The Secret of the
Curé de Ars

Compiled, Partially Adapted, and Arranged
by Pauly Fongemie

SOURCES USED:
Secrets of the Saints, Henri Ghéon, 1944;
From the Housetops Magazine, Vol. XXIV, No. 3, Serial No. 53;
The Life of the Curé de Ars, Abbé Alfred Monnin, 1861;
and Eucharistic Meditations, Curé de Ars, Eccles. Appr. 1923


THE EUCHARIST AND THE SAINT
[Examples written by Abbé H. Convert]

CHRIST'S LOVE IN INSTITUTING THE EUCHARIST

THE consummation of love is "that a man I lay down his life for his friends." It was of Thyself Thou wast speaking, O Jesus, in saying these words. In order to give Thy life for me in the Eucharist, Thou hast abandoned Thy Sacrament to the profanations of the wicked, and Thou comest to me only by undergoing derision and irreverences. At the moment when Thine enemies are preparing Thee a crown of thorns, nails, and a Cross, Thou art preparing for me a chalice of benediction and the Bread of Heaven. Oh, how eloquently Thou speakest to me herein of the might of Thy love. Grant that it may enkindle my soul in this meditation.

Three things show forth Jesus' love for us in the institution of the Eucharist:

I. THE CONTEMPT TO WHICH HE EXPOSES HIMSELF

"He knew well, before He instituted this Sacrament of love, to how much contempt and profanation He was going to expose Himself." O my Saviour, would that Thou mightest remain in Heaven after Thou hadst ascended there! There, at least, "the Angels would love Thee with a pure and perfect love"; but in the Eucharist the Jews pierce Thee again with nails, and bad Christians receive Thee unworthily, "some without contrition, others without desire of amendment, others, perhaps, with crime in their hearts." He knows it, "but all this has no power to stop Him; it is His will that His Body, His Soul, and His Divinity may be found in all places of the world, and that with Him we may find every happiness." He wills to be our life at His Own expense---to be our adoration, our thanksgiving, our prayer, and our propitiation.

II. THE DAY ON WHICH HE INSTITUTED THIS SACRAMENT

"How great was the charity of Jesus Christ in choosing for the institution of the Eucharist the eve of the day on which He was to be put to death! At that moment all Jerusalem is on fire, all the populace enraged, all are plotting His ruin, and it is precisely at that moment that He is preparing for them the most unutterable pledge of His love. Men are weaving the blackest plots against Him, and He is only occupied in giving them the most precious gift He has. They are only thinking of setting up an infamous Cross for Him that they may put Him to death, and He is only thinking of setting up an altar that He may immolate Himself every day for us. They are preparing to shed His Blood, and Jesus Christ wills that this same Blood shall be to us a draught of immortality for the consolation and happiness of our souls. Yes, we may say that Jesus Christ has loved us even to exhausting the riches of His love."

III. SOME CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE INSTITUTION

"He chose, for the institution of the Eucharist, bread and wine, the food of all men, rich and poor, the strong as well as the languishing, to show us that this heavenly food is for all Christians," small and great, vassals and kings. "Come to Me, all you that suffer; no one is excluded from the feast that I prepare for you."

He consecrates the wine in a chalice. "We read in the writings of St. John [1] that the Apostle saw an Angel to whom the eternal Father had given the cup of His wrath to pour out upon all nations; but here we see just the contrary. The eternal Father gives into His Son's hands the cup of His mercy to be poured out upon all nations of the earth. Speaking to us of His adorable Blood, He says to us as to His Apostles: 'Drink ye all of this, and you will find therein the remission of your sins and eternal life.' a happiness unutterable ... a blessed fountain!"

"When Jesus Christ worked this great miracle" of the consecration, "He raised His eyes to Heaven and gave thanks to His Father, showing us how much He desired that happy moment for us. 'Yes, My children,' our Divine Saviour seemed to say then, 'My Blood is impatient to be shed for you, my Body burns with the desire to be torn for the healing of your wounds, and the thought of My suffering and death overwhelms Me with joy, because you will find therein a remedy for all your ills.' Oh, what love is there like this of a God for His creatures? [2]

EXAMPLE

The Eucharist was the center towards which all M. Vianney's thoughts and affections converged. He spoke of it in terms naive and full of poetry, such as love alone can find, and which, once heard, are never effaced from the memory or the heart. The Eucharist was for him the adored Master Who, before all others, had a right to His homage.
 
"I was ten years old," wrote an ecclesiastic shortly after the death of the blessed Curé; "it was in 1820, and in the courtyard of the Collège de Meximieux, where I went to school, we were practicing throwing flowers for the Corpus Christi procession, when I saw approaching a priest of very simple, poor, and humble appearance. One of my companions said to us, 'That is the Curé of Ars; he is a Saint ... He lives on nothing but boiled potatoes.' I regarded him with astonishment. When someone addressed a few polite words to him, he stopped a moment, and said, smiling kindly: 'When you throw flowers before the Blessed Sacrament, my boys, hide your hearts in your baskets, and send them to Jesus Christ, among the roses.'

