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| The mother of God from her oratory saw and understood the mystery |
The
heavenly Queen understood also by a special vision (for she was not in the upper room among the apostles) how the most sacred body of
Christ is hidden beneath the accidents of bread and wine without change in them
or alteration of the sacred humanity; for neither can the Body be the subject
of the accidents, nor can the accidents be the form of the body. The accidents
retain the same extension and qualities as before, and each of their parts
retain the same position after the host has been consecrated; and the sacred
body is present in an invisible form, also retaining the same size without
intermingling of parts. It remains in the whole host, and all of it in every
particle of the host, without being strained by the host, or the host by the
body. For neither is the extension of his body correlative with the accidental
species, nor do they depend upon the sacred body for their existence. They
therefore have a totally different mode of existence and the body
interpenetrates the accidents without hindrance. Although naturally the head would
demand a different place than the hands, or these a different one from the
breast or any other part of the body; yet by the divine power the consecrated
body places itself unimpaired in its extent in one and the same place, because
it bears no relation to the space which it would naturally occupy, having
thrown aside all these relations though still remaining a quantitative body.
Moreover it need not necessarily remain in one determined place only, or in
only one host, but at the same time it can be present in many innumerable
consecrated hosts.
She
understood likewise, that the sacred body, although not naturally depending
upon the accidents as above declared, yet does not continue to exist
sacramentally in these accidents after the corruption of the species of the
bread and wine; and this for no other reason than because it was so willed by
Christ the Author of these wonders. The coexistence of the sacred body and
blood of our Lord with the incorrupted species of bread and wine therefore
rests upon the arbitrary and voluntary disposition of the Creator of this
Sacrament. As soon as they deteriorate and disappear on account of the natural
process destructive of these species (for instance, as happens in holy
Communion with the sacramental host, which is changed and corrupted by the heat
of the stomach, or when this is effected by other causes) then God, in the last
instant, when the species are ready for their last transformation, again
creates another substance. This new substance, being now devoid of the
Divinity, nourishes the human body and finally coalesces with the human form of
existence, which is the soul. This wonderful creation of a new substance for
the assumption of the changed and corrupted species is consequent upon the will
of the Lord, who wishes not to continue the existence of his body in the
corrupted accidents, and this process is demanded also by the laws of nature;
for the substance of man cannot grow except by some other substance, which,
being newly added, prevents the accidents from continuing to exist.
All
these and other wonders the right hand of the Almighty perpetuated in this most
august sacrament of the holy Eucharist.
