June 1983 Print

by Reverend Father Douglas Laudenschlager

 SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS, as a Dominican friar, shared the aspirations so admirably summarized in the motto of the illustrious Order of Preachers: "Contemplare, et contemplata aliis tradere—To contemplate eternal truths, and to pass on to others the fruit of one's contemplation." In fact, the Angelic Doctor attained this sublime goal in a more perfect manner, no doubt, than any other member of his Order, or indeed of any other theologian in the history of Christianity. In his vast Summa Theologica in particular, he analyzes with rigorous logic and unfailing orthodoxy the multitudinous facets of that one Truth on which he meditated, as he confided to St. Bonaventure, before his crucifix. Alone among theologians he received for his work an Imprimatur not human but divine, when near the end of his life, Our Blessed Lord deigned address to him these famous words: "Thou hast written well of Me, Thomas." For all these reasons, the solemn Magisterium of the Catholic Church has taken St. Thomas to herself in a very special way, and in unequivocal documents made his theology her own. The Code of Canon Law recalls the obligation of all clerics to draw their theology from this limpid source.

Few Catholics, however, have the opportunity to apply themselves to the study of the actual theological works of the Angelic Doctor. Many lack the philosophical background necessary to grasp the many abstract notions involved in this elevated science; many more simply do not have the time, because of their duties of state, or because they cannot read the original Latin of the texts. But the Church has always been aware that it is not the works of brilliant theologians, nor even the weighty documents of the Magisterium, from which Catholics absorb week after week that pure doctrine of which they often have such an acute "sense," even without knowing how to express it clearly in words. This role of daily teacher, of the unlettered as of the lettered, the Sacred Liturgy fulfills.

Pope Pius XI explained this important didactic function of the Liturgy in his Encyclical Letter Quas Primas when he instituted the Feast of Christ the King in 1925. Nothing would more effectively serve the end he had in mind, the Pope declared, than the establishment of a feast which would draw particular attention to that subject.

For people are instructed in the truths of faith and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any pronouncement, however weighty, of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year—in fact, forever. The Church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man's nature. Man is composed of body and soul, and he needs these external festivities so that the sacred rites, in all their beauty and variety, may stimulate him to drink more deeply of the fountain of God's teaching, that he may make it a part of himself, and use it with profit for his spiritual life.

The magnificent texts composed by the Prince of Theologians for the Feast of Corpus Christi, so sublimely theological, so profoundly spiritual, and at the same time readily understood by all, exemplify the universal instructive character of the Sacred Liturgy, of which Pius XI reminds us. Their composition required more than the talents of a poet. Before he could write of the Holy Eucharist with such noble simplicity, St. Thomas was obliged to examine painstakingly everything God has permitted us to know of this most noble of Sacraments, everything from its institution to the precise manner of Our Lord's presence under the accidents of bread and wine. But he did not falter before the task, the last he completed in his mortal life, laying down his pen afterwards for his disciples to complete the last pages of the Summa.

Like the mountain climber ascending by one careful and laborious step after another, our Saint, by prayer and study, arrived at that breathtaking height from which he could see eternal Truth in its simplicity. Only thus could he translate into such simple language the fullness of the Church's doctrine on the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, as he did in the texts which he composed at the Pope's command for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Before we turn our attention to these texts themselves, however, it will be useful to recall the origin of this glorious feast.

To bring out its establishment, God chose as His instrument Saint Juliana of Mont Cornillon, a humble Augustinian nun near Liege in Belgium, who died in 1258. From her youth, Juliana had burned with a great devotion for Our Blessed Lord present in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and longed for a special feast in His honor. In a vision, this holy religious beheld the bright face of a full moon with one dark spot in it, signifying the absence of such a feast from the existing liturgical cycle. St. Juliana made her ideas known to the Bishop of Liege, and in 1246 he established the Feast of Corpus Christi in his diocese. In 1261 the former Archdeacon of Liege, Jacques Pantaleon, became Pope Urban IV. He extended the feast to the Universal Church by the Bull Transiturus on September 8, 1264, ordering its celebration on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Further decrees of subsequent popes enforced its adoption throughout the Church.

Although the institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist already received particular attention on Holy Thursday, the other important ceremonies of this day, such as the consecration of the Holy Oils and the Maundy, as well as the sadness natural at the thought of Our Lord's forthcoming Passion, lessened somewhat the honor given specifically to the Blessed Sacrament that day. Pope Urban IV presented this reason as one justification for a special feast in Its honor.

Obviously such a noble subject deserved the most beautiful Mass and Office possible. Pope Urban commanded the two great theologians of the day, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure the Franciscan, both teaching at Paris at the time, to compose an Office in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. One day they appeared before him to compare their efforts, and the Pope invited Thomas to read his aloud first. As St. Bonaventure listened rapt to that sublime poetry certainly written under special divine inspiration, his hands, modestly concealed under his scapular, slowly tore to shreds his own manuscript. Nothing, he perceived, could equal the masterpiece composed by St. Thomas Aquinas, now enshrined for all time in the Roman Missal and the Roman Breviary.

