Holy Communion Jesus says: “he shall dwell in Me and I in Him.” Jn. 6:56. O most divine and most human words! It is not enough for Him to say: “I shall hide Myself in him, and remain, and dwell, and nourish him with My Flesh and Blood.” No. he tells us very much more of His love and of the work of His love in us when He says: “I shall abide in him and he in Me.” How gentle those words and powerful to console. While it is true that this sacramental union is primarily spiritual, grace and virtue being communicated to us through the Eucharist, still, we must believe equally that Christ unites Himself physically to us, His most holy Body to ours by means of the sacramental species. And in this union that first pure matrimony is accomplished of which it was written in figure: “the two shall be one flesh only. So that they are no longer two, but one flesh only.” Mt. 19:5-6. Therefore, we are members of the Body of Christ, ‘flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone’ “…we are members of His body.” Eph. 5:30. So that anyone of the faithful, receiving Communion worthily, may say: “this is flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone.” Gen. 2:23. Just as we call the red-hot iron “fire”, not because it has changed its substance, but because the fire has so assimilated itself to it as to impress on it its qualities, its heat, its flame, and all its effects, so it is with him who is united to Christ in Holy Communion.
A CARTHUSIAN MONK
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