The Last Supper

“WE KNOW how great is the gift which Our Lord bestows upon us in the Blessed Sacrament when we consider that in this Adorable Sacrament He gives us something of Himself, aye, of His own Person; Himself really and substantial, whole and entire, in His humanity and in His divinity. In the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar Jesus has given us something of Himself, of His own Person. He announced this to us in establishing this sublime and adorable Sacrament at the Last Supper. For then Jesus, Our Saviour and Redeemer, did not say,
“This is bread, and that signifies My body,” nor did He say, “This is and remains bread, and shall symbolize to you My body;” nor did the apostles hear from His divine lips, “As this was bread, so it remains bread, and shall be a memorial of My body.” No, those truthful, holy lips said clearly and plainly to the apostles,”This which I have in My hand, which you see, which appears like bread is My body.” And nowadays, people do violence to the words of Jesus, twisting them at their pleasure, and say we have nothing more in this wonderful Sacrament than in the other sacraments; they say that as in the other sacraments we have water, oil and chrism, so in this Adorable Sacrament we have but bread. Certainly it is true that we are purified by water in baptism; strengthened by chrism in confirmation; anointed in sickness by consecrated oils; but, ye who have true faith, your Lord does not nourish your soul in holy communion by blessed bread. No, far holier, far more divine, is this food. That which you receive here is not really bread, but something of the Lord Himself.

— Rev. J.B. Scheurer, D.D., Sermons on the Blessed Sacrament and Especially for the Forty Hours (Benzinger Bros., 1900)
 

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