THE REAL PRESENCE Saint Peter Julian Eymard Founder, Blessed Sacrament Fathers SELF-ABASEMENT, CHARATERISTIC OF EUCHARISTIC HOLINESS Semetipsum exinanivit. He emptied Himself. (Philippians ii. 7.) OUR Lord is our model in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Let us see how He teaches us the virtues out of which Saints are made. We must first look into the state of our Lord; the form of His life will be the form of our virtues. By studying the conditions of His existence, we shall learn what He wants us to do; what is seen manifests what is unseen. We can appreciate a man's soul from his speech and his manner. When people saw our Lord poor and associating with the poor, they knew that He was come to redeem us by poverty. When He died for our sake, He showed us what we had to do to get to Heaven. Now, the most outstanding and striking characteristic of the state of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is self-abasement. In the light of this characteristic we shall understand His occupations and His virtues, each of which will, according to its own nature, take on this form, this stamp of self-abasement and humility. Study this self-abasement, and you will learn what you have to do to resemble your model and be in the grace of Eucharistic holiness. Keep well in mind that it is the chief characteristic of Jesus Hostia, and that it must be yours if you wish to be in the grace of the Eucharist. I OUR Lord is present in the Sacred Host. He assumes the state of the Sacred Species. He takes the place of their substance. He has subordinated His mode of being to the mode of being of the Species, which become the form of His life and determine its duration. He is, as it were, their subject; for He is ruled by them and is dependent on them. They do not, it is true, affect His Divine life, and the destruction of them is not detrimental to His glorified body; but, nevertheless, when they cease to exist, He withdraws. He is united to them. He is subject to their laws of motion, to the humiliations inflicted on them. He is treated like them. When we look at them, we see the state of our Lord, His exterior mode of being. The Species are so destitute that they no longer possess their own being; the consecration has done away with the substance to which nature had bound them. They no longer own the natural property of their existence; for they exist only through a miracle. Our Lord is like the Species. In the Blessed Sacrament He has no property at all. He brings nothing from Heaven except Himself. He does not own a single stone or church. He is as poor as the Sacred Species,-----poorer therefore than at Bethlehem. There He owned at least Himself; He had a body which could move and speak and grow; He could receive visitors and accept gifts from His friends. But here, He can do nothing of all this. He is surrounded with gifts, but ail this does not change His personal condition. The altar may be of gold and a thousand lights may shine upon it; Jesus is none the less poor and hidden beneath the Sacred Species. Legally He does not exist and is incapable of receiving anything. It is as if He were dead. The glory of a religious who takes the vow of poverty is to resemble Him. Our Lord is, as it were, wrapped up and bound in a shroud. The Sacred Species are His only garment; a garment that is ever the same; a garment that is not even a substance or a natural being, and so frail that without a continual miracle, it would be destroyed and could not exist an instant. Such is our Lord in all His poverty! We need to see Him and ponder on His destitution in order to take the vow of poverty. Study His poverty, which is that of the Host, and you will learn how far you should carry the spirit of detachment and of poverty. Moreover, these Species are most humble. Al- ways white! But white is no color. It is tedious to look at it for any length of time. And thus our Lord, so beautiful in His lifetime-----the most beautiful of the children of men-----has no visible human beauty in the Blessed Sacrament. The cloud that envelops Him prevents us from seeing anything. The most miserable of men is better off than our Lord, for he is still somebody. Our Lord has willed to be on the same level as the Species and be only something. The Sacred Species are lifeless and motionless. Therefore He, the Word, the Life of the world, the Supreme Motor of all beings, the Life of all life, condemns Himself to remain without movement or action; He imprisons Himself. He makes Himself so little that, no matter how small a fragment of the Host may be, He is still present in it whole and entire. He has life and movement in Himself, but He makes no use of either because He has accepted the condition of the inanimate Species. Men may insult Him and spit upon Him; He will not defend Himself. If He could still suffer He would suffer more in the Host than during His life. But you know what the Psalmist says, speaking in His name: "I am a worm and no man." The worm has nothing to cover it, whereas other animals, even caterpillars, have some kind of fur or coat. He was like a worm on the Cross when He was exposed naked to the insults of the executioners; but that lasted only a short time. In the Sacrament He does not become a worm, but He is exposed to being placed side by side with worms. So many Sacred Hosts are spoiled by accident or through negligence! They become spoiled and begin to rot. The worms set in and drive out our Lord, for He remains beneath the Species only as long as they are sound. The worms take His place. When the Host is actually undergoing decomposition and is half destroyed, Jesus Christ takes refuge in the part that is still sound. Jesus Christ and the worms contest each other's ownership of the Host. In His exterior mode of being our Lord has taken upon Himself all the liabilities of the Sacred Species. Putredini dixit "Pater meus es: Mater mea et soror mea, vermibus." "I have said to rottenness: 'Thou art my father; to worms, my mother and my sister.' " Lastly, the Species have no will. We may take them and carry them where we wish. No matter who commands Him, Jesus does not resist; He never says no. He allows Himself to be seized by the hands of a scoundrel; that is one of the conditions of the state He has chosen. He does not defend Himself. Society avenges assault by punishing the assaulter. But our Lord allows everything.  . . . What? . . . To that extent? . . . He abased Himself on Calvary with regard to the happiness and glory of His Divinity, and certainly also with regard to the rest of humanity. But in the Eucharist He abases Himself in His being. The lowest degree in the world of created beings is to have no substance of its own, to be a mere accident, a quality. Jesus Christ, Who cannot lose His own substance, assumes the outward state, the conditions of accidents. And He does all that to be able to say to us: "Look at Me and do as I do." Oh! We shall never succeed in imitating Him, in going down as low as He! Our eternal regret will be to have thought so little of the abasements of Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament. II HIS abasements eclipse all that is glorious in Him. If our Lord allowed His glory to appear, He would no longer be our model of self-abasement, and we would be justified in seeking the glory and majesty of virtue. But have you seen the glory of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament? He is a hidden Sun. He works miracles now and then; but they are rare and only serve to recall and make more impressive His habitual abasement. He wants to remain entirely hidden. He is greater when He works no miracles than when He does; for then His hands are bound by His love. If He were to show us His glory, He could no longer say to us: Discite a Me. "Look at Me. See how meek and humble of Heart I am." He would frighten us. He conceals His Divinity much more than during His mortal life. His countenance or His bearing always betrayed something of the Divine in Him. That is why the Praetorian Guard blindfolded Him before humiliating Him. His eyes were so beautiful! But in the Host, nothing, absolutely nothing! At times, the imagination tries to picture His features; but what it sees does not answer to reality. If at least we could see Him on some day or other during the year, or during life! No! He has concealed His glory behind an impenetrable cloud. Jesus Christ practices this self-abasement in His state of glory, and not only in a negative but also in a positive manner. A man humbles himself negatively when, being a sinner and unworthy of God's graces, he acknowledges his misery and nothingness. It is easy for him to acknowledge that he is a good-for-nothing since he produces only fruits of death. Positive humility, however, requires a man to humble himself in the good he does or in the praise he deserves, by offering the glory of his actions to God or by spontaneously depriving himself of it as a homage to God. That is the lesson Jesus Christ teaches us by His Eucharistic self-abasement. Humble yourself in your virtues. Certainly a Christian as such is great. He is the friend, the heir of Jesus Christ; he participates in His Divine nature. Divine grace makes him the temple and the instrument of the Holy Ghost. And what a greatness is that of the minister of the sublimest mysteries, who commands to God, Who sanctifies and saves souls, and directs them to God! Really, if we consider their sublime dignity, the Christian and the priest might well have reason to exalt themselves like the Angels in Heaven, like Lucifer in his glory. If our Lord had contented Himself with elevating i us, as He has done, we would run a great risk of losing ourselves through pride. But Jesus Christ abased His glory and greatness, and He tells us: "See how I humble Myself. I am greater than you, certainly: and yet see what I do with My greatness, and what I have become." if our Lord were not in the Host, abasing therein His glory, we priests could not say to you, "Be humble." For you could reply, "We are princes of Divine grace!" That is true, but look at your King! That thought brings bishops and the Pope himself to their knees before our Lord. On seeing them humbling themselves in His presence, we proclaim that God alone is truly great. But take away the Eucharist, and what happens? See what happened in other religions. What has become of humility? A Protestant does not know what it means to despise greatness. He will devote himself and work hard, but for self-exaltation. There is no one so proud and haughty as your good Protestant. The Eucharist is not there, neither is humility. And as to Catholics who do not live of the Eucharist, do you not see them crown themselves with their good works? There is nothing so soothing as well deserved Christian praise. We soon pass for a Saint by multiplying our good works. And whence comes our pride if not from our forgetfulness of the Eucharist-----that pride which finds cause for self-exaltation in the graces received, in the gifts of God, in our circle of holy and virtuous friends, or in the influence we perhaps exercise on souls? Are you affected with this pride when you communicate, when you feel within you the presence of Jesus, Who says to you, "What! You exalt yourselves with