Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Having by His divine light added fresh appreciation towards the sovereign mystery of the august Trinity, the Holy Ghost next leads the Church to contemplate that other marvel which concentrates in itself all the works of the Incarnate Word and leads us, even in this present life, to union with God. The mystery of the Holy Eucharist is going to be brought before us in all its magnificence: it behoves us therefore to prepare the eyes of our soul for the worthy reception of the light which is so soon to dawn on us. As during the whole year, we have never lost sight of the mystery of the Holy Trinity and all our worship has unceasingly been offered to the Three divine Persons. So, in like manner, the Blessed Eucharist has uninterruptedly accompanied us throughout the whole period of the Liturgical Year, either as the means for our paying our homage to the infinite Majesty of God, or as the nourishment which sustains the supernatural life.
Though we knew and loved these two ineffable mysteries before, yet the graces of Pentecost have added much to both our knowledge and our love. Yesterday the mystery of the Trinity beamed on us with a greater clearness than ever, and now we are close to the solemnity which is to show us the Holy Eucharist with an increase of light and joy to our faith. The Blessed Trinity is, as we have already shown, the essential object of all religion. It is the centre to which all our homage converges and this, even when we do not seem to make it our direct intention.
Now, the Holy Eucharist is the best of all the means by which we can give to the Three divine Persons the worship we owe Them. It is, moreover, the bond by which Earth is united with Heaven. It is easy, therefore, to understand how it was that holy Church so long deferred the institution of the two festivals immediately following Whitsuntide. All the mysteries we have celebrated up to this time were contained in the august Sacrament which is the memorial and, so to say, the compendium of the wonderful things wrought in our favour by our Redeemer (Psalms cx. 4). It was the reality of Christ’s presence under the sacramental species that enabled us to recognise in the sacred Host at Christmas, the child that was born to us; in Passiontide, the Victim who redeemed us; and at Easter, the glorious conqueror of death. We could not celebrate all those admirable mysteries without the aid of the perpetual Sacrifice. Neither could that Sacrifice be offered up without its renewing and repeating them.
It was the same with the feasts of our Blessed Lady and the Saints — they kept us in the continual contemplation of the Holy Sacrament. When we honoured Mary on the solemnities of the Immaculate Conception, the Purification or the Annunciation, we were honouring Her who had, from her own substance, given that Body and Blood which was then offered on our altars. As to the Apostles and the Martyrs whose memories we solemnised, from where had they the strength to suffer so much and so bravely for the faith, but from the sacred banquet which we then celebrated, and which gives courage and constancy to them that partake of it? The Confessors and Virgins, as their feasts came round, seemed to us as so many lovely flowers in the garden of the Church, and that garden itself all fruitful with wheat and clusters of grapes because of the fertility given by Him who is called in the Scriptures both Wheat and Wine (Zacharias ix. 17).
Putting together all the means within our reach for honouring these blessed citizens of the heavenly court, we have chanted the grand Psalms of David, and hymns, and canticles, with all the varied formulas of the Liturgy: but nothing that we could do towards celebrating their praise could be compared to the Holy Sacrifice offered to the divine Majesty. It is in that Sacrifice that we entered into direct communication with them according to the energetic term used by the Church in the Canon of the Mass (communicantes). The blessed in Heaven are ever adoring the Most Holy Trinity by and in Christ Jesus our Lord: and it is by the Sacrifice of the Mass that we were united with them in the one same centre, and that we mingled our homage with theirs. Hence, they received an increase of glory and happiness. So, then, the Holy Eucharist, both as Sacrifice and Sacrament, has always been prominently before us. If we are now going to devote several days to a more attentive consideration of its magnificence and power, if we are now going to make more earnest efforts to taste more fully its heavenly sweetness, it is not a something fresh, which attracts our special notice and devotion for a season, and will then give way for something else: no, the Eucharist is that element prepared for us by the love of our Redeemer, of which we must always avail ourselves in order that we may enter into direct communication with our God, and pay Him the debt not only of our worship, but also of our love.
