Text.
Compelle intrare.—Luke xiv. 23.
“Compel them to come in.”
Introduction.
How well-meaning this good lord was! He had prepared a magnificent supper for the refreshment of his friends; and yet not one of the guests he had invited came. They all sent excuses; so that he was forced to compel the poor and hungry to sit down at his table. Who ever heard of such a thing? Far more wonderful, my dear brethren, are the goodness and love of our God and Saviour, who is represented to us in the person of the lord in the Gospel. What an infinitely precious food He has prepared for us in giving us His own flesh and blood as our meat and drink! He invites all to partake of it: “Come, eat My bread and drink the wine which I have mingled for you.”[1] “Come to me, all you, and I will refresh you;”[2] eat and drink for nothing! And yet how astonishing the stupidity of us mortals! He has the utmost difficulty in inducing us to come to this supper, which is so advantageous, nay, so necessary for us! And in fact there are Christians who must be compelled almost by force and violence to approach the holy Table, so seldom are they seen at it, so that the Catholic Church has been obliged to make a law rendering the reception of holy Communion at least once a year necessary under pain of excommunication. There is one circumstance in this matter that excites my astonishment, and that is, that if we are ever careless and dilatory in receiving holy Communion it is at the time when we are most in need of it and when Our Lord is most anxious to come to us—I mean the time of illness. To-day I will speak of these two points: the loving condescension of our dear Redeemer, and our own stupid negligence, to the end that we may correct our faults in this respect and treat the hidden God with due respect.
Plan of Discourse.
Never is the reception of Jesus Christ in the holy Communion more useful and necessary for us mortals than in sickness, and never has Christ Himself a greater desire to visit us than at that
