TWENTY NINTH MEDITATION FOR LENT
"This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, in vain do they worship me. . ." (Mark 7:6-8)
The honors which were given to Jesus Christ must have been very insincere. The heart must have had little share in those praises which were given to Him from time to time since all these acts of homage ended in making Him suffer the greatest outrages and in seeing Him expire on the Cross. To how many tepid Christians can Jesus Christ make this mournful reproach? Does not want of modesty in the Church, lack of reverence before the Blessed Sacrament, repugnance to this Heavenly Nourishment, which are, alas, so common, show that our homage does not come from the bottom of our hearts? We have the exterior trappings of devotion but where is our sincerity? Ah! my Savior, how can my heart be so near Thine and not be inflamed by Thy love?
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
The honors which were given to Jesus Christ must have been very insincere. The heart must have had little share in those praises which were given to Him from time to time since all these acts of homage ended in making Him suffer the greatest outrages and in seeing Him expire on the Cross. To how many tepid Christians can Jesus Christ make this mournful reproach? Does not want of modesty in the Church, lack of reverence before the Blessed Sacrament, repugnance to this Heavenly Nourishment, which are, alas, so common, show that our homage does not come from the bottom of our hearts? We have the exterior trappings of devotion but where is our sincerity? Ah! my Savior, how can my heart be so near Thine and not be inflamed by Thy love?
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
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