And yet, the time would come when the Holy Ghost who governs the Church would inspire her with the thought of instituting a special solemnity in honour of that august mystery in which all others are included. There is a sacred element which gives a meaning to every feast that occurs during the Year, and graces it with the beauty of its own divine splendour. That sacred element is the Most Holy Eucharist, and itself had a right to a solemn festival in keeping with the dignity of its divine object. But that festive exaltation of the divine Host, and those triumphant processions so deservedly dear to the present generation of Christians, were not practicable in the ages of the early Persecutions. And when those rough times had passed away and the courageous Martyrs had won victory for the Church, those same modes of honouring the Eucharist would not have suited the spirit and form of the primitive liturgical observances, which were kept up for ages following. Neither were they needed for the maintenance of the lively faith of those times. They would have been superfluous for a period such as that was, when the solemnity of the Sacrifice itself, and the share the people at large took in the sacred Mysteries, and the uninterrupted homage of liturgical chants sustained by the crowds of faithful adorers around the altar, gave praise and glory to God, secured correctness of faith, and fostered in the people a superabundance of supernatural life, which is not to be found nowadays. The divine Memorial produced its fruits, the intentions our Lord had in instituting the Eucharist were realised, and the remembrance of that institution, which used then to be solemnised as we now celebrate Mass on Maundy Thursday, was deeply impressed on the minds of the Faithful.
This state of things lasted till the beginning of the thirteenth century when, as the Church expresses it, a certain coldness took possession of the world. Faith grew weak, and the vigorous piety which characterised the Christians of the previous ages became exceedingly rare. There were grand exceptions, here and there, of individual saintliness, but there was an unmistakable falling off amid people at large, and the falling off was progressive: so much so, indeed, that there was danger that the Mystery which by its very nature is the Mystery of Faith would suffer in a special manner from that coldness, that indifference, of the new generation. Even at that period, Hell had been at work stirring up sacrilegious teachers here and there who dared to throw doubts on the dogma of the Real Presence. Fortunately the people easily took alarm and, as a general rule, were too strong in the old faith to be led astray. The Pastors, too, of the Church were alive to the danger, for there were souls who allowed themselves to be deceived. Scotus Erigena had formulated the sacramentarian heresy: he had taught that the Eucharist “was but a sign, a figure of spiritual union with Jesus, of which the intellect alone could be cognizant.” His teaching made little impression. It was regarded as mere pedantry, and was too novel to make head against Catholic Tradition, such as was to be found exposed in the learned writings of Paschasius Padbert, Abbot of Corbie.
The sophistry of Scotus was revived in the eleventh century by Berengarius, but although its new promoter was more crafty and conceited than its originator, and did greater and more lasting mischief, yet it died with him. The time for Hell to play havoc with such direct attacks as these had not yet come. They were laid aside for others of a more covert kind. That hotbed of heresies, the empire of Byzantium, fostered the almost extinct germ of Manicheism. The teaching of that sect regarding the flesh — that it is the work of the evil principle — was subversive of the dogma of the Eucharist. While Berengarius was trying to bring himself into notice by the noisy but ineffectual broachings of his errors, Thrace and Bulgaria were quietly sending their teachers into the West. Lombardy, the Marches and Tuscany became infected. So did Austria, in several places, and almost all at one and the same time. So too did three cities of France — Orleans, Toulouse and Arras. Forcible measures for repressing the evil were used, but it was one which knew how to grow strong by retreat. Taking the south of France for the basis of its operations, the foul heresy silently organised its strength during the whole of the twelfth century. So great was the progress it made thus unperceived, that when it came publicly before the world at the beginning of the thirteenth century, it had an army ready for the maintenance of its impious doctrines. Torrents of blood had to be shed in order to subdue it and deprive it of its strongholds, and for years after the defeat of the armed insurrection the Inquisition had to exercise active watchfulness in the provinces that had been tainted by the Albigensian contagion.
