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JMJ
Almost all the provinces of the Spiriual Life are pervaded by a
so-called ‘holy discouragement.’ We are something more than
dissatisfied, something less than disheartened. When we look at
ourselves, at our defeats, nay, even our victories, we cannot help but
be depressed. If we consider the multitude and weight and ubiquity of
our temptations, the scene is little less disheartening, especially when
we add the consideration of our invisible spiritual foes. So also the
world, and its effect upon us and power over us, are all discouraging
facts of our Christian warfare. Indeed in all things our very safety
consists in being afraid, in a sense of inferiority, in a conviction
that we are no match either for our own poor selves or for selves or for
evils from without. Yet for all this we must be joyous, confident,
secure; and as there are no fountains for these things either in self or
circumstances, we can only find them in our Faith, and our Faith, preached in all the creation that is under heaven (Col. 1.23), is the victory which overcometh the world (1 Jn. 5.4). However, Faith is not the end; it must lead us to our hidden God dwelling in our midst, discerning the Body of the Lord (1 Cor. 11.29) – the Living Bread (Jn. 6.51) – reposing on the high altars (cf., Heb. 13.10) of the New Covenant.
The love of the Blessed Sacrament is the ground and royal devotion of
Faith. And out of it there come three especial graces which are the
very life and soul of an interior life:
An overflowing charity to all around us
The very joyousness of having Jesus with us, of being in actual and
delighted possession of Him, renders us full of charity to others. Happy
ourselves, we are anxious to make others happy also. To be full of
charity is in itself a pain, if we have no vent by which we can pour out
of our fullness over others. Something of this sort could be the reason
why God created us, for Good is diffusive of Itself. And are we not
created according to the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1.26)? Charity
is the choicest as well as the most exuberant emanation from the
Adorable Divine Host.
A thirst to sacrifice ourselves for God
Self-sacrifice is of the very essence of holiness. Love is impatient
of secrecy, at least of being concealed from its object. It longs to
testify itself, and the stronger and the purer it is, the more does it
desire to testify itself in different and heroic ways. Nay, love needs
self-sacrifice as an evidence to itself of its own earnestness and
intensity. How little have we given up for our dearest Lord, and how we
burn to sacrifice ourselves in some way for Him. Now devotion to the
Blessed Sacrament has a special power to communicate this divine spirit.
The Holy Eucharist is a sacrifice, as well as a sacrament; no wonder
the spirit of sacrifice goes out from It, and is contagious of among
loving souls. But it is not out of the meekness and sweetness and
gentleness and bashful humility of love that this ardent desire of
sacrifice arises; but out of love’s boldness, its victory, its warlike
prowess, its sense of triumph.
A generous filial love of Holy Church
People, and even those who call themselves ‘Catholics’, often try to
draw a distinction between what is spiritual and what is ecclesiastical
in the Christian religion; and obviously for many purposes, and from
many partial points of view, such a distinction is very capable of being
drawn. But the two cannot be separated the one from the other; they lie
together practically inseparable. Hence, there is no interior or mystic
life, not even in the cloister, which is not distinguished by a vivid
interest in the vicissitudes of the Church, an inveterate attachment to
her external and ceremonial observances – accidentals that show what she
is – and quite a supernatural sympathy with the fortunes of the Holy
See. Love of God and love of Rome are inseparable. To obey the successors of Peter, who take the place of [the] ministry and apostleship (Acts 1.25) even to the consummation of the world (Mt. 28.20), for obedience to the faith (Rom. 1.5), is the same thing as to serve Jesus for Christ loved the Church [He Himself built on Peter (Cephas or "rock" in Aramaic, the original language spoken by Our Lord), Mt. 16.18], and delivered Himself up for it (Eph. 5.25).
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