Part 6

In the next place, Communion is an act which possesses a peculiar significance for the forgiven sinner. It should have. It was sin that made Him die, and Communion is a memorial of His death. But why is it that a contrite sinner, burdened with the memory of the many outrages he has committed against Jesus Christ by his bad life, by his cursing, his profanation of the Holy Name, his drunkenness and debaucheries, his lies and thefts, his dark crimes, it may be, that make even his brother men shun him as they would a poisonous reptile--why is it, I ask, that even such an one, coming, heartily sorry, to Confession, ready and eager to amend his life and do better, and so receives absolution, should have such a strange longing, as all forgiven sinners do have, to get Communion, and that as soon as possible? {99} One would think they would rather fear to approach Him, and dread to be confronted with the awful memorial of their crucified and so cruelly offended Lord. Not so. Their hearts are Christian after all; and He draws them to Him closer and closer by the strong cords of love the moment they turn to Him. True, He appoints His priest to forgive them in His name. But that does not satisfy the desire with which He desires to be reconciled with them in person. "Come to Me," He cries from the altar; "come to Me now. My poor lost one. Come, get My kiss of peace. Come, we have been separated too long. I have been watching you. I have heard you praying. I saw you go into the confessional. I heard you tell your sins. I saw the tears course down your cheeks. I felt every throb of your heart. My hand, too, gave you absolution and full forgiveness for all. You went there one of the devil's own. Now you are Mine. Come, now, take Me to your heart. We will be friends again, and I shall have only one reproach to make you; Oh! why have you stayed so long away?" The forgiven sinner knows Jesus is saying all this. {100} Do you wonder that he goes home from confession a happy man; that he counts the hours until he can come back, and thinks the time long until he can go up to the Holy Table, and there clasp his long-forgotten and neglected Lord to his bosom? Oh! the earnest, upturned face, radiant with joy, which makes the priest's hand tremble with sympathetic emotion as he gives him the Holy Sacrament. You have seen friends long separated and divided come together and make up. You know what a touching scene it is. There are smiles upon your lips and sparkling tears in your eyes at the same moment. So it is often here when Jesus meets and makes up with old hardened sinners. Blessed, a million times blessed, be the kind and loving heart of Jesus, which, once laid open by the spear, is never shut to any one who will enter in and abide there.

Holy Communion is a Feast of Thanksgiving. That is the meaning of the word Eucharist--thanksgiving. It is one of the names of the Blessed Sacrament. You remember that when Jesus first broke the bread on this night He gave thanks. He meant that we also should use it as a worthy and precious thank-offering for all He has done for us; for having created us; for having redeemed us; for having died for us; for His great love in this Holy Sacrament; for all the benefits with which He has crowned our lives. {101} Who is there that can approach here without crying out with the Psalmist, "What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has rendered to me? I will take the chalice of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord." [Footnote 24]

[Footnote 24: Ps. cxv. 3, 4.] [USCCB: Ps. cxv. 12, 13.]

No word of thanks at your Communion--not a grateful thought in your heart? Oh! how is this? Have you really come back to make up with Him, or have you come--O horrible thought!--only like Judas to betray Him? Does He say to you as He said to that lost disciple, "Friend, dost thou betray the Son of Man with a kiss?"

Are you, then, half-minded to go back to your old sins? Have you not, after all, given up the devil and his works? Then I do not wonder that you are thankless and ungrateful. Then I do not wonder at that cloud upon your brow, nor at the indifferent manner in which you presume to receive the Body of your Lord. Friend, that cloud is the shadow of impending damnation. For says the apostle, "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord." [Footnote 25]

[Footnote 25: I Cor. xi. 29.]

Oh! no; let me hope I am mistaken; that it is far otherwise with you; that if indeed you may have ever done this before, you are not come to repeat it now.