Simon of Montfort was the avenger of the Catholic faith. But while the victorious arm of the Christian hero was dealing a death-blow to heresy, God was preparing for His Son, who had been so unworthily outraged by the sectarians in the Sacrament of His Love, a triumph of a more peaceful kind, and a more perfect reparation. It was in 1208 that a humble Religious of the Congregation of the Hospitallers by name the Blessed Juliana of Mont-Cornillon, near Liége, had a mysterious vision in which she beheld the moon at its full, but having a hollow on its disc. In spite of all her efforts to divert herself from what she was afraid was an illusion, the same vision appeared before her as often as she set herself to pray. After two years of such efforts and earnest supplications, it was revealed to her that the moon signified the Church as it then was and that hollow she observed on its disc expressed the want of one more solemnity in the Liturgical Year — a want which God willed should be supplied by the introduction of a feast to be kept annually in honour of the institution of the Blessed Eucharist: the solemn commemoration made of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday was no longer sufficient for the children of the Church, shaken as they had been by the influences of heresy. It was not sufficient even for the Church herself who, on that Thursday, has her attention divided by the important functions of the day, and is wholly taken up a few hours later by the sad mysteries of the great Friday.
At the same time that Juliana received this communication, she was also commanded to set to work and make known to the world what she had been told was the divine will. Twenty years, however, passed, before the humble and timid virgin could bring herself to put her person thus forward. She at length mentioned the subject to a Canon of Saint Martin’s of Liége, named John of Lausanne, whom she much respected for his great holiness of life. And she besought him to confer with men of theological learning on the subject of the mission confided to her. All agreed that not only there was no reason why such a feast should not be instituted but, moreover, that it would be a means for procuring much glory to God, and great good to souls. Encouraged by this decision, the saintly Juliana got a proper Office composed and approved for the future Festival. It begins with the words: Animarum cibus, and a few portions are still extant.
The Church of Liége, to which the universal Church owes the yesterday’s solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, was predestined to have the honour of originating the Feast of Corpus Christi. It was a happy day when in 1246, after so many delays and difficulties, the then Bishop of Liége, Robert de Torôte, published a synodical decree that each year, on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, there should be observed in all the Churches of his Diocese, with rest from servile work, and with the preparation of fasting on the eve, a solemn Feast in honour of the Blessed Sacrament.
But the mission of the Blessed Juliana was far from being at an end. She had to be punished for having so long deferred it. The Bishop died, and the decree he had issued would have long been a dead letter had there not been one, the only one, Church of the Diocese whose clergy were determined to carry the decree into execution: these were the Canons of Saint Martin-au-Mont. Though there was no authority during the vacancy that cared to enforce the observance, yet in 1247 the Feast of Corpus Christi was kept in that privileged Church. Robert’s successor, Henry de Gueldre, a warrior and grandee, took no interest in what his predecessor had had so much at heart. Hugh de Saint Cher, Cardinal of Saint Sabina and Legate in Germany, having gone to Liége with a view to remedy the disorders to which the new episcopal government had given rise, heard mention of the decree of the late Bishop Robert, and of the new Feast. The Cardinal had formerly been Prior and Provincial in the Order of Saint Dominic, and was one of the theologians who, having been consulted by John de Lausanne, had favoured the project. He was of the same mind when Legate, and claimed the honour of keeping the Feast himself, and singing Mass with much solemnity. Not satisfied with that, he issued a Circular dated December 29, 1253, which he addressed to the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots and Faithful of the territory of his legation. And in that document he confirmed the decree of the Bishop of Liége, and extended it to all the country over which he was Legate, granting one hundred days’ indulgence to all who, contrite and after confession of their sins, should on the Feast itself, or during its Octave, devoutly visit a Church in which the Office of Corpus Christi was being celebrated. In the year following the Cardinal of Saint George in Velabro who had succeeded as Legate confirmed and renewed the ordinances made by the Cardinal of Saint Sabina.