the dignities and graces I have given you, with the privileged love I bear you! But see, I annihilate Myself. Do at least as I do!" Meditation on the self-abasement of our Lord in the Sacrament is the true road to humility. We are thus made to realize that His self-abasement is the i greatest proof of His love, and that our self-abasement ought to be the proof of ours; that we must come down to our Lord Who has placed Himself on a level with the lowest beings in creation. That is true humility: it gives of its own and reflects back to God the honor and dignity it receives from Him. Many are of the opinion that we can humble ourselves only for our sins and our wretchedness, not for what is good and supernaturally great in us; but we certainly can. To refer to God all the good we do is the humility of homage, the most perfect kind of humility. Our Lord teaches it to us and the nearer we draw to Him, the more we humble ourselves like Him. Look at the Blessed Virgin: she was without sin, without defect, without imperfection; she was all fair, all perfect, all radiant through the grace of her Immaculate Conception and through her unceasing co-operation with God's graces. But she humbled herself more than any other creature. Humility consists in acknowledging that without God we are nothing and in referring to Him all that we are. The more perfect we are, the more this humility increases, because we have more to give to God. We descend in proportion as we are lifted up by grace. Our graces are the stepping-stones of humility. The Eucharist teaches us then to refer to God our glory and greatness, and not merely to humble ourselves over our wretchedness. . And what a permanent lesson! Every Eucharistic soul ought therefore to become humble. A life habitually spent near Jesus Hostia ought to influence us to the point of having us think and act only under the inspiration of this self-abased Divinity. It would be devilish of anyone to want to foster his pride in the presence of the Eucharist! . . . In order to feel the need of abasing ourselves, we have only to look at the Blessed Sacrament. In the presence of the Blessed Sacrament the Church puts us on our knees-----the posture of humility and of self-abasement. Such is the humility of our Lord's state. Let us now see His humility in His actions. III OUR Lord is active in the Most Blessed Sacrament: He works, He mediates, He saves souls. He applies the merits of His Redemption and sanctifies us. His action extends to every creature. He is the Word Who uttered the word which created all things; and He still upholds all things by His word. In the Eucharist He keeps on saying the fiat which sustains life in all creation. He is not only the Creator but also the Reformer, Restorer and King of all the earth. All nations are subjected to His rule, and the Father acts upon the world only through Him. He rules the world; and the word of command that rules it issues from the Most Blessed Sacrament. He holds the life of every being in His hand; He is Judge of the living and the dead. Sovereigns put the stamp of royalty on everything they do or say. They have to do that; for man is governed only by love or by fear. But see our Lord! Where is the pomp of this King to Whom all power belongs in Heaven and on earth? Where is the glory, the luster in His words and His deeds? At every instant millions of Angels leave the tabernacle and return to it after having carried out His orders. The tabernacle is their center and headquarters; for there lives the Commander-in-Chief of the heavenly armies. Do you see or hear anything? All creatures obey Him, and we do not hear a sound. That is His way of concealing His action, of commanding in His state of self-abasement. And men who are in command of others think they are something! They give their orders in a loud voice, imagining they thereby command with greater effect! That is a lesson for superiors and heads of families; they should be humble in commanding others in order to imitate our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Note this other detail about the humility of our Lord. He is invisible when He issues His orders; if He were visible, we would not want to obey anyone else but Him. He hides Himself so that we may obey our fellow men, to whom He has given a reflection of His authority. What a wonderful union of authority and humility! Moreover, our Lord conceals the holiness of His works. Holiness is divided into two parts. The first has to do with the interior life of the soul with God. It is the more important of the two; for in it are perfection and life. It mostly always suffices and takes the place of everything. It consists in contemplation and in the interior immolation of the soul. The second part has to do with the exterior life. Contemplation is made up of the relations of the soul with God, the Angels, and the spiritual world. It is the life of prayer which gives holiness its worth and is the source of charity and love. We must keep this life hidden. God alone must possess the secret of it; it could not be revealed to man without the soul's being exposed to pride. God has reserved this life for Himself and wants to direct it Himself. Even a Saint would not be equal to the task. It is the nuptial relation of the soul with God which takes place in the privacy of the oratory with the doors closed. Intra in cubiculum tuum, et clauso ostio, ora Patrem tuum in abscondito. "Enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret." It is hard to "pray in secret." We are always eager to be up and doing; we are always thinking of what we will do or say in this or that circumstance. We