4 June, Antonio, Cardinal Bacci: Meditations For Each Day

The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Eucharist

1. It is from the loving Heart of Jesus that His innumerable gifts come to us – His graces, the Sacraments, the supernatural work of our redemption. His many acts of mercy and compassion, of which we read in the pages of the Gospel, show us the immensity of the love which His Heart bore for us.

The greatest of all His gifts to us is the Eucharist, for in the Eucharist He gives us not merely His gifts, but Himself, the author of all these gifts. There are three great mysteries which show us in a special way the infinite love of God for us and indicate, although in a manner which we cannot clearly comprehend, that He is love itself. “God is love.” (I John 4,8) These three mysteries are the Creation, the Incarnation and the Eucharist. God, infinitely perfect and happy in Himself, wished to impart something of His infinite perfection. He created the universe and made man master of it. But ungrateful man separated himself from God by sin. He became engulfed in an abyss of evil from which he was incapable of rising to return to God, his only good. Then God, in another mysterious act of love, became man. The Eternal Word assumed a human form, taught us the way to Heaven, gave us the means of reaching it, and died for our sins on the Cross. We could never meditate sufficiently on this profound mystery of love.

There was more to follow, however. When Jesus was returning to His heavenly Father, He wished to remain among us. During His earthly life He had given Himself completely up to the final immolation on Calvary. But He wished to give us Himself for all time until the end of the world. This is the explanation of the Eucharist, which is Jesus dwelling amongst us as our nourishment and as our consolation in life and at the hour of death.

2. By means of this wonderful gift, we can live the live of Jesus Himself.

It is our Lord Himself Who says to us: “As the living Father has sent me, and as I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also shall live because of me.” (John 6, 58) In other words, as He draws His divine and human life from the Father and lives by means of Him, to Whom as God He is substantially united and equal, so anyone who partakes of the Eucharist is united closely to Jesus, lives His life, and is transformed by His supernatural grace. When Holy Communion is received, therefore, as it ought to be and as the Saints received it, it leads to the mysterious union of which St. Paul speaks: “To me to live is Christ. (Phil. I, 21) It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2, 20)

The effect of Holy Communion on us should be similar to that of a graft upon a tree, whose life is thereby transformed and which begins to produce the fruit of the new shoot instead of the old trunk. We should no longer live the life of the old man, but that of the new, which is Jesus. We ought, therefore, to produce His divine fruits. Our actions will have a supernatural value because they are performed in Jesus and through Jesus. We should be very grateful to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for this gift of His infinite goodness. We should approach Holy Communion with humility, love, and complete self-surrender. Our hearts should be fused in the Heart of Jesus and our love should be fused in His infinite love.

3. May the most holy and divine Sacrament be praised and thanked at every moment.