These reiterated decrees, however, failed to remove the widespread indifference. A terrible blow had been given by the proposed Feast to the powers of Hell, and Satan excited every possible opposition to it. As soon as the Legates had taken their departure, several local Superiors, men of note and authority, published their own ordinances in opposition to what had been already given. In 1258, the year of the Blessed Juliana’s death, there was still but the single Church of Saint Martin that would celebrate the Feast, which it was her mission to spread throughout the entire world. But she left the continuation of her work to a holy recluse of the name of Eve, to whom she had confided her secrets.
On the 29th day of August 1261 James Pantaléon ascended the papal throne under the name of Urban IV. He owed his election to this dignity of his great personal merits for, by birth, he had nothing to recommend him. He had been Archdeacon of Liége, and there had met with the Blessed Juliana and had approved her work. In this his exaltation to the papacy Eve thought she had an indication of God’s providence. She induced the Bishop, Henry de Gueldre, to send his written congratulations to the new Pontiff and at the same time to entreat him to confirm, by his own approbation, the Feast which had been instituted by Robert de Torôte. About that same time, several supernatural events had attracted public attention, and in particular, the prodigy at Bolsena near Orvieto where the papal court happened to be then residing — the prodigy of a corporal having been stained with blood by a miraculous Host. These events seemed as though providentially permitted in order to rouse Urban’s attention and confirm him in the holy zeal he had formerly evinced for the glory of the Blessed Sacrament. Saint Thomas of Aquinas was appointed to compose, according to the Roman rite, the Office for the Feast, which Office was to be substituted for the one prepared by the Blessed Juliana, and which she had adapted to the ancient liturgy of France. The Bull Transiturus was published soon after. It made known to the Church the Pope’s intentions. Urban there mentions the revelations which had come to his knowledge before his election and declares that, in virtue of his apostolic authority, for the confounding of heresy and the increase of the true faith, he institutes a special Solemnity in honour of the divine Memorial left by Christ to His Church. The day there fixed for the Feast is the fifth Feria (that is, the Thursday) after the Octave of Pentecost, for the Papal document does not mention, as the decree of the Bishop of Liége had done, the Feast of the Blessed Trinity, which had not yet been received into the calendar of the Church of Rome.
In imitation of what had been done by Hugh de Saint Cher, the Pontiff granted a hundred days’ indulgence to all the Faithful who, being contrite and having confessed their sins, should assist at Mass, or Matins, or at first or second Vespers, of the Feast. And for assisting at Prime, Tierce, Sext, None and Compline, forty days for each of those Hours. He also granted a hundred days for each day within the Octave to those who should assist, on any such day, at the Mass and the entire Office. Though thus entering into all these details, there is not an allusion to the Procession, for it was not introduced till the following century.
All now seemed settled: and yet, owing to the troubles which were then so rife in Italy and the Empire, the Bull of Urban IV was forgotten and remained a dead letter. Forty years and more elapsed before it was again promulgated and confirmed by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne. John XXII gave it the force of a settled law by inserting it in the Clementines about the year 1318, and he had thus the honour of putting the finishing hand to the great work which had taken upwards of a century for its completion.
The Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, or, as it is commonly called, Corpus Christi, began a new phase in the Catholic worship of the Holy Eucharist. But in order to understand this we must go more thoroughly into the question of Eucharistic worship as practised in the previous ages of the Church: the inquiry is one of importance for the full appreciation of the great Feast for which we must now be preparing our souls. No preparation, so it seems to us, could be more to the point than the devoting the two next days to a faithful and compendious study of the chief features in the history of the Blessed Eucharist.
