Sixteenth Elevation
Silent Heart wanting to speak to souls Seventh desire of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus :
Jesus desires to be listened to and adhered to
I
Reflection – What is this apparent contradiction? A silence that wants to speak? – Silence usually says only one thing, that it does not want to say anything; it is sometimes the most eloquent expression of a deep feeling of the soul, but this eloquence is only transitory and does not constitute a conversation suitable to instruct and touch souls. This wonder can only belong to the divine power. Indeed, what other language could be the language of God?… It is in silence that the angels hear each other with his Majesty; and also that the saints here below deal with Him: My mouth is without words before you and my silence speaks to you. But if there is a place here below where the Heart of God spreads without the noise of words, it is indeed in the Sacrament of his love; also, to initiate us into this marvellous language, the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus invites souls to it: for, like the other languages, this one is learned only by use.
II
Jesus – I will lead the soul into solitude, and there I will speak to his heart[1]. I am not in the noise. I keep silent when the impious defy me, when sacrilegious hands or lips profane my sacred body, because my word would then be a sharp arrow[2], whereas my anathemas are contained in my eternal patience. But I speak to those who seek me, and they find me, they hear my voice[3]. O faithful sheep, you who know how to answer me when I say: Come! and you who hear, but do not always come, I am addressing you today, learn to listen. But what is this solitude to which I am leading you to hear the sweet murmur of the language of heaven? It is the tabernacle of the Savior, the distance from the world, the oblivion of creatures, the appeasement of passions, the absence of any milieu between your souls and my spirit of love. Recollect yourselves and be silent for at least « half an hour »[4] and then again afterwards, for what if I, the Lord your God, were to speak to you and you did not hear me! Therefore, listen to my silent Heart in the Eucharist, which wants to speak to your souls.
But it is not enough to listen, you must adhere: my word is penetrating, it descends with sweetness into the depths of the being to vivify it; it is an act, it does what it says: adhere to this act, correspond to the grace. My Father in his eternal silence has pronounced in himself an eternal word, his Word, splendor of his substance: Jesus Splendor Patris, and you have adhered to the Word by believing in me. And I conceived in my Heart a word which I said at the breaking of the bread: Hoc est corpus meum, hic est sanguis meus: This is my body, this is my blood. Is not this sacred word the veiled radiance of my own substance? Adhere to my Sacrament, O my beloved ones, feeding on this bread and adoring with transport the Heart of Him who gave it to you. Ah, may the arteries of your heart adhere to this very Heart! Then you will realize my most ardent desire and that of my Father: that you be one with me and through me in Him, per eumdem Christum Dominum notrum.
III
The soul – Jesus Christ is the inner word of the Father, and when He clothed Himself with our nature to exercise the ministry of the outer word outside, He did not lose that quality of the inner word which dwells in the bosom of the Father, but which insinuates itself into hearts by illuminating every man coming into this world. You, Lord, no longer give voice to the outward word that resounded in Judea, where you passed by doing good, but your words have been collected, and we possess the treasures of them.
Now you have entered the silence of the divine majesty, you speak only to your Father and in his august language. And yet, O Jesus, in your Eucharistic dwelling, placed between heaven and earth, like the tent of a traveller both divine and human, you tell us that there again you want to speak to us: what will you say, then, O my Lord, when you have said everything? Ah, the word you give here is the intelligence and love of all those teachings given in the past, it is the word of spirit and life, the intimate word of your Heart. O Jesus, how much I must be attentive inside and outside, at the preaching as well as at the reading of the Gospel, and how much I must open the ear of my heart to this sweet insinuation of truth, which is heard without words, but which enters the soul with a single stroke! O Jesus, I am listening: speak, shine, enlighten, thunder, warm, melt hearts!
17th Elevation: Sweet heart, refuge of the hidden life
[1] Cf. Hosea XI, 14.
[2] Cf. Ps. CXIX, 4.
[3] Cf. John X, 27
[4] Cf. Rev. VIII, 1.
[5] Cf. Mark XIV, 22-24.