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Now you have utterly cast off all sin and all intention to sin. Now you wish to belong only to Jesus. Seeing from what a pit of hell He has delivered you, and knowing to what a height of grace and glory He has raised you, I feel sure you are only anxious about one thing, and that is, how you can give expression to the gratitude of which your heart is so full. Shall it be in long, devout prayers, full of emotion and tender feeling, telling the Lord over and over again that you are so thankful for what He has done for you, for His great condescension and surpassing love? Well, brethren, you may do that if you like, and I think Jesus will be pleased with it. But that is not the only test of a thankful heart. If you can say truly--O my Jesus! my dear Lord! I love Thee above all; for Thee I love all that Thou hast loved, even my enemies, and I forgive them all the offences they have done to me, as freely and fully as Thou hast forgiven me; and now it is my firm purpose never to commit another sin while I live--then, dear brethren, I am sure you will praise Him aright.

Let your prayer be such as Blessed Henry Suso made in his communion. His words are far better than mine, and they will be more profitable to you. Let me end my discourse with them:

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"Lord, if my heart had the love of all hearts, my conscience the purity of all angels, and my soul the beauty of all souls, so that by Thy grace I should be worthy of Thee, I wish to receive Thee to-day so affectionately, and so to bury and sink Thee to the bottom of my heart and soul, that neither joy nor sorrow, neither life nor death, could separate me from Thee. Amen."

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Sermon VII.

The Holy Ghost, The Comforter.

For The Feast Of Pentecost. St. John xiv. 16.

__"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever."__

To-day is the Church's grand high festival of the coming of that other Comforter, who abides for ever with those whom Jesus loves.

We are tempted to wonder why He, who had done so much for the peace of the world, whose coming was the pledge of every joy to the human heart, whose words are a healing balm for every wound, a solace for every misery, and through whom comes all forgiveness for sins, should not have remained Himself to bless and comfort His own with His Divine presence.

What other Comforter of our souls would we ask or could we need than Him? Oh! that He had stayed with us! Had we not all in having Him? When the Father in His love sent Him to us, did he not send all He could give? What other Comforter is there in heaven to give that will be better than He?

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Truly, brethren, we would not be able to imagine that anything more or better could be done for us than that our Blessed Lord should remain amongst us, had He not Himself said: "It is expedient for you that I go; for if I do not, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you." [Footnote 26]

[Footnote 26: St. John xvi. 7.]

There is a mystery here which we cannot fathom, because we are not able to fathom the works of God. Our Lord knew that it was best for Him to depart, and that the Holy Ghost must come, as He said, to bear testimony of Him, to teach all truth, to fill the hearts of the faithful with grace, and kindle in them the fire of Divine Charity, so that they might strive manfully for the faith, and win the crown of everlasting joy set before them.

It is not in vain that our Lord called the Holy Ghost the __Comforter__, which signifies the strengthener. We are weak, vacillating, full of wandering desires, led away from God and heaven by trifles, easily cast down and disheartened, in constant danger by temptation, discouraged by doubts, crushed quickly beneath some present sorrow, and fearful of the coming storms of adversity and grief; and grace, which it is the office of the Holy Ghost to bring to us, is the life-giving force which leads and directs us, which enlightens, strengthens, and comforts us in all.

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It is this which inspires the Holy Church, in the sequence of the Mass for to-day, to cry

"Veni, Sancte Spiritus, Et emitte coelitus Lucis tuae radium. Veni, Pater pauperum, Veni, dator munerum, Veni, lumen cordium. Consolator optime, Dulcis hospes animae, Dulce refrigerium. In labore requies, In aestu temperies, In fletu solatium O Lux beatissima, Reple cordis intima Tuorum fidelium!"

I cannot do better than explain these words of the Holy Church, which express in so many beautiful forms the comforting grace of the Holy Ghost.