The scope of this article unfortunately does not permit the inclusion of the entire composition of the Angelic Doctor. We shall, however, consider briefly two of the most magnificent pieces from the Mass of Corpus Christi: the Collect and Sequence.

"The Collect," writes the eminent liturgist Cardinal Schuster, "is a masterpiece of theological depth, joined to an incisive brevity of expression and a noble elegance."

The Church addresses Our Lord in the words of St. Thomas:

O God, who in this wonderful sacrament hast left us a memorial of Thy passion, grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of Thy Body and Blood, that we may ever perceive within us the fruit of Thy redemption. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost. World without end. Amen.

Amongst the other riches of this admirably succinct prayer, it contains St. Thomas's doctrine that each Sacrament is at the same time a sign of something past (the Passion of Christ), of something present (the Body and Blood of Christ), and of something to come (the fruits of His redemptive sacrifice, namely, eternal life).

More thorough still from a theological point of view, and more precious as a gem of Christian poetry, is the Sequence Lauda Sion Salvatorem composed to follow the Alleluia of the Mass before the Holy Gospel. It summarizes with singular precision and inimitable beauty the entirety of Catholic doctrine on that most beloved of Sacraments in which the Divine Spouse of the Church and of every individual soul dwells substantially. No description, however, can replace a reading of the text itself, translated here into English verse in a meter identical to the original Latin version:

Praise, O Sion, praise thy Savior,
Shepherd, Prince, with glad behavior,
Praise in hymn and canticle:
Sing His glory without measure,
For the merit of your treasure
Never shall your praises fill.

Wondrous theme of mortal singing,
Living Bread and Bread life bringing,
Sing we on this joyful day:
At the Lord's own table given
To the twelve as Bread from heaven,
Doubting not we firmly say.

Sing His praise with voice sonorous;
Every heart shall hear the chorus
Swell in melody sublime:
For this day the Shepherd gave us
Flesh and Blood to feed and save us,
Lasting to the end of time.

At the new King's sacred table,
The new Law's new Pasch is able
To succeed the ancient rite:
Old to new its place hath given,
Truth as far the shadows driven,
Darkness flees before the Light.

And as He hath done and planned it—
"Do this "—hear His love command it,
"For a memory of me."
Learned, Lord, in Thy own science,
Bread and wine, in sweet compliance,
As a Host we offer Thee.

Thus in faith the Christian heareth:
That Christ's Flesh as bread appeareth,
And as wine His Precious Blood:
Though we feel it not nor see it,
Living Faith that doth decree it
All defects of sense makes good.

Lo! beneath the species dual
(Signs not things), is hid a jewel
Far beyond creation's reach!
Though His Flesh as food abideth,
And His Blood as drink—He hideth
Undivided under each.

Whoso eateth It can never
Break the Body, rend or sever;
Christ entire our hearts doth fill:
Thousands eat the Bread of Heaven,
Yet as much to one is given:
Christ, though eaten, bideth still.

Good and bad, they come to greet Him:
Unto life the former eat Him,
And the latter unto death;
These find death and those find heaven;
See, from the same life-seed given,
How the harvest differeth!

When at last the Bread is broken,
Doubt not what the Lord hath spoken:
In each part the same love-token,
The same Christ, our hearts adore:
For no power the Thing divideth—
'Tis the symbols He provideth,
While the Savior still abideth
Undiminished as before.

Hail, angelic Bread of Heaven,
Now the pilgrim's hoping-leaven,
Yea, the Bread to children given
That to dogs must not be thrown:
In the figures contemplated,
'Twas with Isaac immolated,
By the Lamb 'twas antedated.
In the Manna it was known.

O Good Shepherd, still confessing
Love, in spite of our transgressing—
Here Thy blessed Food possessing,
Make us share Thine every blessing
In the land of life and love:
Thou, whose power hath all completed
And Thy Flesh as Food hath meted,
Make us, at Thy table seated,
By Thy Saints, as friends be greeted.

In these flowing verses, written in language open to the simplest of the faithful and garbed in beauty that cannot fail to touch the heart as well, St. Thomas has gathered for all time the Eucharistic treasures painstakingly gleaned from Scripture and Tradition and defined and defended by Popes and Councils, theologians and doctors. Pope Pius XII referred to the Sacred Liturgy as "the faithful mirror of Catholic doctrine," and certainly the Office of Corpus Christi composed by Thomas Aquinas exemplifies this fact as the purest reflection imaginable of doctrine on the Most Blessed Sacrament, a mirror furthermore into which all may gaze yearly, and discover anew in clear relief, undimmed and undistorted, the loving countenance of our Eucharistic Lord. Only a theologian and only a saint of the caliber of Aquinas could accomplish such a feat. And as the Immaculate Bride of Christ chants the annual praises of her Eucharistic Spouse on the Feast of Corpus Christi with the hymns and canticles that St. Thomas composed, she does not forget the humble friar who placed these eloquent words upon her lips, echoing that sublime theology of the Blessed Sacrament which wrenched from the Heart of the Son of God unprecedented praise: "Thou hast written well of Me, Thomas."

O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine!
All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine!