Don't Become His Second Passion

By Marc Massery

Turn to any page of St. Faustina’s Diary, and you’ll find spiritual gems. Like this one: 

I saw how unwillingly the Lord Jesus came to certain souls in Holy Communion. And He spoke these words to me: "I enter into certain hearts as into a second Passion" (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1598). 

Maybe you’ve asked yourself, “Would I have stuck by Christ during His Passion if I were alive back then?” Well, you don’t need to wonder. Through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the priest presents once again the Sacrifice of Calvary. 

Every time you choose to go to Mass, you’re choosing to stick by Christ at the Crucifixion. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass “makes present the one sacrifice of Christ the Savior” (1330). 

In a missal companion, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen explained it this way:

The Sacrifice of the Cross is not something which happened nineteen hundred years ago. It is still happening. It is not something past like the signing of the Declaration of Independence; it is an abiding drama on which the curtain has not yet rung down. Let it not be believed that it happened a long time ago, and therefore no more concerns us than anything else in the past. Calvary belongs to all times and to all places.

Once during the elevation of the Eucharist, the Crucified Christ appeared to St. Faustina (Diary, 488). This tells us that going to Mass and receiving the Eucharist isn’t something we ought to approach casually. If you receive the Eucharist merely out of habit or if you receive without being in a state of grace, your actions wound Christ. It is for these reasons that in St. Faustina’s Diary, Jesus said that He enters into certain hearts in Holy Communion “as into a second Passion” (1598). 

Comfort the Lord during His Passion — don’t become His second Passion! Approach the Eucharist only when you’re in a state of grace, fully aware of the magnitude of this Sacrament.  

In one of St. Paul’s letters, he warns about the consequences of receiving the Eucharist without being properly disposed: “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Cor 11:29). Saint Thomas Aquinas also mentioned this danger in the text he authored that is proclaimed every Corpus Christi:

Both the wicked and the good
Eat of this celestial Food:
But with ends how opposite!
Here ‘t is life: and there ‘t is death:
The same, yet issuing to each
In a difference infinite.

With most dioceses in the country having opened their doors again to parishioners, at last many of us have the opportunity to once again go to Mass and prayerfully receive the Eucharist in a state of grace. If you’re still unable to go, know that by watching a broadcasted Mass, your spiritual presence has value. 

For those able to go to Mass, offer prayers and sacrifices in reparation for those who receive the Eucharist unworthily. Pray also for those unable but longing to receive. Comfort the Lord in His suffering. He will be sure to comfort you in yours!

Remember, the Marian Fathers continue to livestream daily Mass here at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy.


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Photo by Thomas Despeyroux on Unsplash

LAMDVD

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