The Eucharist and the Healing of Affection for Sin by Deacon Keating

My notes from Deacon Keating's article:

(1) The Eucharist is the source of spiritual healing

Something greater than the mantras of self-help gibberish and post-modern syncretism is demanded if spiritual healing is to occur. An encounter must occur. We must be seized with the Presence. In this Presence, perhaps dramatic at first, perhaps not, we appropriate meaning, love, and healing at ever expanding levels of integration throughout our life. The Eucharist is the encounter with Him Who does not will anything but mercy and healing.

Are we eager recipients of the healing Christ wants to give us in the Eucharist?

We are attracted to so much in these short days of living, but the attraction of the Eucharist is the one desire that sets all other attractions within proper proportionality.

To receive this healing, we must be in line with the truth about our interior state and seek reconciliation where necessary.

It is this divine self giving and the positive human response to accept such love that healing is known. Trust, vulnerability, rapt listening, integrity all precede the fullness of healing; otherwise God could incorrectly be seen as entering a magic relationship and not one of human freedom and fulness. We must present ourselves in such a way that Christ can enter our heart with truth. And such a way of presenting oneself is encapsulated in the virtue of humility.

(2) The Eucharist is the sacrament of the reconciled

The Eucharist is the sacrament of the reconciled who receive a purifying power and are healed of their affection and residue of sin, as well as any ‘weakness’ or venial sin.

St. Francis de Sales’ 5 reasons to receive Communion often:

learn to love God
be purified from imperfections
delivered from misery
comforted in affliction
supported in weakness

“The taproot of all healing is one’s deep love and intimacy with the Lord… The healing of our deepest wounds comes from contemplative intimacy with the indwelling Trinity, and the deep conversion that makes such intimacy possible” ~ Dubay

(3) The Eucharist is the “medicine of divine immortality” (St. Ignatius of Antioch)

All present healing is a conspiracy of divine grace that sets up the right conditions, enabling us to host the Heart of Christ within our heart. Develop a devotion to the Sacred Heart. Our healing is a foretaste of immortal life = a heart purified to participate in eternal divine love.

(4) The Eucharist is the way that Jesus’ Sacred Heart can triumph

The Latin word recordari is an apt expression for the effect the Eucharist has upon the soul. The self offering of Christ brings us back to the heart. Healing becomes the norm throughout our entire day, rather than just a specific occasion, when we treasure the Eucharist’s power in our hearts.