Fr. Eymard and His Interior Life

In the New Testament, Christian living is described in many ways. We are adopted as children of God (I John 3:12, Rom 8: 14-17) and in that we share God’s very being. There are many definitions for a Christian living, but all are called to perfection (Mt 5: 48). According to St. Paul, a priest’s life should be penetrated by God’s Holy Spirit, whereby a priest can be called a man of God (1 Tim 6:11). St. Peter Julian Eymard speaks constantly of the interior life. The interior life, as he sees, is the life and reign of the love of Jesus in a soul. It is Jesus possessing and guiding all the faculties living in them as in a centre of peace and repose. It is to live with God and in God. According to him, to live an interior life is to live him, to love, and to converse with him; to live a family life with God. It is to take our orders from God, abandon ourselves to his direction, render him an account of our actions, consecrate everything to his service, live and find repose in him alone. St. Peter Julian says that the interior life, a life of intimate union with God, can be achieved by perfect self denial and constant recollection and prayer. He also emphasizes the four pivotal ends of the sacrifice of the Mass, namely adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and petition which are the innate life-giving principles of the interior life with the Holy Eucharist as its centre of operation. According to him, the interior life is not possible without the Eucharist. So, let us meaningfully live the Eucharist in our life.