Page 323 - 聖母軍團員手冊（英文版，2014年5月-2022年1月更新版）

Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 318

318 GO PREACH THE GOSPEL CHAPTER 40
for their unbelief, for they had not grasped the real nature of
him who stood in their midst. But what is it that clouds the
minds of those persons who acknowledge the Divinity and
hence the omnipo tence of Christ? Surely these should see
how deceptive — how unthink able therefore — it would be
for that same Divine Person -— when solemnly addressing
simple folk — to say “My Body,” while meaning “not My
Body.” Let them absorb the ruthless logic of Pascal: “How I
detest this folly of not believing in the Eucharist. If the gospel
is true; if Jesus Christ is God; where is the difficulty in the
matter?”
The challenge of so overwhelming an idea as the Eucharist
cannot be heard unheeding. To hold up persistently to the
notice of those who are not Catholics this crowning glory of
the Church must force their minds to contemplate its
possibility; so that many will reason to themselves: “If this is
true, how dreadful is my present loss!” In the pang of that
thought will come the first big impulse towards their true
home.
Many earnest persons outside the Church read the
Scriptures, and in meditation and sincere prayer seek to draw
Jesus out from the dim past of history, rejoicing if their
imagination creates a vivid picture of their Lord engaged in
his works of love. O! if these souls could only understand that
in the Church there is the wonder of the Eucharist, which
could bring Jesus as he is, whole and entire, in all his physical
reality, with all his Divinity, into the sphere of their present
lives! If they could realise that by this means they could touch
him, talk to him, contemplate him, or busy themselves about
him more closely, more intimately by far than did his dear
friends at Bethany! Nay more! By Holy Communion in union
with Mary they could render to that Divine Body all the
loving cares of a Mother, and thus, in some sense, thank him
adequately for all that he has done for them. Surely the
unsurpassable good of the Eucharist has only to be explained
to multitudes outside the Church to cause them to yearn for
light. Then Jesus will give them understanding of the things
that are concerning him. Like the disciples journeying to
Emmaus, their hearts will burn within them as he speaks on
the way and opens to them the sense of that “hard saying” of
his: “Take, eat; this is My Body.” (Mt 26:26) And their eyes