JESUS, the SON of GOD, and of the Virgin Mary, comes then into us by Communion to strengthen more and more this inner union, which is the basis of all Christian Sanctity. He comes into us to fix us into Himself, and, as S. Leo says, "in order that, by virtue of this heavenly Food, we may wholly pass into the Flesh of Him Who has taken our flesh."

A little leaven mixed with dough raises it up and changes its character; in the same way, JESUS, under the veil of the consecrated Bread, draws to Himself the whole man to fill him with His grace; and through It CHRIST dwells in us, and we in Him. By the means of His adorable Flesh, He penetrates into all faithful Christians, mixing Himself with their bodies, and infusing into them His. Divine Virtue. So also S. Cyril of Jerusalem says, You have become, so to say, one same Body and one same Blood with CHRIST. You have become CHRIST

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bearers; for you bear about JESUS CHRIST in your body, since you feed upon His Body and His Blood."

It is at the

Table of the LORD, that the Christian in reality feeds upon His Life. It is by the Cup of the LORD that he in reality drinks in His Life: and then, according to the promise of the Gospel, the Christian lives in JESUS CHRIST, and JESUS CHRIST lives in the Christian.

S. Paulinus says that "CHRIST has made Himself our food, in order that living on this Bread of Life, and being transformed into Him, we may say in all truth with the Apostle, 'our conversation is in Heaven.' JESUS in the Eucharist is the Saint of Saints, the Sacrament of Sacraments, the Love which surpasses all love, the Sweetness which surpasses all sweetness. In Him just men and saints find all their spiritual delight; from Him, as from an abundant spring, they draw milk and honey, and all the sweetness of celestial balm. By the Eucharist the Bride becomes but one flesh with the Bridegroom, and the holy soul becomes one only Spirit with CHRIST."

TWENTIETH FRIDAY AFTER
TRINITY.

CXLVI. On the deadly sin of Gluttony.

I COR. X. 31.

"Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." THE deadly sin of Gluttony goes in the world by many specious names, but it still remains the deadly sin of Gluttony. People are so apt to imagine that this is a sin confined chiefly, under one of its forms, to what are called the lower classes; or again they are so ready to reckon it as a sin of the past, and therefore quite out of place in these refined and civilized times, that no one ventures to assert that never perhaps was the deadly sin of gluttony so rife in the world. If we

give gluttony its true definition, as an inordinate love of eating and drinking, irrespective of the quantity eaten or drunk, we shall easily see that the sin so commonly palmed off upon the lower classes, and referred to past ages, or transported to heathen countries, does really prevail to a very fearful extent in our

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country, in our days, and not only, or even chiefly amongst the poor.

Hospitality, encouragement of trade, social intercourse, all, within proper limits, are fair and even praiseworthy objects; but when extravagant prices are paid for luxuries in eating and drinking, when more money is expended often in one entertainment than would suffice to shelter, feed, and clothe more than one poor family for a whole year: or when every new invention to stimulate the appetite, or excite thirst is hailed as a public benefaction-we can only feel that even if this sin has perchance lost some of its former grossness, it has lost none of its real sinfulness, because it has only put on a veil of refinement, and assumed a more dangerous, because it is a more insidious form. What, after all, to many men is the turning point of the day, the hours of public or private prayer, or of meals? Our Blessed LORD says, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what shall drink "--and ye yet in direct opposition to this there are some who think of

little else, and make their eating and drinking the primary object of their existence for living it cannot be called. The very epithets we hear applied to articles of food are often such as can only be called disgusting. Gluttons go on the theory that sensuality, or the gratification of the senses is the chiefest good! Gluttony also brings in its train such sins as fastidiousness, over-niceness, wastefulness, refined greediness, selfishness and such like.

And drunkenness! What is the cause of the greater part of all the misery in this country? To what shall we trace the wretched poverty-stricken home, the pale over-worked wife; the squalid, untaught, uncared for children: private prayer neglected public worship unfrequented: swearing, disease, theft, lust, quarrelings, and fightings, and even murder? Often to nothing but drunkenness. How many yards of a street in any of our large towns can we traverse without having every sense offended, or rather every feeling of pity, or shame at degraded human nature excited, by the drunkard!