The Magnet Of Souls

The Blessed Sacrament has often been called the “magnet of souls.” In this Sacrament, Jesus draws the souls of men, while love for souls attracts Our Lord. This excerpt from The Blessed Sacrament: The Works and Ways of God meditates upon this mutual attraction, the angels and the Sacraments, and the relationship between Our Lady and the Eucharist.

It naturally follows from all that has been said, that the Blessed Sacrament is the magnet of souls. There is a mutual at­traction between Jesus and the souls of men. Mary drew Him down from heaven. Our nature attracted Him rather than the nature of angels. Our misery caused Him to stoop to our low­ness. Even our sins had a sort of attraction for the abundance of His mercy and the predilection of His grace. Our repentance wins Him to us. Our love makes earth a paradise to Him; and our souls lure Him as gold lures the miser, with irresistible fas­cination. This is the attraction on our side. On the other hand, He draws us to Himself by grace, by example, by power, by lov­ingness, by beauty, by pardon, and above all by the Blessed Sac­rament. Every one who has had anything to do with ministering to souls has seen the power which Jesus has. Talent is not needed. Eloquence is comparatively unattractive. Learning is often beside the mark. Controversy simply repels. But the simple preaching of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, will collect a congregation, fill a Church, crowd the confessionals, furnish the altar rail, and solemnize a feast, when nothing else will do so. There is not a power on earth to be compared to the simple and unadorned preaching of the Gospel. Sermons on Jesus, and affectionate ex­positions of His mysteries, will make men perform their ordinary actions and relative duties more perfectly than direct instructions on those very things. All the attraction of the Church is in Jesus, and His chief attraction is the Blessed Sacrament. 

The Property Of Men

The Blessed Sacrament is the property of the souls of men. It belongs to them in a way and with an intimacy which the spirits of the angels cannot share. Nevertheless, there is a great con­nexion between the angels and the Blessed Sacrament. It is the especial mystery of that Human Nature in which Jesus is Head of the angels. It is one of the mysteries they adore, and humbly desire to look into. They admire it with a special admiration, and follow it all over the world, in the priest’s hands, on the throne, in the tabernacle, round the Church, on its obscure visits to the sick, as if they were attracted by it, which they are. It is called angel’s food, and the bread of angels; and although they cannot enjoy the proper sacramental union with the Flesh of our dearest Lord, they doubtless feed on it in their intelligences by a kind of mighty spiritual communion. Nevertheless, it is still Human Nature’s boon, a favour derived from the eternal choice and preference of our nature, and it is the magnet of human souls. This must always remain true, though there are doubtless many mysterious connections between the Holy Eucharist and the angelic kingdom, of which we are at present wholly ignorant. 

The Angels And The Sacraments

It is said that St. Michael revealed to St. Eutropius, the Hermit, that he had been chosen to be the guardian angel of the Blessed Sacrament; and that it had been entrusted to his charge ever since Holy Thursday; and there are also on record several revelations of his to various saints concerning the worship of the Blessed Sacrament. Some have supposed him to be the angel of the mass referred to in the canon; and he is spoken of at the be­ginning of mass in the Confiteor, again at the second incensing at the High Mass; and also in the offertory of masses of Requiem. Many saints and servants of God have had a peculiar devotion to the angel mentioned in the canon of the Mass, without decid­ing on his name or individuality.* Each of the seven angels who stand before the Throne are said to have one of the Sacraments committed specially to their custody. The Eucharist is assigned to St. Michael, Baptism to St. Gabriel, Confirmation to St. Uriel, Penance to St. Jehudiel, Extreme Unction to St. Raphael, Order to St. Sealtiel, and Matrimony to St. Barachiel. It is of course extremely difficult to estimate at their proper value such pious beliefs. There is mostly something divine in them, but, as usual, clouded with uncertainty. 

Our Lady And The Blessed Sacrament

There are some theologians who maintain that the Blessed Sacrament was instituted for the sake of our Blessed Lady, prin­cipally for her, and more for her than for all the rest of mankind put together. Indeed, this seems to follow from the principles most approved and in commonest usage in speaking of her hon­our. It is said by most writers that all that Jesus did for us He did for her in a more eminent and excellent way, as when He re­deemed her by prevention in the Immaculate Conception. He is said to have loved her more than all else together, and the Blessed Sacrament is the crowning act of His love; and from these two premises the conclusion easily follows that the Holy Eucharist was principally instituted for her, and that in the same sense in which we are indebted to her for the Incarnation, we are also indebted to her for the Blessed Sacrament. The-analogies between the Incarnation and the Eucharist, or rather the concentration of the mysteries of the one in the other, makes this doctrine easy of acceptation, in the sense which those who teach it intend to convey. 

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This article is taken from a chapter in The Blessed Sacrament: The Works and Ways of God by Fr. Frederick Faber which is available from TAN Books.