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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 4 · On the Blessed Sacrament
Chapter 2Imit.4.2

Quod magna charitas et bonitas Dei in Sacramento exhibetur homini.

The Humble Approach to the Savior

The soul approaches Christ in the Eucharist with deep humility, confessing its unworthiness and marveling at God's condescension.

Trusting in your goodness and your great mercy, Lord, I come — a sick person to the Savior, hungering to the fountain of life, destitute to the King of heaven, a thirsting servant to the Lord, a creature to the Creator, forsaken to my merciful Consoler. But whence is this to me — that you would come to me? Who am I that you would give yourself to me? How dare a sinner appear before you? And how do you deign to come to a sinner? You know your servant, and you know there is nothing good in him on account of which you would grant him this. I therefore confess my worthlessness; I acknowledge your goodness; I praise your loving-kindness; and I give thanks for your surpassing love. You do this for your own sake, not because of my merits — so that your goodness may become more fully known to me, a greater love may be poured in, and humility may be more perfectly commended.1 Because this pleases you and you have commanded it to be done this way, your gracious condescension pleases me as well — and would that my wickedness might not stand in the way.

The Dignity of Christ's Body and the Soul's Response

The soul contemplates the incomprehensible dignity of Christ's holy Body and resolves that its only fitting response is total self-humbling and praise of God's infinite goodness.

O sweetest and most kind Jesus, what reverence and thanksgiving with perpetual praise is owed to you for the receiving of your holy Body — whose dignity no man alive is found able to unfold. But what shall I think upon in this Communion, as I approach my Lord — whom I cannot duly venerate, and yet devoutly desire to receive? What better and more wholesome thought can I have than to humble myself wholly before You, and to exalt Your infinite goodness above myself? I praise You, my God, and I exalt You forever. I despise myself and cast myself down before You into the depths of my own worthlessness.

The Holy One Bows to the Sinner

The soul beholds the staggering contrast between Christ's holiness and its own sinfulness, and marvels that the living Bread from heaven comes to dwell with and nourish the unworthy.

Look at the situation: you are the Holy One of saints, and I am nothing but the filth of sinners — yet you bow yourself down to me, though I am not even worthy to look up toward you. Look at the situation: you come to me, you want to be with me; you invite me to your feast, and you want to give me heavenly food and the bread of angels to eat — no one other than yourself, the living bread that came down from heaven, and you give life to the world.✦✦23

Praise for the Marvel of the Sacrament

The soul breaks into adoration at the love, sweetness, and power displayed in the Eucharist, culminating in wonder that true God and man is wholly contained under the appearance of bread and wine.

See where love comes from, what kind of condescension shines forth—how great are the thanksgivings and praises owed to you for these things.4 O how salutary and useful is your counsel, since you established this.5 How sweet and joyful a feast, since you gave yourself as food.6 O how marvelous is your working, Lord; how powerful is your strength, how unfailing is your truth. You spoke, and all things were made; and what you commanded has come to pass. A wonderful thing, worthy of faith and surpassing human understanding: that you, Lord my God, true God and man, are wholly contained under the small appearance of bread and wine, and are eaten by the one who receives, without being consumed.✦78

A Prayer for Purity and Perpetual Memorial

The soul prays that God would keep heart and body spotless so that it may worthily celebrate the mysteries for lasting salvation and God's eternal honor.

Lord of all, who need nothing from anyone, yet chose to dwell among us through your Sacrament — keep my heart and body spotless, so that with a joyful and pure conscience I may more often celebrate your mysteries and receive for my lasting salvation, which you have established and set in place especially for your honor and as a perpetual memorial.91011

The Valley of Tears and the Ever-Fresh Mystery

The soul is exhorted to rejoice in the Eucharist as a singular consolation in this valley of tears, to renew itself continually, and to celebrate Mass as if Christ were being born and crucified anew.

Rejoice, my soul, and give thanks to God for so noble a gift and so singular a consolation left to you in this valley of tears.12 For as often as you call this mystery to mind and receive the body of Christ, so often do you enact the work of your redemption and are made a partaker of all the merits of Christ. Indeed, the love of Christ is never diminished, and the greatness of his propitiation is never exhausted.1314 Therefore you ought always to dispose yourself toward this with a fresh renewal of mind, and to weigh the great mystery of salvation with attentive consideration. So it ought to seem to you something great, new, and joyful when you celebrate or hear Mass — as if on that very day Christ, descending into the Virgin's womb, were being made man for the first time, or as if, hanging on the cross, he were suffering and dying for the salvation of humankind.15

Read the original Latin

Super bonitate tua et magna misericordia tua, Domine, confisus, accedo æger ad salvatorem, esuriens ad fontem vitæ, egenus ad Regem cæli, et sitiens servus ad Dominum, creatura ad Creatorem, desolatus ad meum pium Consolatorem. Sed unde mihi hoc ut venias ad me? Quis ego sum ut præstes mihi temetipsum? Quomodo audet peccator coram te apparere? Et quomodo tu dignaris ad peccatorem venire? Tu nosti servum tuum, et scis quia nihil boni in se est unde hoc illi præstes. Confiteor igitur vilitatem meam, agnosco tuam bonitatem, laudo pietatem, et gratias ago propter nimiam charitatem. Propter temetipsum hoc facis, non propter mea merita, ut bonitas tua mihi magis innotescat, charitas amplior ingeratur, et humilitas perfectius commendetur. Quia ergo tibi hoc placet et sic fieri jussisti, placet et mihi dignatio tua, et utinam iniquitas mea non obsistat.

