Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/529



THE MOST HOLY EUCHARIST. 523

He yet more closely associates and unites him with Himself. For there is this difference between the food of the body and that of the soul, that whereas the former is changed into our substance, the latter changes us into its own; so that St. Augustine makes Christ Himself say: "You shall not change Me into yourself as you do the food of your body, but you shall be changed into Me." * Moreover, in the most admirable Sacrament, which is the chief means whereby men are engrafted on the divine Tiature, men also find the most efficacious help towards progress in every kind of virtue. And first of all in faith. In all ages faith has been attacked ; for although it elevates the human mind by bestowing on it the knowledge of the highest truths, yet because, while it makes known the existence of divine mysteries, it yet leaves in obscurity the mode of their being, it is therefore thought to degrade the intellect. But whereas in past times particular articles of faith have been made by turns the object of attack, the seat of w^ar has since been enlarged and ex- tended, until it has come to this, that men deny alto- gether that there is anything above and beyond nature. Now nothing can be better adapted to promote a renewal of the strength and ferv^or of faith in the human mind than the mystery of the Eucharist, the "mystery of faith," as it has been most appropriately called. For in this one mystery the entire supernatural order, with all its wealth and variety of wonders, is in a manner summed up and contained: He hath made a reTnemhrance of His wonderful works, a merciful and gracious Lord; He hath given food to them that fear Him? For whereas God has subordinated the whole supernatural order to the Incar- nation of His Word, in virtue whereof salvation has been restored to the human race, according to those w^ords of the Apostle: He hath purposed. . . to re-establish all things in Christ, that are in heaven and on earth, in Him?

Â» Confessions L vii., e. x. ^ Psalm ex. 4, 5.

Â»Eph. L 9, 10.