482. Saturday after Corpus Christi

Meditations no. 225 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The Eucharist, Sacrament of Unity.

When Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, instituted the Blessed Sacrament at the Last Supper, he prayed long and insistently for the unity of the Church. That they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you. Our Lord knew that in the course of time disagreement would break out among Christians and endanger the unity - ut omnes unum sint! - that he desired so strongly. And so he chose to stay with us, so that the whole company of the believers should always have one heart and soul, so that they should become for ever perfectly one.

Jesus himself is the source and origin of this unity. He is the sower, and he goes about his task by means of us Christians. Christ presses the grain in his wounded hands, soaks it in his Blood, cleans it, purifies it, and throws it into the furrows, into the world. He plants the seeds one by one, so that we Christians can each bear witness to the fruitfulness of our Lord’s Death and Resurrection in our own setting.

If we are in Christ’s hands, we should absorb his saving Blood and let ourselves be cast to the winds. We should accept our life as God wants it And we should be convinced that the seed must be buried and die if it is to be fruitful. Then the shoots start to appear, and the grain. And from the grain, bread is made which is changed by God into the Body of Christ. In this way we are once more united with Jesus, our sower. Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

In offering the Sacrifice of the Eucharist every day, the whole Church unites herself to Jesus Christ’s prayer for unity. When we meet together around the altar for the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, when we contemplate the Sacred Host in the monstrance or adore it hidden in the tabernacle, our faith should be strengthened. We should reflect on this new life which we are receiving, and be moved by God’s affection and tenderness.

They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers. That is how Scripture describes the life of the early Christians. They were brought together by the faith of the Apostles in perfect unity, to share in the Eucharist and to pray with one mind. Faith, Bread, Word.

If we are tempted to feel that our Lord’s desire was in vain - there is so much disunity among Christians! -the Sacrament of the Eucharist revives our faith, increases our charity, and is a constant reminder of the words of love and unity at the Last Supper. Remember your Church, O Lord: free her from all evil and perfect her in your love. Gather her together from the four winds, sanctified, into the kingdom you have prepared; for yours is all power and glory for ever.

Communion presupposes being united to all Christians through charity.

When we receive our Lord in the Eucharist, we are like olive-shoots grafted on to the very source of grace, because it is the Eucharist which truly brings about the unity of the Church. St John Damascene teaches that through the Eucharist we communicate with Christ, we receive his Flesh and his Divinity, and at the same time we communicate and are united with one another.

Through sharing in the one bread, we are all made one same Body of Christ and one same Blood; and we become members of each other, since we are members of Christ.

But at the same time, the degree of our union with Jesus in the Eucharist depends on how much we love other Christians, because, in the words of St John Chrysostom, there is no one whom God hates and rejects so much as the man who bears a grudge, whose heart is hardened, in whose mind injury rankles. If we are to be united to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament - the cause of the Church’s unity - we need to be united to one another, and there must be no hatred or resentment in our heart. Our Lord’s command is clear: If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Sharing in the Sacrifice of the Altar requires purity of heart, shown in Christian fraternity and charity. Peace, truth, unity, justice. How difficult it often seems to eliminate the barriers to human harmony! And yet we Christians are called to bring about that miracle of brotherhood. We must work so that everyone, with God’s grace, can live in a Christian way, bearing one another’s burdens, keeping the commandment of love which is the bond of perfection and the essence of the law.

It is the Blessed Eucharist that makes all of this possible. St John Chrysostom says: The sacrifice itself is offered so that there may be peace between you and your brother. And if the sacrifice is offered for peace with your neighbour and you do not keep that peace, it is useless for you to take part in it. In the first place, then, keep the peace that the sacrifice is offered for; and then you will find in it all the joy that you should. For this is why the Son of God came into the world: to reconcile our nature with God.

We must imitate Jesus Christ, who has made the two nations one, breaking down the wall that divided us, the enmity there was between us, in his own mortal nature. We must ask him: Grant to your Church, Lord, the gifts of unity and peace, which are mystically signified by the Sacrament we offer.

When we receive Communion, we are more closely united with our Lord, and, consequently, with the Work.

When our Lord instituted the Eucharist during the Last Supper, night had already fallen. This indicated, according to St John Chrysostom, that the times had run their course. The world had fallen into darkness, for the old rites, the old signs of God’s infinite mercy to mankind, were going to be brought to fulfilment. The way was opening to a new dawn - the new pasch. The Eucharist was instituted during that night, preparing in advance for the morning of the Resurrection.

We too have to prepare for this new dawn. Everything harmful, worn out or useless has to be thrown away - discouragement, suspicion, sadness, and cowardice. The holy Eucharist gives God’s children a divine newness and we must respond in novitate sensus, by renewing all our feelings and actions. We have been given a new principle of energy, strong new roots grafted onto our Lord. We must not return to the old leaven, for now we have the Bread which lasts for ever.

This new meaning which our Lord’s call has given to our life has different manifestations. One of them is that it makes us into instruments of unity among the people we live and work with. Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor: Christ’s love has brought us together into one. The Holy Eucharist deepens more and more our vital union with Jesus Christ and with his Mystical Body. As a result, we always feel solidarity with all souls.

There are many people in Opus Dei, but our Lord wants there to be very many more of us: men and women dedicated to the divine task of doing the Work of God on earth; people from countless countries, of different temperaments, and of all sorts, each with their own personality, but all fired with the same spirit and committed to the one task. My children, I would like you to feel and be convinced of the need to see that we are all members of one single body. Unum corpus multi sumus (we who are many are one body), all one single thing. I want this to show by our being united in outlook, united in apostolate, united in sacrifice, united in our hearts; by the charity with which we treat each other, and by our smile when we look at the Cross and when we are on the Cross: so that we all feel as one and react in unison!

Communion is the best moment of all to live the unity of the Work, because in each Communion, when we receive Jesus we are united in some way to all the other souls who are united to Christ, especially our Lady and St Joseph; and, through a special Communion of Saints, we are united to our Father, to the Father, and to all our brothers and sisters. That is the moment to pray for the Father and for the apostolates of the Work throughout the world; that is the moment to feel, as our Founder put it, that we are all clustered together like a pine-cone made up of hearts.

Jesus Christ, really present in the Eucharist, is the ultimate foundation of this unity; it is he who makes it all possible and gives it its consistency. Therefore we need to foster in ourselves the burning desire of being united with Jesus, Priest and victim: these are the dispositions in which we will approach the altar every day. We will come as our Father taught us to: hand in hand with our Lady, and trying to make our own the dispositions in which she herself received her Son. Our Lady was conceived immaculate in order to receive our Lord. Meditate on that.