c. When the poor are helped and comforted by us we ourselves are far more helped and comforted spiritually by God.
3. The perfect eat spiritually by devout meditation. In this kind of spiritual eating there are three things that are to be found in bodily eating: a, appetite; b, mastication c, pleasure. We ought to hunger spiritually, by longing with our inmost heart for Christ, our food; then we should masticate spiritually, by great length of thought; and lastly we ought to find delight in Him by choosing His sweetness.
a. We ought to have a great longing for Jesus, a great hunger and thirst for Him. St. Gregory says, ‘In spiritual delights, fulness gives an appetite, because the more that their sweetness is known and felt, the more thirstingly they are desired.’
b. We ought spiritually to masticate our Lord, in Himself and in His mystical Body, that is, by thinking for long about ourselves, about the Saints, and about the Saviour of the world: (a) by judging ourselves; (b) by studying the lives of the Saints, that we may imitate them; (c) by dwelling long and lovingly on the Incarnation of our Lord.
(a) The perfect diligently examine themselves and judge themselves. They judge themselves and not others. They judge the whole of themselves—eyes, hands, feet, tongue, heart, intellect, will.
(b) They love to think of the Saints who are dead, and of the good who are still living; and to dwell on their lives and follow in their steps. Our Lord in a parable tells us of the dinner for which beeves and fatlings were prepared. Now the beeves are the Prophets and Apostles, who, in the might of their faith, opposed, as it were, horns to the princes of the world, and then suffering at their hands have left us examples to follow. The fatlings, or fatted fowls, signify those holy souls that are filled with the love of God, and, lifted on the wings of contemplation, seek for the heavenly heights. They are said to be slain because their souls are stayed on God, either by penance, or by the death of the flesh. These things must be spiritually masticated by us, that is, diligently considered as our examples. Of those things that are clean we may eat, but not of those things that are dead of themselves. We should eat what is clean, that is, with truthful words and good deeds; and we should put it in our hearts for imitation; but that which is dead of itself, that is, defiled by sin, we should not feed on, either by doing the same, or by consent.
(c) The perfect spiritually masticate the Flesh of Jesus by meditating with great love and devotion on the Sacraments of the Incarnation, and all the benefits that come to us by the Incarnate Word. St. Augustin says, ‘This pertains to the virtue of the Sacrament, and not to the visible sign, that is, when a man eats inwardly and not outwardly, and when he eats in his heart and does not press with his teeth. This it is which St. Paul taught carefully about the good only, saying that they all ate the same food.’
c. Thirdly, we should have great delight in that inward sweetness which comes from masticating Christ by spiritual eating. The souls of those, who eat what is good, will according to God’s promise be delighted in fatness, that is, in the sweetness of the grace and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Going into our house we should repose with wisdom, that is, with Jesus, God and man, for He is the true wisdom of God. No weariness will come in this to the faithful soul, but only joy and gladness, with refreshment and delight, because of the friendship of God. This spiritual sweetness will come to you in the silent joyfulness of your hearts. It is a foretaste of the heavenly joy, and of the delights that are for ever with God.
N. This is a great help against three evils that are in the world: a, false pleasure in the use of things pleasing; b, great bitterness in bearing trials; c, a sorrowful spirit in doing good.
a. The sweetness of the world is false, for it is the destruction of the soul. The bait gives delight outwardly, but the hook pierces inwardly.
b. There is a sea, deep and wide, because in this world bitterness is great and abounds. As the prophet says, we are fed with wormwood, and drink waters of gall. Our short lives are filled with many miseries.
c. When the young man heard what our Lord said he went away sorrowful. God did not accept the sacrifice of Cain because he offered badly, that is, with a sad heart and a sad face.
R. Against these things you have a safeguard in spiritual sweetness: a, it makes the false sweetness of the world tasteless; b, it makes great bitterness sweet; c, it makes the sad spirit joyful.
a. St. Gregory says, ‘All flesh is flavourless to him who has tasted the Spirit.’ To such a one Christ is all in all, and other things are worthless in themselves. See how St. Paul felt this.
b. If the soul be filled with the sweetness of God it does not care for the bitterness of the world. As Eliseus threw salt into the bitter waters and made them sweet, so Jesus sweetens all bitterness by that flavour of the Spirit which is the salt of Heaven. Thus the stones of the brook were sweet to Stephen, as they fell on him heavily. Thus many Saints have rejoiced in tribulation. To them the glowing coals were sweet, and their robes of fire were like fragrant roses.
c. As the faces of Daniel and the Three Children appeared fairer after they had fed on the king’s food, because of their cheerfulness in doing good, so we should be better in cheerfulness and readiness to do good when we have fed on the food of our King, that is, on His most Holy Body.
