The Twentieth Day of June

Fourth Thorn of the Heart of Jesus: the Soul Which Communicates Seldom.

To unite Himself to us by communion, such was the principal end which the Heart of Jesus designed when instituting the divine Eucharist. He said: "Take ye and eat. With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you before I suffer. Come, eat my bread and drink the wine which I have mingled for you. Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you." How do men respond to this appeal? Alas! they feel nothing but coldness and indifference for the God of the Eucharist. Strange delusion, they fly from the embrace of their tender Father, they desert the holy table, and thereby excommunicate themselves.

It is true that faithful adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus still remain, devoted friends who, like Veronica, endeavor to wipe His adorable face, and who receive Him frequently in holy communion. But, how small the number when compared to the multitude of impious, indifferent and ungrateful Christians whose places ever remain vacant at the Eucharistic banquet. In what a sad state are these poor souls who, for so many years, have not received their God, nor quenched their thirst at the chalice of salvation? Alas! they are dying of hunger and thirst. Who does not eat has not life. "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you" (John vi. 54). Oh! how this neglect, this indifference, this spiritual death must wound the tender Heart of Jesus; what an additional thorn for that loving Heart. Listen how He complains by the mouth of His prophet: "I have brought up children and exalted them, but they have despised me" (Isaias. i. 2).

Christians, will you not be moved by the lamentations of the Heart of your Master? Take pity on Him, and whilst the crowd keeps away from His tabernacle, come and pray and weep at His feet. Let the sad example of those who abandon Him cause you to redouble your zeal, your devotion and love. Approach the Eucharistic banquet as often as possible, and ask yourself if you have not frequently missed holy communion through your own fault? Yes, love Jesus for those who love Him not; visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament for those who come not near Him; and, especially, open your heart to Him for those who will not open theirs. In return may those beautiful words, which He addressed to blessed Margaret Alacoque, be addressed also to you: "My daughter, I am coming into the heart which I have given thee, so that, by thy ardent love, thou mayest make reparation to me for the injuries I have received from lukewarm and cowardly hearts, who abandon and dishonor me in the most holy Sacrament."

EXAMPLE.

We read in the lives of the saints that St. Alexis, who was born of noble and wealthy parents, renounced, at an early age, all the goods of this world, and left his paternal home to embrace the voluntary poverty of Jesus Christ. He had been rich he became a beggar. At the expiration of a few years, he returned and knocked at the door of his father’s house, asking for alms and shelter. His relatives did not recognise him, want and privations having so changed his appearance that they took him for a stranger, and allowed him to take up his abode under the staircase of the castle, giving orders to a servant to take him daily a piece of bread and a glass of water Many years passed by; Alexis saw his parents leave and enter the castle without knowing him, although he himself remembered them well. One day he fell seriously ill and sent to ask to see his mother. Just before breathing his last, he addressed her in these words: "Mother, I am Alexis, I am your child." When the poor mother recognised her son in the inanimate body of the beggar, who, for thirty years had lived under the staircase of her palace she threw herself on his neck, and, embracing him, exclaimed, weeping: "O, my child, my dear child, I recognise you, but too late!"

How many sinners, after death, at the sight of Jesus, whom they have disowned, will cry out, in like manner: "O my Savior! O God of the Eucharist! I recognise Thee too late; I have passed thirty, forty years of my life close to Thy tabernacle, almost under the same roof with Thee, and I have not known Thee, and I have refused to receive Thee." What will Jesus answer? And I also, I know you not. Depart from me" (Matt. xxv. 12-41). To deprive oneself of our Lord in this world, and to be deprived of Him for all eternity, O God how terrible a misfortune!

PRAYER.

O Jesus! it is with a heart overwhelmed with grief that I ask Thy pardon a thousand and a thousand times, for the indifference of all those who refuse to receive Thee. From henceforth I will communicate frequently, in order to console and make amends to Thee for the neglect of others. Grant that I may always approach Thy holy table with a heart free from sin, and adorned with virtue. Amen.

PRACTICE.

Make a visit to Jesus in the Tabernacle in reparation for all those who ignore Him and leave Him alone where he remains a prisoner of love.