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Tuesday after Quinquagesima: The Gentleness and Humility of Jesus Christ under Outrage
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
We will consider tomorrow how the mystery of Jesus outraged in the Eucharist causes to shine forth: first, His humility; second, His meekness; third, the perfection of His recollection. We will then make the resolution: first, to treat everyone today with great meekness and humility; second, in the midst of the general licence to maintain ourselves in a spirit of recollection and prayer. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the invitation of the Psalmist: “Come, let us adore and fall down and weep before the Lord” (Ps. xciv:6).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore Jesus, so humble and so meek, in the Blessed Sacrament, addressing to us, from the altar where He is exposed, His favourite maxim: “I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also” (John xiii:15). Let us thank Him for these good words and for His holy example.
How the mystery of Jesus outraged in the eucharist causes his humility to shine forth
If there had been nothing else than this life hidden during eighteen centuries in the obscurity of the tabernacle, it would have been an act of wonderful humility. What must it not be to have to suffer the being forsaken by men, for the love of whom He is there! The majority abandon Him, some through neglect and indifference, others through contempt, and He spends weeks and months in solitude in this dark prison, submitting to the irreverence, the insults, the profanations, the sacrileges committed by many who come into the church, and that to such an extent as to be trodden under foot by malefactors, who steal away from Him the little vessel in which He reposes. O God of tabernacles, how humble Thou art! How, in presence of so much abasement, could I indulge in pride and self-love, in unreasonableness and susceptibilities? How could I desire to be preferred to others, to be brought into notice, and to be honoured? Oh, rather would I say with David: “I will make myself meaner than I have done, and I will be little in my own eyes” (II Sam. vi:22).
How the mystery of Jesus outraged in the eucharist makes his meekness to shine forth
We offend Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament by voluntary distractions, by irreverence, by giving licence to our eyes and our tongues; by an irreligious deportment, by profanation and sacrilege; and yet amidst so many horrors He is meek and patient; He sees all, and appears as though He did not; He suffers all and is silent. During eighteen centuries He has not allowed us to perceive even one single time that He is displeased; not a movement of impatience, not a sign of ill-temper. He might launch His thunders against the profaners, open hell under their feet; but He loves better to say to us, “Learn of Me because I am meek” (Matt. xi:29). What a marvel of meekness! And, also, what a lesson for me! What a condemnation of my hardness and of my impatience! I cannot bear to be opposed, that others should have their defects, and that they should not be angels! O Jesus so meek, teach me to suffer everything with meekness, without making anyone suffer in any way, to moderate my quickness of temper, my anger, my bitter reproaches.
How the mystery of Jesus outraged in the eucharist makes his love to shine forth
Exterior things, above all those which hurt our self-love or which wound our feelings, preoccupy and distract us to such a point that, being entirely given up to outward things, we do not live either with God, in order to respect His presence and offer to Him our actions, or with ourselves, in order to study our defects, to follow the practices of virtue, and all the movements of our heart. Jesus outraged in the Blessed Sacrament teaches us quite the contrary. He does not allow Himself to be distracted by the contradictions of creatures, by contempt and outrages. Always recollected within, always calm, He prays in peace for the poor sinners who offend Him, and the more they offend Him the more He prays for them, the more He recollects Himself in order to make honourable amends to the Divine Majesty for so many outrages. Is it thus that we keep our interior in a peaceful and recollected state amidst the tumult of exterior things, above all amidst events which wound our self-love?
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
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