(3) The third thing to be considered about this spiritual eating is its threefold effect: a, the forgiveness of sin; b, healing from eternal death; c, the partaking of the true Body of Jesus to everlasting life.
a. St. Ambrose says, ‘Those who thus eat spiritually the virtue of the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ are said to take and to eat truly, because they daily receive the very efficacy of our Lord’s Body:’ that is, the forgiveness of their sins.
b. St. Augustin says, ‘Our fathers ate the same spiritual food as we eat, but they ate a different bodily food. They ate manna, which signified Christ to them, and gave Him by faith to those who believed. Those, however, who did not believe ate and died eternally. But Moses and the other servants of God did not die in this way. How was this? It was because they understood spiritually the invisible food, hungered for it spiritually, tasted it spiritually, that they might be spiritually healed from everlasting death. So we, eating spiritually, are saved.’
c. St. Augustin says, ‘There cannot be any doubt that each one is made a partaker of the Body and Blood of the Lord, when he is made a member of Christ: nor can there be any doubt that such a one is not cut off from the fellowship of that Bread, if before he eat it he should die in the unity of the Body of Christ. For he cannot be deprived of the benefits of this Sacrament when he is found with that which this Sacrament signifies. But he is found with that which is signified by this Sacrament, when he is made a member of Christ and spiritually eats by believing and loving; for thus he is truly changed into Christ’s Body, that he may live with Him for ever.’
The Voice of the Holy Ghost
About spiritual eating; I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all in Moses were baptised in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual food. 1 Cor. 10:1–3.
There is a man to whom God has given riches and substance and honour, and his soul wanteth nothing of all that he desireth; yet God doth not give him power to eat thereof, but a stranger shall eat it. Eccles. 6:2.
(1) The difference of persons; Jesus called together His disciples, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. And the disciples say to Him, Whence, then, should we have so many loaves in the desert, as to fill so great a multitude? And Jesus saith to them, How many loaves have you? They said, Seven, and a few little fishes. And He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And taking the seven loaves and the fishes, and giving thanks, He brake and gave to His disciples, and His disciples gave to the people; and they did all eat and had their fill. And they took up seven baskets full of what remained of the fragments. And they that did eat were four thousand men, besides women and children. St. Matt. 15:32–38.
(2) The nature of this eating; 1. Beginners; Behold his soul that is unbelieving shall not be right in him; but the just shall live in his faith. Heb. 2:4.
My just man liveth by faith; but if he withdraw himself he shall not please My soul. Heb. 10:38.
2. The advanced; He said to them, I have meat to eat which you know not.… My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, that I may finish His work. St. John 4:32, 34.
He that feareth God will do good.… With the bread of life and understanding she (Wisdom) will feed him. Ecclus. 15:1, 3.
a. Innocence; I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered, because I forgot to eat my bread. Ps. 101:5.
b. Penance; It is vain for you to rise before the light: rise after you have sitten down, you that eat the bread of sorrow. Ps. 126:2.
He ate bread with mourning and fear: remembering the word which the Lord spoke by Amos the prophet, Your festival-days shall be turned into lamentation and mourning. Tobias 2:5, 6.
I ate ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping. Ps. 101:10.
c. Mercy; A merciful man doeth good to his own soul; but he that is cruel casteth off his own kindred. Prov. 11:17.
3. The perfect; a. Desire; If the men of My tabernacle have not said, Who will give us of His Flesh, that we may be filled? Job 31:31.
In the way of Thy judgments, O Lord, we have patiently waited for Thee; Thy name and Thy remembrance are the desire of my soul. Is. 26:8.
Lord, all my desire is before Thee; and from Thee my groaning is not hidden. Ps. 37:10.
b. Mastication; He hath put all things under His feet, and hath made Him head over all the Church, which is His Body, and the fulness of Him who is filled all in all. Eph. 1:22, 23.
He is the head of the Body, the Church, who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead. Col. 1:18.
(a) Self-examination; Let a man examine himself. 1 Cor. 11:28.
(b) Following the Saints; Tell them that were invited, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my beeves and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come ye to the marriage. St. Matt. 22:4.
All that is clean ye shall eat; but whatsoever is dead of itself eat not thereof. Deut. 14:20, 21.
For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think of these things. The things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, these do ye; and the God of peace shall be with you. Phil. 4:8, 9.
(c) Meditation; He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath everlasting life; and I will raise him up in the last day.… He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood abideth in Me and I in him. St. John 6:55, 57.
All ate the same spiritual food. 1 Cor. 10:3.
c. Inward sweetness; Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy you? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat that which is good, and your soul shall be delighted in fatness. Incline your ear and come to Me; hear and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the faithful mercies of David. Is. 55:2, 3.
When I go into my house I shall rest with her (the Wisdom of God); for her conversation hath no bitterness nor her company any tediousness, but joy and gladness. Wisd. 8:16.
O, taste and see that the Lord is sweet. Ps. 33:9.
O, how great is the multitude of Thy sweetness, O Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee. Ps. 30:20.
Thy lips, My spouse, are as a dropping honeycomb; honey and milk are under thy tongue. Cantic. 4:11.
N. Three evils in the world; a. False sweetness; To the fool she said, Stolen waters are sweeter; and hidden bread more pleasant. He did not know that giants are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell. Prov. 9:17, 18.
