FIFTEENTH MEDITATION FOR LENT
And Jesus began to fear and to be heavy. And He saith to them: "My soul is sorrowful even unto death." (Mark 14:33-34)
A person of really great soul and generous heart is, as a rule, not extremely afflicted at the sight of insults, torments and even death which he himself has chosen, and to which he has delivered himself willingly. But this same heart, which is proof against torments, cannot be insensible to the ingratitude of those for whom it suffers, and this is the torment which made Jesus complain; He Himself said so expressly to St. Margaret Mary. Let us, then, imagine Him saying to us: I do not complain that I am being dragged through the streets of Jerusalem, torn with scourges, crowned with thorns, nailed to an infamous gibbet to suffer until death the most excruciating torments. My love for men makes Me accept all that; but I cannot resign Myself to be treated with such indignity in the Blessed Eucharist which I regard as the masterpiece of My love, the most efficacious means of gaining for Me their love and thus making Me love them still more, and the most suitable place to receive their homage and love in reparation for the monstrous treatment which I have received at the hands of the Jews. It grieves me that the Blessed Eucharist should be the place where I am to receive the most outrages, where I am to be abandoned, despised, and treated with indignity even by those who make profession of piety.
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
A person of really great soul and generous heart is, as a rule, not extremely afflicted at the sight of insults, torments and even death which he himself has chosen, and to which he has delivered himself willingly. But this same heart, which is proof against torments, cannot be insensible to the ingratitude of those for whom it suffers, and this is the torment which made Jesus complain; He Himself said so expressly to St. Margaret Mary. Let us, then, imagine Him saying to us: I do not complain that I am being dragged through the streets of Jerusalem, torn with scourges, crowned with thorns, nailed to an infamous gibbet to suffer until death the most excruciating torments. My love for men makes Me accept all that; but I cannot resign Myself to be treated with such indignity in the Blessed Eucharist which I regard as the masterpiece of My love, the most efficacious means of gaining for Me their love and thus making Me love them still more, and the most suitable place to receive their homage and love in reparation for the monstrous treatment which I have received at the hands of the Jews. It grieves me that the Blessed Eucharist should be the place where I am to receive the most outrages, where I am to be abandoned, despised, and treated with indignity even by those who make profession of piety.
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
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