The Institution of the Most Holy Sacrament

Consummatum est. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Our Lenten meditations continue with posts taken from a Simple Exposition of the Circumstances of the Passion of Jesus Christ (1761) by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori.

I have inserted references in the text to numbered footnotes. These references are not hyperlinked but may be found by scrolling to the end of the relevant paragraph.

Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. Tecum tutus semper sum.
Ad Jesum per Mariam.

This grace I ask of thee to-day: obtain for me a continual remembrance of the passion of Jesus, and of thine also, and a tender devotion to them.

Take ye and eat, this is My body. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke it, and gave to His disciples and said, Take ye and eat, this is My body.[1] After the washing of the feet, an act of humility the practice of which Jesus recommended to his disciples, he took his garments, and, sitting down again to table, wished to give men the last proof of the tender love that he had for them, and that was the institution of the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar.

He took for that purpose bread, consecrated it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take and eat, this is my body. He then recommended them as often as they should communicate to remember the death which he suffered for their sake. As often as you shall eat this bread . . . you shall show the death of the Lord.[2]

[1] [26] And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to his disciples, and said: Take ye, and eat. This is my body.
Coenantibus autem eis, accepit Jesus panem, et benedixit, ac fregit, deditque discipulis suis, et ait : Accipite, et comedite : hoc est corpus meum. [Matt 26]
[2] [26] For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come.
Quotiescumque enim manducabitis panem hunc, et calicem bibetis, mortem Domini annuntiabitis donec veniat. [1 Cor 11]

Jesus Christ did then, what a dying prince who tenderly loved his spouse would do: he selects among all his gems and jewels the most beautiful and costly; he then calls his spouse and says to her, O my dear spouse, I am going to die; and, that thou mayest not forget me, I leave thee this gem as a memorial of me. when thou dost look at it, remember me and the love I have borne thee. “No tongue,” says St. Peter of Alcantara, in his meditations, “is able to express the greatness of the love which Jesus bears to every soul. Hence, that his absence might not be an occasion of forgetting him, he left, before his departure from this world, to his spouse this Most Holy Sacrament, in which he himself remained, wishing that between them there should be no other pledge than himself to keep alive the remembrance of him.”

We may then imagine how pleasing it is to Jesus Christ that we remember his Passion, since he has instituted the sacrament of the altar, that we may preserve a continual remembrance of the immense love which he has shown us in his death.

O my Jesus, O God enamoured of souls! has Thy affection for men enraptured Thee to such a degree as to make Thyself their food? Tell me what more remains for Thee to do in order to oblige us to love Thee? In the Holy Communion Thou givest Thyself to us entirely and without reserve: it is then but just that we give our whole being unreservedly to Thee. I wish to be all Thine, I wish to love nothing but Thee, my God. Thou hast said that he who eats Thy flesh lives only for Thee. He that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me. 4776 Since then Thou hast so often permitted me to eat Thy flesh, make me die to myself that I may live only for Thee, only to serve Thee, and give Thee pleasure. My Jesus, I wish to fix all my affections in Thee: assist assist me to be faithful to Thee.

[3] [58] As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me.
Sicut misit me vivens Pater, et ego vivo propter Patrem : et qui manducat me, et ipse vivet propter me. [John 6]

St. Paul remarks the time in which Jesus Christ instituted this great sacrament, and says, The Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and giving thanks, broke, and said, Take ye and eat: this is My body.[4] O God, on the very night in which men were preparing to put him to death, the loving Redeemer prepared for us this bread of life and of love to unite us entirely to himself, as he declared when he said, He that eateth My flesh abideth in Me, and I in him.[5]

[4] [23] For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.
Ego enim accepi a Domino quod et tradidi vobis, quoniam Dominus Jesus in qua nocte tradebatur, accepit panem,
[24] And giving thanks, broke, and said: Take ye, and eat: this is my body, which shall be delivered for you: this do for the commemoration of me.
et gratias agens fregit, et dixit : Accipite, et manducate : hoc est corpus meum, quod pro vobis tradetur : hoc facite in meam commemorationem.  [1 Cor 11]
[5] [57] He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.
qui manducat meam carnem et bibit meum sanguinem, in me manet, et ego in illo. [John 6]

O love of my soul, worthy of infinite love! Thou canst not give greater proofs of Thy affection and tender love for me. Ah, draw me entirely to Thyself: if I know not how to give Thee my whole heart, take it Thou to Thyself. Ah, my Jesus, when shall I be all Thine, as Thou dost make Thyself all mine when I receive Thee in this sacrament of love? Ah, enlighten me, and unfold to me always more and more Thy amiable qualities, which render Thee so worthy of love, that I may be always more and more enamoured of Thee, and may be wholly employed in pleasing Thee. I love Thee, O my sovereign good, my joy, my love, my all.