Saturday in the Octave of Corpus Christi

Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation

After having studied the Eucharist as a masterpiece of divine wisdom, power, and generosity, we will consider it to-morrow as a marvel in regard to a perfect life, and especially as the model of our duties towards God. We shall understand this by considering: 1st, the occupations of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; 2d, the part which we ought to take in this divine life. Our resolutions shall be: 1st, to unite our homages to those which our divine Saviour renders to God His Father in this great sacrament, and to endeavor to make them pass into our own hearts; 2d, often to utter acts of adoration, admiration, love, gratitude, supplication, and offerings of ourselves to God. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words St. Paul spoke of Jesus Christ: “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise always to God” (Heb. xiii. 15).

Meditation for the Morning

Let us adore Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament as the object of the complaisance of the heavenly Father. As once on the banks of the Jordan, so now He says: “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. iii. 17). Let us unite ourselves with the complaisance of the Father in His Son, and let us glorify the Divine Saviour for it.

FIRST POINT

The Occupations of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist

Jesus, in His tabernacle, is neither dead nor idle; He is full of life and in continual action. He occupies Himself therein with the contemplation of God His Father; with taking delight in His infinite perfections, in praising, exalting, adoring, loving them, and confessing that in the presence of so much majesty no created being is worthy to subsist; and keeping this in view, He takes pleasure in lessening Himself within the limits of a particle, in order to glorify God by this profound abasement. He also occupies Himself at the same time with our dearest interests; He thanks God for us, He prays continually to Him for us, He asks pardon of Him for our faults, makes to Him for them reparation and honorable amends, and offers Himself in our place as a host of expiation. And who could fitly express the extent of this homage? He renders it at all times and in all places: at all times, because He never interrupts it during a single moment of the day or of the night; in all places, because for that He multiplies His presence on all the altars throughout the world, so that, O wonderful spectacle in the sight of heaven! at every moment there arrives from all points of both hemispheres, before the throne of God, the homage of this Divine Pontiff, and it goes straight to the heart of God, wounding it with love and ravishing His complaisance. Who could, above all, express the value of this homage? It is infinite, both because the hypostatic union with the divinity communicates to all the acts of Jesus an infinite merit, and because the Divine Saviour, being incomparably more perfect and more enlightened in regard to the divine perfections than all the saints and angels, renders on that account more glory to God than the whole of heaven can render Him. It is there that God is more known, more praised, more honored, more loved than by all created beings, even if their homage were to be prolonged throughout eternity. Let us thereby judge of the excellence of the occupations of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, let us rejoice at seeing God so magnificently honored, and let us unite ourselves to the homage which He renders to our sovereign Master and Lord.

SECOND POINT

The Part we ought to Take in the Occupations of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist

We ought: 1st, to offer them to God; 2d, to imitate them. 1st. We ought to offer them to God. Lord, we ought to say to Him, it is only in the interior of Jesus, Thy Divine Son, that Thou art known, honored, and glorified as Thou meritest to be. My own occupations are mean, miserable, incapable of honoring Thee worthily. I offer Thee, as a supplement to my indigence, the perfect homage which our Divine Head renders to Thee; I offer Thee His humble adoration, His praises so worthy of Thee, His abasement so profound, His thanksgivings so excellent, His prayers which are all powerful; I offer them to Thee for myself, for the whole Church, for all creatures, and with my whole soul I praise the glory which His homage procures for Thee. Not knowing, of myself, how to speak to Thee worthily, I say to Thee all that my divine Jesus, the High-Priest of every creature, utters in the Blessed Sacrament. It is for me that He adores Thee, that He praises Thee, that He thanks Thee, that He asks of Thee mercy and grace; I say Amen to all the effusions of His heart; I offer them to Thee as mine, in virtue of my union with Him and the cession He has made me of His merits. 2d. We ought to imitate the occupations of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Every time that we pay a visit to the tabernacle, or that we pray or meditate in our oratory, let us represent to ourselves the occupations of Jesus in the Eucharist, and let us offer the same prayers, let us enter into the same sentiments, let us make the same acts of supreme esteem for God, of profound reverence, of perfect submission to Providence, of thanks, of expiation, of requests, of the abasement of our whole selves in presence of the Divine Majesty, of desire for His greater glory; of tender charity towards our neighbor, above all towards those from whom we suffer, or of whom we have cause to complain; of compassion for sinners, and of prayers for their conversion and ours; and let us endeavor, as much as we possibly can, to imitate the manner in which Jesus performs all these holy things. It is the most perfect manner of honoring God, as well as the surest means for obtaining graces. Do we employ these means? When we visit the Blessed Sacrament, do we offer by Him, in Him, and with Him our homage to the Most Holy Trinity? For want of giving up ourselves to these holy occupations, what time do we not lose in presence of the Blessed Sacrament, what fruitless visits do we not make to it!

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.