Jun
26
The Eucharist, hidden honey of the heart
June 26, 2008 |
Meditation in Novena to St. Romuald
From: In Praise of Hiddenness - by a Camaldolese Hermit edited fr. Louis-Albert Lassus O.P.
But I would now like to recall a comment that I have
sometimes heard on the lips of a brother and that often
reminds me of the attitude of some of us who are more
attracted to passing their “free time” before the Eucharistic
tabernacle of the hermitage’s church than to staying hidden
in the secret of the cell. It is certainly quite possible that
certain ones among us regret not being able to devote
themselves for a long time to adoration in the Presence of
the Lord in the church. The sensibility of the soul of each
of us is very personal and ought to be respected as much as
possible. However, the theologians can help us to see the
matter clearly, and this is what they say: The precise aim for
which Jesus wished to make Himself present in the Eucharist
was not so much the adoration of believers as fusion with
each and all in Holy Communion. Ultimately, Jesus comes
to make of each of us the privileged place of encounter with
the most Holy Trinity. “If anyone loves me,” He says, “my
Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our
abode with him.” (Jn 14:23) Now it is precisely recollection
in the cell that can bring us, little by little, into harmony with
this mysterious and blessed presence in us of the Trinity.
There can be no question here at all of an anti-Eucharistic
reaction, but of a serious awareness of our tremendous wealth
as baptized, unceasingly renewed and fortified by communion
in the Body and Blood of Christ. Now permanence in that
divine place that is precisely the cell, in silence, despoilment,
and austerity, cannot but favor a closer, more stable, and more
constant union with God. Our observances are certainly
broad enough to allow us to go to prostrate ourselves before
the tabernacle or to remain hidden in the cell, even though
the latter manner of acting corresponds more naturally to
the line of our eremitical vocation. And that is the reason
why, for example, we are not allowed to make our lectio
divina habitually in church. In the long run, the cell would
risk being considered a profane place for eating and sleeping
rather than the “parlor of the Holy Spirit”, as St. Damian so
rightly calls it.
