5th Tuesday after Pentecost

Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation

We will meditate to-morrow upon visiting the Blessed Sacrament, and we shall see: 1st, that to visit it is a duty incumbent on us; 2d, that our dearest interests invite us to do so. Our resolution shall be: 1st, to be faithful in making a visit every day to the Blessed Sacrament; 2d, never to pass before a church without entering into it for a few moments, in so far as it is possible for us to do so. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of Our Lord: “Behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world” (Matt. xxviii. 20).

Meditation for the Morning

Let us adore Jesus Christ residing upon our altars like a king in his palace, always accessible to His subjects, in order to give audience to them and to overwhelm them with His more than royal gifts. Oh, how worthy He is, in this state, of all our praise and all our benedictions! “To Him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, benediction and honor, glory and power forever and ever” (Apoc. v. 13).

FIRST POINT

It is our Duty often to Visit the Blessed Sacrament

If there were in the world a place where Jesus showed Himself under a sensible form as He formerly did in the midst of Judea, where He conversed familiarly with any one who went to visit Him, one should doubtless consider it a duty and a happiness to go and converse with Him, if the distance to be traversed were not too great. What would it be for us, then, if He Himself were to make the first advances, and if He were to come and establish Himself near us, almost at our very door, saying to us: Come to Me: it is a great pleasure to Me to hold intercourse with you, and to dispense to you My treasures. How eager should we be to meet Him and how worthy of condemnation should we consider him to be who did not do so! O men of little faith that we are! have we not then in the Eucharist the same Jesus Christ whom the Magi adored, whom Judea saw passing by and doing good to all and healing every one (Acts x. 38); He of whom the heavenly Father said: “Let all the angels of God adore Him”? (Heb. i. 6.) The true Solomon is not satisfied to have in Jerusalem, that is to say in heaven, a throne more magnificent than any throne ever was; He willed to have also in the midst of us, and within our reach, a more simple throne, where He could receive us at any moment (Cant. iii. 9). From it He cries, “Come to Me” (Matt. xi. 28); “I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world” (Matt. xxviii. 20); “My delight is to be with the children of men” (Prov. viii. 31). Every day I reach forth My arms to you (Is. lxv. 2). Come to Me, My heart and My hands abound in graces wherewith to enrich you (Ps. xxxiii. 12). And behold, O hardness of the human heart! these tender invitations do not touch us. The Queen of Saba came from the extremities of the earth to visit Solomon, and we have in our tabernacles much more than a Solomon (Matt. xii. 42). Men of the world attach great value to being received by a prince or a monarch; and yet we, to whom Jesus, our divine King, offers so frequent an audience and as prolonged a one as we desire to have, visit Him so little! A friend takes pleasure in being with his friend, whilst we have so little pleasure in conversing with Jesus! He seems to be the only one amongst our friends whose society has no charm for us (Tertullian). Let us be afraid lest, having shown so little eagerness to appear before the throne of His mercy that we may find grace there, we may be hereafter taken before His divine justice to receive our condemnation (Hymn Dies Iræ), and lest He should say of us: I have been abandoned in My tabernacles and you have not visited Me (Matt. xxv. 43).

SECOND POINT

It is in our Interest to Visit the Blessed Sacrament

Tabernacles are the thrones of grace where Jesus Christ dispenses His favors, and bestows them on all who visit Him. Let us go to Him and tell Him our needs with simplicity and confidence, and we shall be solaced. One sole visit to the Blessed Sacrament often gives back calm and peace to the troubled soul; it had come to Him sorrowful and languishing, and it returns full of consolation and of joy; it had come tepid, feeble, and full of distractions, and it returns warmed, encouraged, and recollected. It would be impossible to express how many graces the soul receives in these holy visits. It is there that Jesus Christ accomplishes in a very special manner His promise, “Ask, and you shall receive” (John xvi. 24). There we obtain the illumination which enlightens, the divine unction which touches, the grace which sanctifies, to such a degree that we may almost be sure of the salvation of a soul that is faithful in making its visit every day to the Blessed Sacrament (Ps. xxxiii. 6). There, lastly, we obtain, besides graces for ourselves, graces for our neighbor, for our parish, for the Church, for the whole world, because the treasures of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament are inexhaustible. How then is it, that having within our reach the source of so many blessings, we go so seldom to draw from it, and that when Jesus Christ asks for nothing better than to give us His graces we show so little zeal in going to receive them? Let us here examine our conscience. Have we a fixed time for visiting the Blessed Sacrament? Are we faithful to it? Do we not sometimes look upon the moments as less well employed which we pass at the foot of the altar? Do we not prefer to them the visits of friends, or certain worldly visits as useless as they are dangerous? Lastly, is it to the tabernacle we have recourse in our temptations and our discouragements, in order to seek consolation and strength?

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.