EIGHTEENTH MEDITATION FOR LENTAnd the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him, asking him a sign from heaven, tempting him. And sighing deeply in spirit, he saith: "Why doth this generation seek a sign?" (Mark 8:11-12)
What reproaches this sigh conveys, and how well founded these reproaches were! The Sacred Heart feels keenly the callousness and malice of the Pharisees. There had not been a town or village through which Jesus Christ had passed that had not witnessed His miracles. But when people do not love those who perform wonders in their favor, they are little touched by what they see and hear. It must be that we love Jesus Christ little since the greatest and most loving of all His miracles, which is the Blessed Eucharist, touches us so little. But, O my amiable Savior, should not this amazing hardness of heart on our part be capable of making us grieve for it, as it would still be capable of drawing sighs from Thy Sacred Heart, if It was still subject to sorrow and sadness? My heart, O merciful Savior, is capable of sorrow and sadness, deign Thou to soften it by Thy grace that it may grieve over my ingratitude and the ingratitude of men towards Thee.
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
What reproaches this sigh conveys, and how well founded these reproaches were! The Sacred Heart feels keenly the callousness and malice of the Pharisees. There had not been a town or village through which Jesus Christ had passed that had not witnessed His miracles. But when people do not love those who perform wonders in their favor, they are little touched by what they see and hear. It must be that we love Jesus Christ little since the greatest and most loving of all His miracles, which is the Blessed Eucharist, touches us so little. But, O my amiable Savior, should not this amazing hardness of heart on our part be capable of making us grieve for it, as it would still be capable of drawing sighs from Thy Sacred Heart, if It was still subject to sorrow and sadness? My heart, O merciful Savior, is capable of sorrow and sadness, deign Thou to soften it by Thy grace that it may grieve over my ingratitude and the ingratitude of men towards Thee.
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
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