Who is this Divine Comforter? God the Holy Ghost. Not an attribute of God, such as His omnipotence, His omnipresence, His justice or mercy, but the Person of God Himself. God lives in Himself an eternal, infinite life; a mysterious life to us, in that He needs no other object besides Himself to give Him life. {107} God is but one being; and hence the Holy Ghost is the same God as the Father and the Son; but God possesses, as it were, a threefold personal life, which, being mutually dependent and united, is but one. The Father is the Infinite Personal Cause of His own Divine Life; the Son is the Personal Life of God, begotten of the Father; and the Holy Ghost is God personally enjoying, living the Divine Life, begotten by Himself. Think of it! This is what we invoke when we cry, __Veni, Sancte Spiritus!__ This is what was promised by our Lord, when He said: "I will ask the Father, and He will send you another Comforter." The Life of God! Life full beyond human imagination, of ineffable joy, and of peace that passes understanding! Life full of beauty, sublimity, and majesty! Life of omnipotence and of glory! "O Lord, my God," exclaims the enraptured Psalmist, in one of the Psalms of to-day's matins, "Thou art exceedingly great! Thou hast put on praise and beauty, and art clothed with light as with a garment." [Footnote 27]

[Footnote 27: Ps. ciii. 1,2.] [USCCB: Ps. civ. 1,2.]

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The sun rises in his splendor, and no man may look with unblenched gaze upon it; but who shall describe the dazzling brightness of Him who dwells in light inaccessible! And it is a ray of the light of the Life of God we crave for our darkened souls, when we say, __Veni, Sancte Spirtus, et emitte coelitus lucis tuae radium!__ "Come, O Holy Spirit, and send forth upon us a ray of Thy heavenly light!"

The coming of the Holy Ghost to man is the completion of the mysterious union between God and us. By the Father Almighty we are created. Something of the hidden essence of Life is given to us in creation. "And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul." [Footnote 28]

[Footnote 28: Gen. ii. 7.]

In creation, we are united to the Life of God the Father. By the Incarnation of the Word, the Son of God, we became, as St. Peter declares, "partakers of the Divine nature." Humanity became united to the Life of God the Son through Jesus Christ; and now the Life of God the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Love, descends and fills with Divine grace the hearts of the faithful children begotten to God through the creation and Incarnation; the union between God and man is complete, and the love of God to man is exhausted.

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Truly, the Father Almighty was a Comforter, to bring us out of nothingness, and bestow upon us the boon of being and the joys of an eternal existence. God the Son was a Comforter in redeeming us, and regenerating us, and giving us the right, which angels might envy, to call our Creator our __Father__; but the Holy Ghost was yet another Comforter, and He would not deny Himself to those whom the Father had loved to create, whom He had yet loved more so as to send His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him "might have life, and might have it more abundantly"; and thus the life of man becomes exalted and deified by its union with the Eternal, Infinite life of the Triune God.

Look down from the deck of a ship in mid-ocean, and pierce the mighty depths of waters with a glance. Look up into the blue vault of heaven, and with unaided vision scan the uttermost bounds of space, far beyond the dizzy distances where roll the last stars in their lonely course; but fathom if you can the height, the depth, the immensity of that Infinite Life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in which, as in a boundless and fathomless ocean of comfort, and as in a measureless firmament of glory and of rapture, the soul of man is swallowed up and lost in the love of his God.

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But who among men belong thus entirely to God? To whom does the Holy Ghost come in His fulness? Not to all; for I read that our Lord said that "the world cannot receive Him, because it seeth Him not, nor knoweth Him." [Footnote 29] To whom, then? Let St. John answer us: "As many as received Him (Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God), to them He gave power to become the sons of God, to them who believe in His name. Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." [Footnote 30]

[Footnote 29: St. John xiv. 17.]

[Footnote 30: Ibid. i. 12, 13.]

It is not enough, then, to be a creature of God, to be born of the flesh, or of the will of man. The soul who would receive the Holy Ghost, to see and have God in His fulness, must be born of God. "Except a man be born of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." [Footnote 31] As the Son of God became incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin, so the sons of men must be born again of water and the Holy Ghost in Baptism, to become the sons of God. Then, and then only, can we call God Father. Then, and then only, do we "receive the spirit of adoption of sons," as St. Paul declares, "whereby we cry, Abba (Father)." [Footnote 32] We must believe in the Word made flesh, in Jesus Christ, else that other Comforter will not come unto us; and hence the Church invokes the Holy Ghost to come down into the hearts of the __faithful__, or the believers in Jesus Christ.

