TWENTIETH MEDITATION FOR LENT
"I am come in the name of my Father, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive." (John 5:43)
How reasonable is not this reproach! But what intense pain and sorrow it shows in the Heart of Him who utters it! What would be the sentiments of a prince, if he saw that people received with great honor the least of his father's servants but that they treated himself, the son and heir, with the greatest contempt? People have respect for a man whom they know to have been sent by God. The relics of those who have given their blood for Jesus Christ inspire us with the veneration which these generous martyrs deserve. People even undertake long journeys with great inconvenience to do them the honor due to them, and this act of piety is solid and praiseworthy. But is our conduct reasonable, when Jesus Christ, who is ever present in the Blessed Sacrament, cannot induce us to visit Him and pay homage to Him? How many people are there not who have no devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, an actual aversion to receive Holy Communion, little or no respect in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, and who say that they can find no time to visit It?
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
How reasonable is not this reproach! But what intense pain and sorrow it shows in the Heart of Him who utters it! What would be the sentiments of a prince, if he saw that people received with great honor the least of his father's servants but that they treated himself, the son and heir, with the greatest contempt? People have respect for a man whom they know to have been sent by God. The relics of those who have given their blood for Jesus Christ inspire us with the veneration which these generous martyrs deserve. People even undertake long journeys with great inconvenience to do them the honor due to them, and this act of piety is solid and praiseworthy. But is our conduct reasonable, when Jesus Christ, who is ever present in the Blessed Sacrament, cannot induce us to visit Him and pay homage to Him? How many people are there not who have no devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, an actual aversion to receive Holy Communion, little or no respect in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, and who say that they can find no time to visit It?
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
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