Eighteenth Elevation
Heart master of the secrets of divine union
Ninth desire of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus: Jesus desires that souls be intimately united to him
I
Reflection – He is a Master, magister: he teaches; he is a Master again, possessor: he possesses, he has great goods; and finally, he is Master, dominator: he commands all. Is this Master puffed up by his knowledge? Is he a selfish possessor? Is he authoritarian, despotic?
No, because this Master is love itself, at once science, gift and command. How sweet it must be to listen to his lessons, to receive from his abundance, to obey his orders and to obtain what one wishes, knowing that his desire is to give oneself!
II
Jesus – It is you, holy Father, who said these words: Here is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, listen to him[1]. Listen to me here, not on Tabor, but on this altar, where I possess, teach and give the secret of this sweet union from my tabernacle.
What shall I say to you, dear souls, who ask me for these secrets which I wish to reveal to you and which you yourselves seek without knowing it, when you instinctively seek happiness, because perfect happiness is all good and this fullness is found only in intimate union with the one who possesses it and is willing to give it? Therefore, you who desire to know what is between my Father and me, be one in us as my Father is in me and I am in him.
[2] But come to me first, for I am the way; come to the holy tabernacle where I dwell, where I am appointed teacher, master and dispenser of the riches of my Father with whom I am one.
But how can I tell you in a language other than that of the angels the seraphic mysteries of this supreme happiness of which you can receive a foretaste from this world? It is sweet, because it is all love; but sometimes it is hard to hear because it excludes the reasoning spirit and confuses the superb; love does not reason, it teaches without speech, since its teaching is to love.
« To love with all one’s mind » is that: it is to silence it for the sake of God. Here, love gives intelligence, it is the science of the heart. If, therefore, you want to enter into these ineffable secrets, sink your reasoning into faith, and charity will obtain for you the light. This is the secret of holy union on earth as it is in heaven; bring to it only a simple heart or one that desires to be so, the silence of humility with the perseverance of desire, and soon you will know everything through a happy experience.
Science that seeks the secrets of God in other ways can bring enjoyment to the intelligence, but as human science has limits, the pleasure it gives remains incomplete, and the result is that it hollows out the life or swells the heart, and an empty heart or a swollen heart is a sick heart that cannot taste peace. Pray therefore to the Most High that he may lead you into the right paths of truth[3].
III
The soul – Lord, teach me the way I must follow, for I desire nothing more than to go to you[4]. Preserve me from those uncertain lights which, deprived of warmth, leave the earth where they shine infertile; if it is clear in these souls, it is not warm and they vegetate because a principle of life is missing: love.
It is a question, it seems, among the doctors, which is more noble, the intelligence which directs the will and which will make us see immediately the divine essence, or the will, which goes towards the desired good, loves it and enjoys it when we possess it. Let us leave it to the theologians to resolve this question.
As for us, let us give thanks for the fact that we have been given to know you, O God, and to love you. To know you is the beginning of heaven on earth, to know you, holy Father, and your adorable Son who died on the cross, who gave his life for his sheep and took it back, giving it to them again in the mystery of the Sacrament of the Altar.
But to know you without loving you, O God, what would it be? In your regard, Lord, would knowledge without love be knowledge? Wouldn’t it rather be a crime or madness? But to know without loving what is lovable and has the right to be loved is to insult it and to dishonour oneself, it is to know in the manner of Satan, the wretch who can no longer love.
Ah! those who seek which is the nobler of knowledge or love, should, thinking of the light of life of which Our Lord speaks, seek a word which in our language makes only one thing doubly noble of these two great things, when it will be a question of a worthy being whom it is necessary to love and to know at the same time, so that it is no longer allowed to say that he is known when at the same time he is not loved. Shining is little, ardent is much, shining and ardent is everything.
Hey Lord, is it not your preventive love which, by loving me the first, deposited in my soul in the holy Baptism the germ of this infused charity which later incited me to know you, to love still more what attracted me, in order to unite me to what I love, you, my God with me, yourself, Eucharistic Heart of my Jesus…
19th Elevation: Heart of the One who sleeps, but always watches
[1] Cf. Matthew XVII, 5.
[2] Cf. John XVII, 21.
[3] Cf. Ecclesi. XXXVII, 19.
[4] Cf. Ps. CXVIII, 64.