Page:HalfHoursWithTheSaints.djvu/41



Pere Antoine de  la  Porte  (Carmelite), Massillon,  St. Francis de  Sales  and St. Cyprian.

— Luke viii. ix.

ACCORDING to  St.  Augustine,  the  Divine  Word  falls  on a  weak  and  sensitive  element,  and  it  becomes  a  sacrament. This word  also  falls  on  impure  hearts,  and  it  makes  them chaste; on  the  wicked,  and  makes  them  saints. It finds them in  sin,  and  it  converts  them  to  God.

As in  the  most  wonderful  of  our  Sacraments,  those  words, Hoc est  Corpus  Meum,  are  transubstantiations  of  bread  into the Body  and  of  wine  into  the  Blood  of  the  Son  of  God, because they  are  not  the  words  of  the  priest,  but  the  words of Jesus  Christ,  offered  up  nevertheless  by  the  priest;  so  in like  manner  preachers  make  use  of  moral  but  wondrous transubstantiations, and  change  old  sinners  into  new  servants of  God.

What miraculous  wonders  has  not  this  Word  produced! It falls  on  the  heart  of  an%  adulterous  David,  and  it  makes him a  royal  penitent. It falls  on  the  heart  of  a  Magdalen; it finds  her  a  worshipper  of  sin,  and  it  makes  her  a  model of penance. It falls  on  Matthew,  and  from  a  public  usurer, it makes  him  an  Evangelist. You see  a  soul  enter  the Church — a soul  enamoured  of  the  world  and  full  of  vanity — it enters  into  the  Church;  it  pays  but  little  attention  to  the Word of  God,  and  immediately  a  penetrating  light  pierces the heart,  which  shows  the  bad  state  in  which  it  is. From