Thirteenth Elevation
Heart eager to hear us
Fourth desire of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus: our Mediator before his Father
I
Reflection. – Knowing how to want and how to wait are the marks of great strength and wisdom. The measure of a desire is related to the ardor of the heart that experiences it; and if this desire is in order, it increases in its excellence.
From this we can understand what is the strength of Jesus’ desires in relation to us, and what unspeakable violence is done to his Heart when our force of inertia cancels out his desire to grant us what he knows is necessary for us; he could incline us immediately to want it, but then he forces himself to wait, for his wisdom which reaches with strength from one end of the world to the other, disposes of everything with gentleness[1].
Does this mean that our inertia has a greater power than the will of God to hinder it? No, certainly, nothing resists the divine will when it is absolute, but that which he deigns to express as a desire is only a will relative to the freedom which he himself has left us. However, this royal desire is no less an order for the docile subject; to refuse to conform to it would be a revolt.
II
Jesus – My desire is to be your Mediator. Whatever you ask my Father in my name, he will give you[2]. Ask and you shall receive[3]. You do not ask enough. The arrow launched towards its goal, the lightning bolt that criss-crosses the sky, are not as fast as the impulse of my Heart offering my Father pure supplication. Yesterday I wanted to wait, today I want to hurry, for it is getting late, the day is on its way out[4].
Your days are numbered and time is running out; you have lost it by making me wait: regain it and move on now. The needs are great: souls are being lost, the Church is suffering, I remain unknown and my Father is offended.
Charity urges me, it is necessary that the charity of the earth calls the charity of heaven, it is necessary that misery implores mercy. I am in a hurry as one is in the anguish of the heart before the imminent peril of those one loves: send therefore to me your most pressing supplications.
I am the only intercessor before my Father, do not forget it, the only one among you capable of offering him a prayer worthy of him, because I am the « God-man », the man without reproach, in a hurry to intercede for the people, presenting the shield of his ministry with your supplications to turn away the anger of the Lord[5].
For this reason I have placed myself between earth and heaven in the tabernacles of the Eucharist, adorer in your name and mediator with my Father; may your supplication be urgent, trusting, persevering and unselfish.
III
The soul – The Eucharistic Heart of Jesus would like to pour out treasures of grace upon us, but he wants us to desire them, he wants us to ask for them, he wants us to want to receive them and to cooperate in them.
His love burns to communicate itself. Jesus has his hands full, and he does not know where to drop the treasures they contain, because our souls are closed and our hearts are filled with foreign affections or attachment to ourselves; we even go so far as to fear receiving graces that would require us to be more faithful!
Your charity, however, O Jesus, shows itself more and more pressing; after having begged us to come, after having been patient in waiting for us, you say to us a word even more touching: « I am in a hurry to grant you. »
What is it to say, alas! when far from addressing you with ardent supplications, we are perhaps not even « men of desire[6] »? Ah, Lord, what misery is not ours; see, we are not even aware of our real needs!
Lord, teach us to ask! O Spirit of Light, come and groan in us that unutterable groan[7] which is the prayer that the Son hears, that the Father answers.
O Father, draw me; O Son, my Mediator, my protector, my strength, my living life, draw me also, draw me from myself, for it is in me that my most dangerous enemies are; descend into the unknown depths of this abyss where are these too beloved enemies, with whom I pact against you, and deliver me, in spite of myself, perhaps; make me a bulwark of your sacred body, a shield of your Eucharistic Heart.
Is this not precisely your ministry of love in the attributions of the divine Eucharist? I finally give myself to you, here I am Lord, what do you want me to do? Let you do it perhaps? Well, yes, and since it is myself that it is necessary to overcome first, take the two-edged sword, separate my carnal soul from my spiritual soul, my good will from my evil will.
This sword is your love, strong as death, which alone can immolate the unregulated nature to grace and fulfill your desires at the same time as mine; but this very love, Lord, make me understand it, desire it, know how to ask for it with such a true will that I finally obtain it.
Hear, then, Almighty God, the voice with which I have cried out to you, the voice of your beloved Son in the Eucharist, and have mercy on us.
14th Elevation: Heart desiring to be prayed to
[1] Wisdom VIII, 1.
[2] Cf. John XIV, 23.
[3] Cf. Matthew VII, 5.
[4] Cf. Luke XXIV, 29.
[5] Cf. Sap. XVIII, 21.
[6] Cf. Daniel IX, 23.
[7] Cf. Rom. VIII, 26.