LOVED IN THE TRANSFORMED BELOVED
The text that you have read is simple but at the same time admirable. Based on the image of the forge, Fr. Claret speaks again of the Eucharist, the sacrament of divine fire, which has within it the core of God’s love for humanity. The iron bar, plunged in the fire of the forge, is subjected to a heating process that produces a double change: Firstly, it changes to fire; and secondly, is becomes malleable, easy to shape.
By applying this to communion the Body of Christ has a divine transformation. The communicant becomes the fire that is Jesus, the living flame; he who receives communion frequently and is well disposed is “deified”; he somehow becomes a divine being who strives towards the experience of total deification.
It would be amazing for the mediocre believer to understand the untold wealth that he has at his disposal, and approaching communion with more passion, would experience “How good the Lord is. Blessed is he who takes refuge in Him”.
Father Claret lived the Eucharist with unbridled passion which led him to be a living tabernacle of the sacrament. His feelings about the matter can be perceived in such texts as the one that follows; read it and understand: “During the half hour after Mass, I feel that I am totally annulled. I desire nothing but his holy will. I live by Jesus’ own life. In possessing me, He possesses nothing, while I possess everything in Him. I tell Him, Lord, you are my love! You are my honour, my hope, and my refuge. You are my glory and my goal.” (Aut 754) Hopefully, this admiration leads to emulation.
