MARY, OUR MOTHER

THIRTIETH MEDITATION FOR LENT

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not?" (Matt. 23:37)

What shall that unhappy people reply to this reproach? But what shall we ourselves reply when it shall be made to us? The very figure which Jesus Christ uses shows forth our ingratitude more clearly because it expresses the great love of Jesus Christ in our regard. Our amiable Savior has left us Himself in the Blessed Sacrament in order that we may find at every moment a powerful Protector, a Physician, a Father. He is unceasingly in the midst of us because He wishes to have us always near Him. But does not coldness and neglect on the part of the greatest number of Christians oblige Him to say to us: "My poor children, how many times have I wished to gather you, as a hen doth gather her chickens, and you have gone away! You would not! Are you astonished if you are so long afflicted, so often conquered and so dangerously wounded? It is for this reason that there are so many among you who are sick and languid and that several sleep the sleep of death." Shall I be insensible henceforth, O my amiable Savior, both to the loving reproach which Thou dost make to me, and to the contempt with which I have hitherto treated It?

[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]