O, dulcissime, et benignissime Jesu, quanta tibi reverentia et gratiarum actio cum perpetua laude pro susceptione sacri Corporis tui debetur: cujus dignitatem nullus hominum explicare potens invenitur. Sed quid cogitabo in hac Communione, in accessu ad Dominum meum, quem debite venerari nequeo et tamen devote suscipere desidero? Quid cogitabo melius et salubrius nisi me ipsum totaliter humiliando coram te et tuam infinitam bonitatem exaltando supra me? Laudo te, Deus meus, et in æternum exalto te. Despicio me et subicio tibi in profundum vilitatis meæ.

Ecce tu Sanctus Sanctorum, et ego sordes peccatorum: et inclinas te ad me, qui non sum dignus ad te respicere. Ecce tu venis ad me, tu vis esse mecum; tu invitas ad convivium tuum, tu mihi dare vis cælestem cibum et panem Angelorum ad manducandum, non alium sane quam teipsum, panem vivum, qui de cælo descendisti et das vitam mundo.

Ecce unde dilectio procedit, qualis dignatio illucescit; quam magnæ gratiarum actiones et laudes pro his tibi debentur. O, quam salutare et utile consilium tuum, cum istud constituisti. Quam suave et jucundum convivium, cum teipsum in cibum donasti. O, quam admirabilis operatio tua, Domine; quam potens virtus tua, quam infallibilis veritas tua. Dixisti enim et facta sunt omnia, et hoc factum es quod jussisti: mira res et fide digna ac humanum vincens intellectum, quod tu, Domine Deus meus, verus Deus et homo, sub modica panis specie et vini integer contineris et sine consumtione a sumente manducaris.

Tu, Domine universorum, qui nullius habens indigentiam voluisti per Sacramentum tuum habitare in nobis, conserva cor meum et corpus meum immaculatum, ut læta et pura conscientia sæpius valeam celebrare tua mysteria et ad meam perpetuam accipere salutem, quæ ad tuum præcipue honorem et memoriale perenne sanxisti et instituisti.

Lætare, anima mea, et gratias age Deo pro tam nobili munere et solatio singulari in hac lacrymarum valle tibi relicto. Nam quoties hoc mysterium recolis, et Christi corpus accipis, toties tuæ redemtionis opus agis et particeps omnium meritorum Christi efficeris: charitas etenim Christi nunquam minuitur, et magnitudo propitiationis ejus nunquam exhauritur. Ideo nova semper mentis renovatione ad hoc disponere te debes et magnum salutis mysterium attenta consideratione pensare. Ita magnum, novum et jucundum tibi videri debet, cum celebras aut missam audis, ac si eodem die Christus primum in uterum Virginis descendens homo factus esset, aut in cruce pendens pro salute hominum pateretur, et moreretur.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩John.6.51 — I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
  2. ↩Ps.78.25 — Man ate the bread of the mighty; provisions he sent them to the full.
  3. ↩Ps.33.9;Ps.33.9 — For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. Ps.33.9 — For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩charitas rendered as 'love' here carries the theological weight of divine charity; a footnote on 'charity/love' may be warranted in a full edition.
  2. 2 ↩Latin: 'bread of angels.' Candidate scriptural allusion — likely echoing Psalm 78:25 (Vulgate: panem angelorum manducavit homo) or the traditional identification of the Eucharist as angelic bread. Final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses check.
  3. 3 ↩Latin: 'the living bread that came down from heaven.' Candidate scriptural quotation — echoes John 6:51 (Vulgate: ego sum panis vivus qui de cælo descendi). Final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses check.
  4. 4 ↩dilectio rendered as love; gratiarum actiones as thanksgivings (acts of thanksgiving), not grace.
  5. 5 ↩cum rendered as since (causal), fitting the context of giving a reason for admiration.
  6. 6 ↩cum rendered as since (causal), giving the ground for the exclamation.
  7. 7 ↩Dixisti enim et facta sunt omnia echoes Psalm 33:9 (Vulgate) and Genesis creation language — 'You spoke and it was done.' Candidate allusion, pending Moses resolution.
  8. 8 ↩consumtione in normalized text is a variant spelling of consumptione; translated as 'being consumed.'
  9. 9 ↩Sacramentum rendered as Sacrament with Eucharistic specificity per Book 4 policy.
  10. 10 ↩The ut-clause after conserva is treated as purpose ('so that'); a result reading is also possible.
  11. 11 ↩Quæ (which) refers to the mysteries and/or the salvation; the relative clause links both to Christ's institution of the Sacrament for his honor and as a perpetual memorial.
  12. 12 ↩Traditional devotional image for the sorrows of earthly life; cf. the hymn 'Salve Regina' ('gementes et flentes in hac lacrymarum valle').
  13. 13 ↩Latin charitas: rendered 'love' per lexeme policy; the theological virtue of charity is in view.
  14. 14 ↩The atoning, reconciling work of Christ — his satisfaction for sin.
  15. 15 ↩The Latin ac si introduces a vivid comparative subjunctive: the liturgical celebration should feel as immediate and real as the original events of the Incarnation and Passion.