From the fullness of
his grace we have all received one blessing
after another. For
the law was given through Moses;
grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ. - John 1: 16-17
Stained glass: Waltham
Abbey ~England
"This
is my Body" ~ "This is my Blood"; under no circumstance may the
is in these holiest of sentences be
interpreted as "means" or "is a symbol of" my Body and Blood. If ever the
Lord's admonition, "Let your speech be,
'Yes,
yes';'No,no'; and whatever is beyond these comes from the evil one"
(Matthew 5:37) was deeply urgent, it is here.
It is not only wrong but
sacrilegious to tamper with these words. What they express is simplest
truth, and what takes place pure reality. He
who speaks is neither a great nor the greatest religious personality of the millennia, but the
Son of God.
His words
are no expression of mystical profundity, but a command of Him who has all
earthly and heavenly power. They have no equivalent in
human speech, for they are words of Omnipotence. We can compare them
only with other words of the Lord, when "He arose and rebuked the wind and the sea, and
there came a great calm" (Matthew 8:26); or, to the leper:
"I will, be thou
made clean" (Matthew 8:3); or to Jairus' dead child,
"Girl,
arise!" (Luke 8:54). Their real equivalent is the Father's
"Be!" (light
made) from which creation itself emerged (Genesis 1:3).
Romano
Guardini
Meditations Before Mass (Sophia Press,
1993)
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