18. "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, remains in Me and I in Him." "The
first sign of love is this; that Jesus has given us His flesh to eat
and His blood to drink." The property of love is to be always giving
and always receiving. Now the love of Christ is generous. All that he
has, all that He is, He gives; all that we have, all that we are, He
takes away. He asks for more than we of ourselves are capable of
giving. He has an immense hunger which wants to devour us absolutely.
He enters even into the marrow of our bones, and the more lovingly we
allow Him to do so, the more fully we savor Him. He knows that we are
poor, but He pays no heed to it and does not spare us. He himself
becomes in us His own bread, first burning up, in His love, all our
vices, faults and sins. Then when He sees that we are pure, He comes
like a gaping vulture that is going to devour everything. He wants to
consume our life in order to change it int His own; ours, full of vices,
His, full of grace and glory and all prepared for us. If only we will
renounce ourselves. even if our eyes were good enough to see this avid
appetite of Christ who hungers for our salvation, all our efforts would
not prevent us from disappearing into His open mouth. Now, this sounds
absurd, but those who love will understand. When we receive Christ with
interior devotion, His blood, full of warmth and glory, flows into our
veins and a fire is enkindled in our depths. We receive the likeness f
His virtues, and He lives in us, and we in Him. He gives us His soul
with the fullness of grace, by which the soul persevere in love and
praise of the Father. Love draws its object into itself; we draw Jesus
into ourselves; Jesus draws us into Himself. Then carried above
ourselves into love's interior, seeking God, we go to meet Him, to meet
His Spirit, which is His love, and this love burns us, consumes us, and
draws us into unity where beatitude awaits us. Jesus meant this when
he said: "With great desire have I desired to eat this pasch with you."
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