THE MYSTERY OF FAITH Hoc est opus Dei ut credatis in Eum. This is the work of God, that you believe in Him. (John vi. 29.) I OUR Lord wants us to remember all He did for us on earth, and to honor His presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament by meditating on all the mysteries of His life. To make the mystery of the Last Supper more vividly present to us, He was not content with giving us the Gospel narrative; He left us a living, personal reminder: His very Self, His adorable Person. Although our Lord is in our midst, we cannot see Him, nor can we picture to ourselves the manner of His presence in the Eucharist. Our Eucharistic Lord, however, has frequently appeared. Why did He not permit pictures of these august apparitions to be preserved? Ah! Our Lord is well aware that pictures would I only result in drawing us away from the reality of His actual presence under the sacred veils of the Eucharist. But if I could see, would I not have more faith? Do we not Jove better what we see?   Yes, the senses may confirm my wavering faith. But our risen Lord does not want our perverted senses to reach Him; He demands pure faith. He has not only a body but a soul as well. He does not want to be loved as bodies are loved; He wants us to go straight to His soul with our minds and our hearts, without using our senses to discover Him. For that matter, although our Lord is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament in body and in soul, He abides therein after the manner of spirits. Spirits cannot be analyzed or dissected; neither can they be reached with the senses.   II BESIDES, why should we complain? Our Lord has arranged everything harmoniously. The Sacred Species do not touch Him, nor do they form part of Him. They are, however, inseparably united to the sacramental Christ. They are, as it were, the terms of His presence. They tell us where He is. They localize Him. Our Lord could have taken a purely spiritual manner of existence; but then, how could we find Him? Where could we look for Him? Let us thank this good Savior! He is not hidden, but only veiled. A hidden object practically does not exist for us; we do not know where it is. But we can possess a veiled object; we are sure of it even though we do not see it. Does it not already mean a great deal to us to know that our friend is at our side, that he is really there? Well, you can see where our Lord is. Look at the Sacred Host; you are sure He is there. III OUR Lord veils Himself for our good and our advantage, to force us to study His Soul, His intentions, and His virtues in Himself. If we saw Him, we would be satisfied to admire His appearance, we would have for Him only a sentimental love; our Lord wants us to love Him with a love of sacrifice. It is hard for our Lord thus to veil Himself. He would prefer to show His Divine countenance, which drew so many hearts to Him in His mortal life; but He veils it for our good. Our mind is thus forced to study the Eucharist; our faith is spurred on; we acquire a deeper understanding of our Lord. Instead of showing Himself to our eyes, He shows Himself to our soul. Through His own light He notifies us of His presence in us. He is both the light and the object we must contemplate in that light; He is the object and the means of our faith. The clearness of one's insight into the Eucharist is proportioned to one's greater or lesser love and purity of life. Our Lord said so: "He that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father: and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Our Lord gives to souls of prayer a deep understanding of Himself; He never deceives them. He varies His grace of light. He directs it now to one point of His life, now to another. And since the Eucharist is the glorification of all the mysteries, Jesus Christ becomes Himself the object of our meditation, no matter what its topic may be. IV HOW much easier it is, consequently, to meditate before the Blessed Sacrament than at home! At home we are in the presence of the immensity of God; here, we are in the presence of our Lord, Who is very close to us. And since the heart follows the mind, since affection follows knowledge, it becomes easier to love in the presence of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Love is then actual, since it has for its object Jesus living before us and renewing all His mysteries in the Eucharist. He that meditates on the mysteries in themselves without giving them life through the Eucharist always feels that something is missing, and he harbors a regret in spite of himself. "Oh, that I had been there!" he says to himself. But in the presence of the Most Blessed Sacrament, what is there to regret, to desire? All the mysteries live anew through the Savior's presence. Our love actually enjoys Him. Whether you are thinking of the mortal life of Jesus or of His risen life, you know that Jesus Christ is there with His body, His soul, and His Divinity. Let us therefore put these ideas into practice. No matter what mysteries are represented in our imagination, let us strengthen and quicken the remembrance of them through the presence of Jesus Christ. Let us then remember that our Lord is in the Host in all His different states, and in His entirety. He who does not realize that lives in darkness; his faith is always weak and fails to make him happy. Let our faith be active and thoughtful; that is what will make us happy. Our Lord wants to bring us happiness all by Himself. No man can make us happy; even piety cannot do it of itself. We need a piety that has fed on the Eucharist; for happiness comes only from the possession of God, and in the Eucharist we own God. 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