Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/244

 such intimate union with man is not suited to thy divine majesty. But love seeks not reason; it goes not where it ought to go, but where it is drawn. ” Amor ratione caret, et vadit quo dicitur, non quo debeat." (Serm. cxliii.) St. Bernardino of Sienna says that, in giving himself for our food, Jesus Christ loved us to the last degree; because he united himself entirely to us, as food is united to those who eat it. "Ultimus gradus amoris est, cum se dedit nobis in cibum quia dedit se nobis ad omnimodam unionem, sicut cibus et cibans, invicem uniuntur." (Tom. 2, Serm. liv.) The same doctrine has been beautifully expressed by St. Francis de Sales. ” No action of the Saviour can be more loving or more tender than the institution of the holy eucharist, in which he, as it were, annihilates himself, and takes the form of food, to unite himself to the souls and bodies of his faithful servants." 6. Hence, there is nothing from which we can draw so much fruit as from the holy communion. St. Denis teaches, that the most holy sacrament has greater efficacy to sanctify souls than all other spiritual means. ” Eucharistia maxim am vim habet perficiendæ sanctitatis." St. Vincent Ferrer says, that a soul derives more profit from one communion than from fasting a week on bread and water. The eucharist is, according to the holy Council of Trent, a medicine which delivers us from venial, and preserves us from mortal sins. “Antidotum quo a culpis quotidianis liberemur, et a rnortalibus præservemur." Jesus himself has said, that they who eat him, who is the fountain of life, shall receive permanently the life of grace. "He that eateth me, the same shall also live by me." (John vi. 58.) Innocent the Third teaches, that by the passion Jesus Christ delivers us from the sins we have committed, and by the eucharist from the sins we may commit. According to St. Chrysostom, the holy communion inflames us with the fire of divine love, and makes us objects of terror to the devil. ” The eucharist is a fire which inflames us, that, like lions breathing fire, we may retire from the altar, being made terrible to the devil." (Hom. lxi. ad Pop. Ant.) In explaining the words of the Spouse of the Canticles, "He brought me into the