[Footnote 31: Ibid. iii. 5.]

[Footnote 32: Rom. viii. 15.]

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"Come, O Holy Spirit! fill the hearts of thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of thy love." Alas! for those who do not realize this great truth. By their rejection of Jesus Christ and the new birth unto God in Baptism, they remain for ever in the lower sphere of the simple creature, with no hope of the enrapturing vision of the Blessed Trinity when their souls shall have passed beyond this human life, in which the choice of that higher destiny is given to them. This is the first thought suggested to us by the opening invocation of the sequence of the Mass.

And now the sentiment of the sequence suddenly changes. Though we be so exalted by the Divine relationship, though the light of Heaven's glory is beaming upon our footsteps as we advance towards it, and our loosened tongues cry out with St. Paul, "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God!" [Footnote 33] yet what is our human life now compared with the Heavenly Life in God! It is a blessed truth to me, some of us say, and a hope that I would not part with for life; but though inexhaustible riches, and crowns and harps of gold, are waiting for me in the kingdom of the Heavenly Father, here I am poor, here my heart is too sad to sing.

[Footnote 33: Rom. xi. 33.]

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Though there I shall possess wisdom, to which the wisdom of this world is foolishness, yet here I am ignorant. There shall be no want, I know; but here I am ever in want. I cry, Give, give, and my soul is never satisfied. There, in the light of glory, shall be peace, rest, and victory; but here is toil, strife, temptation, defeat, and my heart is oft darkened within me, even to forget my God. Hark what the Holy Church inspires you to say:

"Veni, Sancte Spiritus, Veni, Pater pauperum, Veni, dator munerum, Veni, lumen cordium!"

"Come, O Holy Spirit! Come, O Father of the poor! Come, O giver of every gift! Come, O light of every heart!"

Are you poor? Repine not, for Jesus has said it is a blessed state. God loves you, and has given you poverty, that through it you may receive the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Money is the riches of man, but the comforting grace of the Holy Ghost is the riches of God; and the poor may have that easily if they will. God has deprived you of the things of this world that you may set your heart on Him. Wonder not that thousands of Christians have left all, and vowed themselves to poverty, that they may get the grace of God easily, like you. {113} Ask for grace, then, poor man, and your requests shall be quickly granted. Cry with the Holy Church--__Veni, Pater pauperum!__ Come, O Father of the poor! and the Comforter will come, and pour out upon you a flood of graces that shall make your heart sing for joy. Then you will say with the Psalmist, enjoying nothing here below, "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; it is Thou who wilt restore my inheritance to me." [Footnote 34]

[Footnote 34: Ps. xv. 5.] [USCCB: Ps. xvi. 5.]

Are you in ignorance of what is best for you here and hereafter? Is it hard for you to think of God? Lift up your heart, and say--__Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Veni, dator munerum!__ Come, O Giver of every good and perfect gift!--and you shall receive the Comforter's gift of Divine Wisdom.

Are you ignorant of the truths of faith, or do they seem difficult to you and beyond your grasp? Pray--__Veni, dator munerum__!--and the Comforter will bestow upon you the light of the gift of understanding.

Are you ignorant of the ways of God's providence? Do you look around, and see the wicked prospering, the good suffering, the widow oppressed, and the orphan deserted, while wickedness and injustice are enthroned in high places, and are you tempted to doubt if God careth for His own? Pray with the Church--__Veni, dator munerum!__--and the Comforter will bring you His gift of knowledge.

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Are you wayward in heart, now overzealous and now too lukewarm, oftentimes grieved and cast down at the ill-success of your undertakings or your prayers, and disappointment and disgrace make you feel as if you would almost give up trying to be good? Cry to the Giver of every good gift, and say--__Veni, Sancte Spiritus!__ and that Comforter will enlighten you with His gift of counsel.