have not the key to prayer. We cannot keep quiet. Look at our Lord in the Host: He prays; He is the Great Suppliant of the Church. By His prayer He obtains more than all creatures put together; but He prays in His state of self-abasement. Who sees His prayer? Who hears Him praying? The Apostles saw Him pray on earth; they could hear His groanings in the garden of Olives. But here, nothing! His prayer is then most hidden; but it is all the more powerful for its being more sacrificed. Press a sponge, and it gives up the liquid it contained. We must have compression to develop a great force of expansion. Well, our Lord abases Himself, reduces Himself to nothing, compresses Himself so that His love may "spring up" to His Father with, infinite force. The contemplative soul sees in Him her model. She does not want to be known; she wants to be alone; she collects her thoughts and retires within herself. How many souls there are whom the world despises but who are most powerful because their prayer is like the humble and hidden prayer of Jesus Hostia! They need the Eucharist to nourish and sustain this hidden and intense prayer. Were they to try being self-sufficient, they would go out of their minds. Jesus alone can with His gentleness temper the force of that prayer. The interior life consists also in immolation. The senses, the body, and the faculties must be kept quiet if the soul is to be free and undisturbed in prayer. Every soul that wants to perfect herself interiorly must sustain within herself a combat which is beyond comparison. Here again our Lord's life of self-abasement is our model. Who immolates himself more than He? Some say that He does not suffer any more. But in order to have a real immolation, it is not necessary to have actual suffering; it suffices to place oneself, in the state and will of sacrifice. It is a mistake to think that the merit of sacrifice depends entirely on our feeling pain actually and exteriorly. Many persons say: "I have no merit, for nothing is hard for me to do. I do everything easily; therefore I am doing nothing for God." That leads one to abandon the path of holiness. Piety so loves to see what it is doing, and to feel that it is doing something, that it is giving. But, tell me, do you count for nothing the first sacrifice you had to make to begin practicing this or that virtue? Undoubtedly it cost you something. And is not the repetition of that act also something? Does it not prove the perseverance of your will? Remember that sacrifice exists in the will; and although force of habit may dull the sting of sacrifice, still the will remains steadfast and strengthens itself by habit. The agony, the death to self comes at the beginning, with the first act; then, peace returns to the soul; but the merit lasts and increases with the repetition and continuation of the sacrifice. Out of filial love we sustain heroic sacrifices with simplicity, without feeling the cost of them. Out of love of God the Saints endure great sufferings with joy. Are those sacrifices and sufferings of less value because they are accompanied by a happiness which makes them less felt? Well, our Lord does not suffer in the Sacrament, but He has voluntarily assumed this state of immolation. The merit was acquired at the outset when Jesus, aware of the contumelies and abuses He would have to endure on the part of men, accepted everything, instituted the Sacrament, and clothed Himself in the state of victim. This merit certainly endures; it is not exhausted. Our Lord's will embraced every age and clime, and accepted everything freely. And to give a proof of His continued will to be immolated, He commanded His Church to represent His immolation at Holy Mass by the separation of the accidents of wine from those of i bread, and by the breaking of the Host into three parts. In Communion He loses His sacramental being in the body of the communicant. Do you see this continual immolation? We do not understand the mystery which, in the Eucharist, unites life and immolation, glory and humiliation. This is a mystery which God alone knows. Here again our Lord teaches the interior soul to make her intimate sufferings known to God alone. Let us not reveal our sufferings to men! They would pity us or praise us, but to our detriment. Look at your model in the Blessed Sacrament. Oh! How many of those who pray and who communicate know nothing of our Lord's hidden action! They do not even suspect it. Our Lord also teaches us to conceal the external acts of the Christian life and not to receive even deserved praise for them. To imitate Him, we allow others to see only the wretched side of our good works; the other side will shine all the more in Heaven. We ought to act thus every time we are free to give our actions the outward form we want. When we must perform good works in public, let us do our best for the sake of edification. But if they are personal good works, let us conceal them and we shall be acting according to our Eucharistic grace. Who sees our Lord's virtues? By way of a conclusion to all this, recall the self-abasement of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Abase yourself like Him. Destroy yourself, as it were; He must increase, and you must decrease. Let self-abasement be the characteristic of your virtue and of your whole life. Become like the Species that have nothing left of their own and subsist only by a miracle. Have no longer any consideration for yourself; expect nothing from yourself; and do nothing for yourself; practice self-abasement.   Contact Us HOME------------------------HOLY EUCHARIST www.catholictradition.org/Eucharist/real-presence36.htm