Let mercy forget him: may worms be his sweetness; let him be remembered no more, but be broken in pieces as an unfruitful tree. Job 24:20.
Man knoweth not his own end; but as fishes are taken with the hook, and as birds are caught with the snare, so men are taken in the evil time when it shall suddenly come upon them. Eccles. 9:12.
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell, who have said to God, Depart from us; we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. Who is the Almighty that we should serve Him? and what doth it profit us if we pray to Him? Job 21:13–15.
b. Great bitterness; So is this great sea which stretcheth wide its arms; there are creeping things without number, things little and great. Ps. 103:25.
The Lord said, Because they have forsaken My law which I gave them, and have not heard My voice, and have not walked in it, but have gone after the perverseness of their own hearts … therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. Jerem. 9:13, 14.
Man, born of a woman, and living for a short time, is filled with many miseries. He cometh up like a flower, and is cut down and fleeth as a shadow, and continueth not in one state. Job 14:1, 2.
c. Sadness in good; One came and said to Him, Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting? He said to him, Why asketh thou Me about good? One is good, that is, God. But if thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments.… The young man saith to Him, All these have I kept from my youth: what is yet wanting in me? Jesus saith to him, If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come thou and follow Me. And when the young man had heard His word he went away sad, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples, Amen I say to you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of Heaven. St. Matt. 19:16–23.
Let thy servants find favour in thy eyes; for we are come in a good day; whatsoever thy hand shall find give to thy servants, and to thy son David. And when David’s servants came they spoke to Nabal all these words in David’s name, and then held their peace. But Nabal answering the servants of David said, Who is David? and what is the son of Isai?… Shall I then take my bread and my water, and the flesh of my cattle which I have killed for my shearers, and give them to men whom I know not whence they are? 1 Kings 25:8–11.
It came to pass after many days that Cain offered of the fruits of the earth gifts to the Lord. Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord had respect to Abel and to his offerings; but to Cain and his offerings He had no respect. Gen. 4:3–5.
R. Spiritual sweetness; a. Against false sweetness; A soul that is full shall tread upon the honeycomb. Prov. 27:7.
The things that were gain to me the same I have counted loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung that I may gain Christ: and may be found in Him not having my justice which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ Jesus, which is of God, justice in faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.… One thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching out to those that are before, I press towards the mark, to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philip. 3:7–14.
b. Against bitterness; They shall call the people to the mountain; there shall they sacrifice the victims of justice; they shall suck as milk the abundance of the sea and the hidden treasures of the sands. Deut. 33:19.
The men of the city said to Eliseus, Behold the situation of this city is very good, as thou, my lord, seest; but the waters are very bad and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new vessel and put salt into it. And when they had brought it, he went out to the spring of the waters and cast the salt into it, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters, and there shall be in them no more death or barrenness. And the waters were healed to this day, according to the word of Eliseus which he spoke. 4 Kings 2:19–22.
They stoned Stephen, invoking and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling on his knees he cried with a loud voice, saying, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this he fell asleep in the Lord. Acts 7:58, 59.
c. Against sadness; After ten days their faces appeared fairer and fatter than all the children that ate of the king’s meat. Dan. 1:15.
A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance. Prov. 15:13.
Now this I say, he who soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who soweth in blessings shall also reap of blessings, every one as he hath determined in his heart: not with sadness or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. 2 Cor. 9:6, 7.
(3) The effect; a. Forgiveness; Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins. St. Luke 11:3.
b. Healing; This is the bread that cometh down from Heaven; that if any man eat of it he may not die. St. John 6:50.
c. The Body of Christ; We being many are one bread, one body, all who partake of that one bread. 1 Cor. 10:17.
Thanksgiving
I thank Thee, dear Jesus, for all Thy Sacraments. I thank Thee above all for Thyself. I thank Thee because I can feed upon Thee spiritually, even when I cannot come before Thy Altar. Give me a greater thirst for Thee, Thou lover of my soul, and let me sit beneath Thy shadow and taste of Thy sweetness more. Lift me to Thyself on high, and let my soul be steeped in Thy light. Give me a great love for all things holy and just and pure and lovely and true. Let me feed on the pleasures of Thy right hand, and let me drink of the torrent of Thy river. Thy land is ever flowing with milk and honey; but Thou, my own Jesus, my loved One, art far sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Thy city has gates of pearl, and its jasper wall has foundations of precious stones; but Thou art the one Pearl without price, and for Thy love I would gladly sell all that I have.
Thy sweetness deadens my taste for the world’s gifts, and in all bitterness of sorrow the light of Thy face and the love of Thy heart are joy and rest and peace. I bless and praise Thee for forgiving my sins. I bless and praise Thee for saving me from the undying fire. I bless and praise Thee for all Thy spiritual gifts here, and for the hope of Thy heavenly joys hereafter. Thou art my Jesus in Heaven and my Jesus on the Altar. Thou art my Jesus in my heart. For this I love Thee, and bless Thee, and praise Thee, and glorify Thee, and adore Thee for ever and ever.