IT belongs to you, Holy Spirit, to teach us the history of so great a Mystery. Scarcely has your reign begun upon the Earth when, faithful to your divine mission of glorifying our Emmanuel (John xvi. 14) who has ascended into Heaven, you at once raise our eyes and hearts up to that best gift of His love by which we still possess Him under the Eucharistic veil. During those long ages of the expectation of nations, you brought the “Word before mankind.” You spoke of Him in the Scriptures, you proclaimed Him by the Prophets. You that are the Gift of the Most High! (2 Peter i. 19-21) You are also infinite Love and it is through you, as such, that are wrought all the manifestations which God vouchsafes to make to us His creatures. It was you that brought this divine Person, the Word, into the womb of the immaculate Virgin Mary, there to clothe Him with sinless flesh and so make Him our Brother and our Saviour. And now that He has ascended to His Father and our Father (John xx. 17), depriving us of the sight of His human nature, all beauteous with its perfections and charms; now that we have to go through this vale of tears deprived of His visible company, He has sent you to us (Luke xxiv. 49), and you are come, divine Spirit, as our Consoler. But the consolation you bring us, dear Paraclete, is ever the same — it is the faithful remembrance of our Jesus (John xiv. 26). Yes, more, it is His divine Presence perpetuated by you in the Sacrament of Love. We had been already told that this would be so, that you would not speak of yourself (John xvi. 13) or for yourself, but that you would come to give testimony of the Emmanuel (John xv. 26), continue His work, and produce His divine likeness in each one of us.
How admirable is this your fulfilment of your sublime mission, which is all for the glory of Jesus! Divine Spirit, Guardian of the Word in the Church! it is far beyond our power to describe how great is your vigilance over the word of teaching, brought by the Saviour to this Earth of ours, a teaching which is the true expression of Himself and which, coming as He Himself does from the mouth of the Father, is the nourishment of His Bride here below (Matthew iv.). But with what infinite respect and vigilance, Holy Spirit, do you not preside over the august Sacrament in which is present, with all the reality of His adorable Flesh, that same Incarnate Word who from the very first of creation was the centre and object of all your dealings with creatures!
It is by the mystery which is produced by your omnipotence that the exiled Bride recovers her Spouse. It is by you that she traverses the long ages of time holding and prizing her infinite treasure. It is by you that she, with such superhuman wisdom, puts it to profit by so arranging, so modifying her discipline, yes, her very life, as to secure in each age of time the greatest possible faith, respect and love towards the Divine Eucharist. If she anxiously hides It from the profane men that would only turn their knowledge into blasphemy, or if she lavishes on It all that Liturgy can give of pomp and magnificence, or if again, she brings It forth from her sacred temples and triumphantly carries It in processions through the crowded streets of cities or the green lanes of the quiet country, it is you, divine Spirit, that inspires her with what is best. It is your divine foresight that suggests to her what is the surest means for gaining, in each respective period and age, the most of honour and love for that Jesus of hers, who is ever present in the Sacred Host, and who deigns to let His love be delighted with being thus among the children of men (Proverbs vii. 31).
Vouchsafe, Holy Ghost, to aid us in our contemplations of this sacred Mystery. Enlighten our understandings, inflame our hearts, during these hours of preparation for its Feast. Give to our souls the knowledge of that Jesus who is coming to us beneath the Sacramental veil. May this holy Mystery be to us, during this last portion of the year and its liturgy, our Bread to support us on the journey we have still to make through the desert before we can reach the mount of God (3 Kings xix.). We have yet a great way to go, and a way so different from the one we have already passed through when we had the company of our Jesus in the Mysteries He was working for our salvation. Be you, Holy Spirit, our guide in those paths which the Church, under your direction, is courageously traversing, and is every day approaching nearer to the end of her pilgrimage here below. Yet, scarcely have we entered on this second portion of our Year, than you, divine Spirit, bring us to the banquet prepared by divine Wisdom (Wisdom ix.) where the pilgrim gets the strength he needs for his journey. We will walk on, then, in the strength of this heavenly food (3 Kings xix. 8), and when our course is run we will, with the same Bread to support us, cry out with the Spirit and the Bride that our Lord Jesus may come (Apocalypse xxii. 17) to us at that last hour, and admit us into His eternal kingdom.
