Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate tomorrow upon a sixth effect of the love of God, which is zeal for His glory, and we shall see: 1st, that this zeal is obligatory; 2nd, what are its characteristics. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to prevent, by all the means in our power, above all by our good example and our advice, offences against God and wrongs done to religion; 2nd, to give to good works, in so far as it shall be possible, our co-operation and our money. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of St. Ignatius: "To the greater glory of God."
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore Jesus Christ in the immense zeal with which He burned for the glory of His Father. It was the supreme object of all His labors, of all His mysteries, of His Church, of His sacraments. His life and His death tended to nothing but the establishment in the world of the kingdom of God, of making Him to be known, served, and loved by the whole earth, so great was the zeal which devoured Him (Ps. cxviii. 10). Let us admire, let us praise, let us bless this incomparable zeal.
FIRST POINT
The Obligation of being Zealous for the Glory of God.
It is as impossible for us to love God and not to take an interest in His glory as it would be impossible for a son not to be sensitive with regard to the honor of his father, to the injuries which lower him or the glory which raises him. When divine love is really seated in the heart, it bears with it therein a great desire to see God known, loved, and served; a profound grief at beholding offences committed against so good a Master, and a devouring zeal to bring back to Him sinners who have abandoned Him. If then iniquities, overflowing like torrents the face of the earth, find us insensible; if all the wrongs done to religion, all the sufferings of the Church, do not weigh down our souls beneath their immense burden, we ought to strike our breast, and with sighs and weeping say: Miserable creature that I am, I fancied that I loved God, and I find that I do not love Him! David at the sight of the prevarications of men bursts into tears, is dried up with suffering, falls down fainting (Ps. cxviii.). Jeremias feels a sacred fire boiling the very marrow of his bones and cannot contain it, because he has heard the blasphemy of many (Jer. xx. 10). In the New Law, thousands of apostles, missionaries, heroic women, sacrificed some their country and their family, others their repose and their property, some even their own life, in order to make God served and loved by childhood, by youth, by all the ages of life. Ah, how well those great souls knew how to love! It was because they said every day with a heart that was holily jealous for the honor and glory of God: O Father, who art in heaven, may Thy name be exalted, sanctified, and blessed! May Thy reign be established over all hearts and dominate every other affection! May Thy will be everywhere respected, everywhere loved upon earth, as it is in heaven! Let us examine whether our zeal bears any resemblance to the zeal of these great souls, if we have not preferred our repose, our interests, a life of comfort to the greater glory of Godâwhether we feel, down to the very bottom of our hearts, the wrongs committed against the Church and against religion, so that we can say with the Psalmist: "The reproaches of them that reproached Thee have fallen upon me" (Ps. lxviii. 10).
SECOND POINT
The Characteristics of Zeal.
True zeal is activeâit cannot inflame a heart without showing it exteriorly by works. Seeing with what ardor, with what a spirit of proselytism, the wicked labor to ruin souls, and to spread everywhere their dreadful doctrines, even at the cost of great sacrifices, the soul which loves cannot bear the idea of doing less for what is good than the wicked for what is evil. In consequence it seeks for and puts in use all kinds of means for making God known and loved; it is happy to seize upon all opportunities for gaining souls; and the loss of its possessions, of its repose, even of its life, would seem to it to be a gain, if at that price it could make one heart more upon earth to love the Lord.
True zeal is insatiable. The more it sees of good to be done, the more it desires to do, and it never says: It is enough. It would, if it could, spread itself over the whole earth, to make God to be loved and honored everywhere, saying with St. Francis Xavier: "As long as I knew that there was a corner upon earth where God is not loved I should not have an instant of repose!"
True zeal is gentle and prudent. Spite of its great desire that God should be loved, it knows how to contain itself, and it never does anything hastily. Its language is always moderate, its steps only taken after reflection; gentleness and prudence always preside over its acts and open to it the door of the heart. Are these the characteristics of our zeal?
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.