However
incredible may appear the love which the Son of God shows us in the Adorable
Eucharist, there is something else yet more surprising. It is the ingratitude
with which we repay so great a love. It is marvelous, indeed, that Jesus Christ
should take delight in loving man. But it is most unaccountable that man should
not love Jesus Christ, and that no motive, no benefit, no excess of love can
inspire him with the least feeling of gratitude. Jesus Christ may perhaps have
some reason for loving men. They are His work. In them He loves His own gifts.
In loving them He loves Himself.
But can we have
any reason for not loving Jesus Christ, for loving Him only in a small degree,
for loving anything together with Him? Is there anything, then, in Him,that
keeps you from Him? Has He not yet done sufficient to merit our love? Should we
ever have dared to desire, or ever have been able to imagine, all that He has deigned
to do, in this adorable mystery, in order to gain our hearts? And yet all this
has not been enough to oblige men to have an ardent love for Jesus Christ.
What advantage
has Jesus Christ derived from so wonderful an abasement? It might in some sense
be said that all the other mysteries, the effects of His love, have been
accompanied by circumstances so glorious, and prodigies so striking, as to show
clearly, that in taking care of our interests He did not entirely overlook His
own glory. But in this most amiable Sacrament, it seems as if Jesus Christ had
altogether forgotten all these advantages, and that it was His love alone that
engaged Him therein.
Ought not, then,
so wonderful an excess of love to excite an excessive love in the hearts of all
men. Alas! it is quite the contrary. It seems as though Jesus Christ would have
been more loved had He loved us less. I shudder with horror, oh my God! at the
mere thought of the indignities and outrages which the impiety of wicked
Christians, and the fury of heretics, have committed against this august Sacrament.
With what horrible sacrileges have not our Altars and our Churches been
profaned? With what repeated insults, impiety and infamy, has not the Body of
Jesus Christ been treated? Can any Christian reflect on such impiety, without
conceiving an ardent desire to repair by 'every possible means' these cruel
outrages? Is it possible, then, that he should live without giving it a
thought?
If, amidst the
impiety which Jesus Christ meets with at the hands of heretics, He at least
were honored and ardently loved by the faithful, we might in some degree
console ourselves for the outrages of the one, by the love and sincere homage
of the other. But alas! Where are we to look for that crowd of adorers,
earnestly bent on honoring Jesus Christ in our Churches? Are not our Churches
deserted? Can there be greater coldness and indifference than what is shown
towards Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament? The scant number that are to be
seen in our Churches during the greater part of the day, are they not a visible
proof of the forgetfulness and want of love of almost all Christians? Those who
approach our Altars most frequently, familiarize themselves with these most
august mysteries. It may be said, that there are Priests, whose familiarity to
Jesus Christ goes so far as to grow into indifference and contempt. How many
amongst them are there, who, by offering Him daily, increase in love for Him?
How many who celebrate these divine mysteries, act like persons who truly believe
in them?
We perhaps think
that Jesus Christ is insensible to such bad treatment. But can we ourselves
think on the treatment which He receives, and be insensible, and not seek to
make reparation by every means in our power? How can anyone reflect a little on
these truths, and not dedicate himself wholly to the love of this Man-God, who
alone has a right to the hearts of all. If we do not love Him, it must either
be that we do not know Him, or that we are worse than that wicked demon spoken
of in the life of St. Catherine of Genoa, who did not complain of the flames
that consumed him, nor of the other pains which he endured, but only of being
devoid of love, - of that love which so many souls know nothing of, or refuse
to exercise, to their eternal loss.
Let us remember,
that the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament has still, as far as
can be, the same sentiments It always had. It is always inflamed with love for
man, always sensibly touched by our misfortunes, always urged by the desire to
make us partakers of Its treasures and to give Itself to us, always disposed to
receive us, and to serve as a dwelling and a paradise for us, even in this
life, and above all, as a refuge at the hour of death.
And, for all
this, what sentiments of gratitude does He find in the hearts of men? What
solicitude? What love? He loves, and He is not loved. We do not even know His
love, because we do not condescend to receive the gifts by which He would show
it to us, nor listen to the tender and secret declarations that He would make
of it to our hearts. Is not this a motive powerful enough to touch the hearts
of all who are at all reasonable, and who have
some little tenderness for Jesus Christ?
Our loving
Savior, in instituting this Sacrament of love, foresaw clearly all the
ingratitude of mankind. He felt by anticipation in His Sacred Heart, all the
grief which it was to cause Him. Yet all this could not keep Him at a distance,
nor prevent Him from showing us the excess of His love, in the institution of
this adorable mystery.
Is it not just,
amidst so much incredulity and coldness, so many profanations and outrages,
that this God of love should find at least some friends of His Sacred Heart,
who should be pained by the little love felt for Him, feel the injuries offered
Him, be faithful and assiduous in adoring Him in the Holy Eucharist, and
neglect nothing in order to repair, by their love, by their adorations, and by
every kind of homage, all the outrages to which the excess of His love daily
exposes Him, in this august Sacrament?
(From Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Father
John Croiset, S.J.)
(Sacred Heart Image source: Sacred Heart Church, Lancaster, Ca)
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