"Then, without paying any other visit, he crossed the courtyard and turned into the college chapel to salute the Master of the house in His tabernacle. I have forgotten nearly all the names of the school fellows I had then, and almost all that happened under my eyes: but the name of that priest, his visit to the Blessed Sacrament, and the words of my companion, have never gone out of my mind. I was especially struck (for I was very greedy) by the thought of a man living only on potatoes. I understood, without knowing why, that here was something rare and prodigious."

O blessed Jean-Marie, pray for us and obtain for us grace to make amends, by a generous love, for the outrages that Jesus receives in the Blessed Sacrament.

THE REVERENCE DUE TO CHURCHES

HOW terrible is this place! this is no other but the house of God and the gate of Heaven, exclaimed the patriarch Jacob, after the vision of the miraculous ladder. We can say as much of each of our churches; they are the dwelling of Angels and Archangels, the palace of God---Heaven itself. If you do not believe it, look at the Table of the Sacrifice; remember for what cause and for what end it is erected; consider Who it is that is going to descend upon it, and Who will presently be offered there for you, and be pierced with a holy fear. [3]


 
1. "Our temples are holy, reverend, and sacred."

"This is because a God made Man dwells there day and night. ... [4]

"In olden times, many Christians crossed the seas to visit the holy places where the mystery of our redemption was wrought ... 'Oh! happy places,' they exclaimed, 'where so many wonders were worked for our salvation!' But, without going so far, have we not Jesus Christ here in our midst, not only as God, but in Body and Soul? Are not our churches as worthy of reverence as the holy places? O happy Christian people, who daily see the renewal of all the wonders which God's omnipotence wrought of old on Calvary!" [5]

2. Yet, "for the most part, we seem without reverence in our churches."

"We seem to be without the love of God, without even knowing what we have come there to do. Some let a thousand earthly things occupy their mind and heart; to others, it is wearying and distasteful to be there; there are others who scarcely kneel down while God sheds His precious Blood for their pardon; others, finally, will scarcely let the priest come down from the Altar before they run away. My God, how little Thy children love Thee, or, rather, how they despise Thee! In fact, what spirit is there of levity and dissipation which is not to be seen in church? Some are asleep, others talking, and hardly anyone is occupied with what he ought to be doing." [6]

3. "It is faith that is wanting."

"We are poor, blind beings with a cloud over our eyes. Faith alone can disperse that cloud ...
 
"Because our Lord does not show Himself in all His majesty in the most holy Sacrament, you behave yourselves here without reverence; but it is He notwithstanding! He is in the midst of you! ... like that good bishop who was there the other day; everybody pushed against him ... Ah! if they had only known that he was a bishop! ...

"Presently, when I hold our Lord in my hands, when the good God blesses you, ask Him then to open the eyes of your heart; say to Him, like the blind man of Jericho, Lord, make me to see! You will surely obtain what you desire, because He only wants your happiness; His hands are full of graces which He seeks to distribute, and, alas! nobody wants them ... O indifference! Ingratitude! ... We are most miserable not to understand these things! We shall understand them well enough one day, but it will be too late!" [7]
 
EXAMPLE

St. Jean-Marie displayed all the ingenuities of priestly zeal to make his parishioners behave reverently before the Blessed Sacrament during the services. He would have liked them to keep to the habit of kneeling on the ground, and deplored the use of a prie-dieu as a concession to sensuality. He never sat before the Blessed Sacrament himself, unless the example of one of his superiors invited him to do so. Kneeling or standing was the only position authorized, on the one hand, by his faith in the presence of a "God so great and so awful," and, on the other, by the feeling of his own unworthiness. Then nothing could divert his gaze or his thoughts from our Lord; he seemed no longer to see or hear anything of what was happening round him.
 
"Did you know M. Vianney?" we were asked one day by a pilgrim.---"No."---"I came to Ars in August two consecutive years; it was not long before his death. To see him better, I placed myself in the stalls on the epistle side, while he said Mass. At that period of his life his eyes were slightly bleared, and the flies had formed a sort of circle round his eyes and were sucking his blood. I watched attentively without taking my eyes off the celebrant. During the whole Mass he did not make the least sign, the slightest movement of hand or head, to get rid of these nuisances and remove that suffering. What a man! what faith!"

O blessed Jean-Marie, pray for us that we may always feel a profound reverence in the presence of the Divine Dweller in our tabernacles.

1. Apocalypse 16:19.
2. Sermon for Corpus Christi, 1st point. Sermon
for Holy Thursday.
3. St. John Chrysostom, I. Ad. Cor., Horn. 36.
4. Sermons, i, 383.
5.  Sermons, i, 387.
6. Ibid., ii, 131-132.
7. Esprit, 131, 61.
 



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