Giving and Receiving Christ
- CARYLL HOUSELANDER
The only real oneness possible [is] Christ in us...
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In Holy Communion, millions of small hosts are given to millions of people; this does not mean that Christ is divided into millions, but that the millions are made one in Christ.
A flesh-and-blood example tells more than many words. I was at a Mass in a side chapel where I knew the priest would have no Communion hosts. But at the Lord, I am not worthy a woman came out of the shadows and whispered, "Come, he has one Host for me; he will divide it." I turned and saw poverty, suffering that shamed me, a woman in rags, her face burnt and hardly human, only the eyes that looked out of it shone with unbelievable serenity. The priest divided the Host reserved for her between us. She gave Christ to me, Christ's Passion to the world.
At first sight, suffering seems broken up, unfairly divided. In reality it is the human race that is divided, suffering is a communion that makes us one, as sacramental Communion does. We can give Christ's Passion to one another, as the poor woman gave Christ to me, and we can comfort Christ in one another in doing so. A child, mortifying his thirst on a hot day, can moisten the lips of Christ in an army camped in the desert. A martyr dying from exposure in frozen Siberia can give Christ's death to a student shivering in London because he has no money for his gas. May the breaking of the bread of our sorrow make us one in the Passion of Christ. ... He gave us his Passion in his body, gave us himself, his suffering and his sacrifice, his heart full of compassion and his hands so soon to be nailed for all time to the hard wood of our suffering. In his hands we can offer our fragment for the world, just as the priest offers the Host at Mass. ... It is estimated that there are four elevations every second in every twenty-four hours. We see the Host lifted in the priest's hands at our local altar. Who can estimate how many elevations God sees from the altars of man's heart, in factories, kitchens, schools, workhouses, hospitals, ships, and camps all over the world?
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Acknowledgement
Caryll Houselander. "Giving and Receiving Christ," from Lift Up Your Hearts. H.J. Taylor, Arena Lettres (1978).
Printed in the July 2023 edition of Magnificat. Reprinted under fair use.
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The Author
Caryll Houselander (1901-1954) was a British Roman Catholic laywoman; a mystic, writer, artist, visionary and healer. Her first book, This War is the Passion, written during World War II, launched her prolific writing career. She is best known for: A Rocking Horse Catholic, The Reed of God, The Way of the Cross, This War is the Passion, The Risen Christ, The Letters Of Caryll Houselander: Her Spiritual Legacy, and Wood of the Cradle, Wood of the Cross: The Little Way of the Infant Jesus.