Are you hard-hearted, stubborn, and resentful, easy to take offence? Do the sins and offences of others destroy your peace of mind, and dry up within you the fountains of mercy and pity for sinners? Do you wish you could feel more like God, kind and long-suffering, and less like Satan, watching for the falls of others, and exulting over them? Oh! cry to the Holy Ghost, and that Comforter, the Spirit of perfect charity, will soften that dry heart of yours with the grace of His gift of piety.

Are you timid and shamefaced in your service to God? Are you a victim to human respect? Are you a Christian who is ashamed of Christ, and do you draw back from a bold, consistent profession of your holy faith when the wicked scoff and sneer? Or, are you one who dares do great things for the God who has done so much for you? {115} Does your heart burn to offer Him a glorious and complete sacrifice, and yet you can not summon up the courage to accomplish it? Put up your supplication, and say--__Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Veni, dator munerum!__--and the Comforter, the Divine Strengthener, will come with His grace, and cover your weak soul with the armor of His gift of fortitude.

Are you proud? Does the demon of intemperance, of anger, or of lust creep stealthily into your breast, and leave foul traces of his presence there? Is the majesty, the power, the holiness of that God to whom you belong forgotten? Do you tremble no more when you hear of justice, of chastity, and of the judgment to come? Pray, for your danger is great. Put up a strong and earnest cry, and say--__Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Veni, dator munerum!__--and the Comforter will be with you, bringing the help you need in your peril, with the grace of His gift of the fear of God.

These seven good and perfect gifts it is the office of the Holy Ghost to impart to those who ask for them. We prize the simple gifts of friendship and affection which serve us in our daily life for our comfort or protection. Oh! that we but knew the gifts of God, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Friends bestow their gifts and depart, but the Almighty Friend abideth with His gifts for ever in the faithful soul. {116} The gifts of men wear out and tarnish, and the rust and moth corrupt them; but the gifts of God are as incorruptible and as unchangeable and as eternally bright and beautiful as His own divine, unchangeable life.

The sequence now invokes the Holy Ghost as "the Light of every heart." The soul of the innocent child, of the pure-minded youth and maiden, of the upright man and pious matron, of the aged Christian, whose locks are whitened in the service of God, is bright with this heavenly Light; but even these know their hours of heaviness of spirit. "Though one may have rejoiced in many years," as says the Scripture, "he must remember the darksome time, and the many days, in which the passed things shall be accused of vanity." [Footnote 35]

[Footnote 35: Eccles. xi. 8.]

There are times to the merriest soul when the heart is dark. The hour of sorrow will come sooner or later--sorrow for earthly losses and disappointments, grief for the misspent years, anguish for our or others sins and misfortunes; the grave will open at our feet and rob us, the house will be hung in black, the mourners will go through the streets, the clods will fall upon the coffin, and we shall return to the home that has been despoiled, and cover our faces against the light of day, and sit in loneliness and gloom with our own darkened hearts. {117} Speak not to us now, nor smile upon us when our hearts are dark. Leave us alone. Alone with what? Alone with my own wretchedness and comfortless thoughts, says the unbeliever. Leave me alone, says the Christian, with my God. Yes, the Christian has his God to go to in his darkest hour. He has always abiding with him that other Comforter, the Light of every heart.

Sinner! now contrite and sorry for the bitter past, who, weeping with the penitent Psalmist, say, "My heart hath expected reproach and misery. I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none; and for one that would comfort me, but I found none" [Footnote 36]--you have a Comforter to go to. Raise your drooping head, and cry--__Veni, lumen cordium!__ Come, O Light of every contrite heart! and the seeds of the grace of contrition, which He has already planted in your soul, will spring up, and bear the sweetest fruits of peace and pardon. Go to thy God, and confess thy sins to Him, and when the Holy Ghost shall give thee the grace of absolution, thou shalt return lighter of footstep and comforted in spirit.

[Footnote 36: Ps. lxviii. 21.]

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