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J.M.J.
The
Transfiguration of the Lord and Savior
Lord, it is good for us to be here
(from
today's Holy Gospel, Mt. 17.4 – Second Sunday in Lent)
A
short time before Our Lord's transfiguration on Mount Thabor in
Galilee, He declared Peter blessed for
confessing what the Heavenly Father revealed – that the Messias is
not only the Son of man but
also a divine Person: the Son of the living God (16.16);
but, from that time, Jesus began to show to His disciples,
that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the
ancients, and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the
third day rise again (v.21): a
truth which Peter could not accept – why he got this severe rebuke
from the Lord and Master: Go behind Me, Satan, thou art a
scandal to Me: because thou savorest not the things that are of God,
but the things that are of men (v.23).
The
Lord and Savior, already foresaw this human weakness in the face of
pain, suffering, and death. But He would not do away with these
facets of defeat – not until the most glorious manifestation of His
ultimate triumph over sin and evil, their cause, at the end of time;
rather, He would transform them into instruments of Christian victory
– but only in so far as they are attached to the Cross and
saturated by His Most Sacred and Precious Blood. He was moved,
therefore, with compassion for them and their weakness since He also
foreknew the severe trials to which His disciples would shortly be
subjected in witnessing His bitter Passion and death, as well as the
more distant crosses which, when He had finally departed from them,
would be theirs on their battle for eternal life and happiness with
God, and to strengthen them for their burdens ahead and give them a
foretaste of the eternal rewards, He took apart those most devoted to
Him, and unfolded to their eyes a glimpse of His divine glory.
Effects
similar to those which the three Apostles experienced on Mount thabor
are wrought in the souls of those who assist at the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass and partake worthily of Holy Communion – they are
fortified* against the assault of passion,
they are powerfully assisted in bearing the crosses of life, and they
receive here below a foretaste of heavenly – not a sentimental or
emotional – joy and bliss. So that truly, each time the worthy
communicant kneels before our traditional sacred altar, he can say
with Peter, Lord
it is good for us to be here.
---
*
Something which the “New 'Mass'” - as with the other “New
'Sacraments'” and “New 'Sacramentals'” - with its “ineffective
prayers”
(claims Fr. Gabriel Amorth, Vatican's Chief Exorcist, on the “New
Rite of Exorcism” even approved by a Vatican II-Pope which is just
a Sacramental) does not confer as experiences and the widespread
basest perversions in and out of the institutional Church that has
become 'possessed' for the headquarters, especially the Vatican of Ecumenical “Disorientation” (Our Lady of Fatima), by the
infiltrators-propagandists of the pseudo-Church (cf., our post “TheYeart 1929”) eloquently testify.
---
The Holy Eucharist
– made present on the altar according to our sacred Traditional
Rite – is the living fountain of graces, whereas the other
Traditional Sacraments are so many streams conveying graces to our
souls; the former contains the Author of grace Himself, the latter
contain grace.
The grace of the
Holy Eucharist is superior to that of the other Sacraments; these
others are but a preparation for and ordained to Holy Communion;
Baptism and Penance remove sin, Confirmation and Extreme Unction
strengthen the soul against external assaults of spiritual debility,
Holy Orders and Matrimony dispose a man for the proper fulfillment of
certain special duties. Thus the grace of each of the other
Sacraments is a preparation for the crowning grace of the Holy
Eucharist.
The grace of this
Most Holy Sacrament is that of spiritual nourishment by which the
soul is transformed into the likeness of Christ. The results of this
grace are similar to those which ordinary food produces in the body –
it repairs; it strengthens; it delights; it sustains. The Holy
Eucharist: by remitting venial sins repairs the losses which the soul
suffers through these sins; it strengthens the soul by uniting man
through charity more closely with God and his neighbor; it delights
the soul by exciting actual devotion and fervor; it sustains the soul
by fortifying it against temptation, by repressing the inordinate
cravings of the flesh for sensual pleasures and passion, and by
facilitating the attainment of eternal life.
As natural food is
not of use t one who is physically dead, so neither does Holy
Communion produces spiritual nourishment in a soul that is
spiritually dead, that is, conscious of mortal sin. Those who receive
unworthily the Real and Substantial Presence of the Lord and Savior
in Holy Communion do not receive benefit*, but on the contrary eateth
and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning
the Body of the Lord
(1 Cor. 11.29).
---
*
The case with the sacrilegious “New 'Mass'” - with its
“ineffective
prayers,” as noted above, having beed changed to reflect the “NewTHEO...” (Theo:
“God” in Greek).
---
Spiritual
Communion, which consists in an ardent desire of Sacramental
Communion – for those who cannot by any means assist at the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass (our Traditional Rite of Worship in Latin) and
receive Holy Communion, confers a considerable fruit of the Holy
Eucharist, although it is inferior to Sacramental Communion.
Related post: Abominatio Desolationis (The Abomination of Desolation, Mt. 24.24: the sacrilegious "New 'Mass'")
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