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UID:14880-1778025600-1778111999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:A reading from “The Life in Christ” by \nNICHOLAS CABASILAS \n◊◊◊ \nAfter receiving the Sacrament of Chrismation\, we approach the Holy \nTable\, the consummation of our life in Christ\, which leaves no further happiness \nto be desired. Now it is no longer a question of sharing in Christ’s death or burial \nor in a higher kind of life\, but of welcoming the risen Lord himself. It is no longer \nthe gifts of the Spirit that we receive\, insofar as we are able\, but our benefactor \nhimself\, the very temple that enshrines all gifts. \nChrist is present in each of the Sacraments: he himself confirms us and \ncleanses us\, and he is our food. He is present to those receiving the Sacraments \nof initiation\, though in different ways. In Baptism he takes away the stain of sin \nand imprints his own image on the baptized. In Chrismation he brings into \naction the gifts of the Holy Spirit\, of which his own flesh is the repository. But \nwhen he leads communicants to his Table and gives them his body to eat he \ncompletely transforms them\, raising them to his own level. This is the last \nSacrament we receive because it is impossible to go beyond it or to add to it \nanything whatever. \nWe remain imperfect even after Baptism has produced in us its full effect \nbecause we have not yet received the gifts of the Holy Spirit\, which are given in \nChrismation. Those baptized by Philip did not receive the Holy Spirit simply by \nthe grace of Baptism: it was necessary for John and Peter to lay their hands on \nthem. As Scripture says\, the Holy Spirit had not yet come down on any of them; \nthey had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and \nJohn laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. \nYet even among those who had been filled with the Spirit and who \nprophesied\, spoke in tongues and displayed other such gifts\, there were some in \nthe time of the Apostles who were so far from being divine and spiritual as to be \nguilty of envy\, rivalry\, contention\, and other similar vices. This is what Paul \nreferred to when he wrote to them: You are still unspiritual and are living on a \npurely human plane. They were indeed spiritual by reason of the graces they \nhad received\, but these graces did not suffice to free them from all sinfulness. \nWith the Eucharist\, however\, it is different. No such charge can be \nbrought against those in whom the Bread of Life\, which has saved them from \ndeath\, has had its full effect and who have not brought to this feast any wrongful \ndispositions. If this Sacrament is fully effective it is quite impossible for it to \nallow the slightest imperfection to remain in those who receive it. \nIf you would know the reason for this\, it is because through communion\, \nin fulfilment of his promise\, Christ dwells in us and we in him. He lives in me\, he \nsaid\, and I in him. When Christ lives in us\, what can we lack? When we live in \nChrist\, what more can we desire? We at once become spiritual in body and soul \nand in all our faculties because our soul is united to his soul\, our body to his \nbody\, our blood to his blood. The consequence is that the higher prevails over \nthe lower\, the divine over the human. As Paul says\, referring to the \nResurrection: What is mortal is swallowed up by life. And elsewhere he writes: \nIt is no longer I who live: it is Christ who lives in me.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-428/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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