Twentieth Elevation
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us
Eleventh desire of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus: respect and invocation of his name
I
Reflection – Your name is like an oil poured out[1], a fragrant oil[2] that perfumes and sweetens everything. This name says Heart, that is, love, goodness; it says Eucharist, that is, grace, thanksgiving, good grace, beauty; it says Jesus, that is, Savior, sacred name before which every knee bends in heaven, on earth and in hell[3], and this name, joined to that of Host, moves every Christian soul; Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, it is no longer Majesty that imposes itself, it is the power of charity, which dispels fear and makes the knees bend, body and soul together, ineffably prostrate, while the heart rises and sighs with the accent of trust: Have mercy on us!
II
Jesus – God said to Moses: « I am He who is. » This, » he added, « is what you shall say to the children of Israel: the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. The first name is the one I have from all eternity; this one will be my memorial from generation to generation[4].
Today I want to make my own this word of my Father to Moses, for « all that is my Father’s is mine[5] », and « all that is mine is my Father’s[6] ». The name that I have given myself, is it not given to me by Him, since what I say to you, I say not of myself, but of my Father who dwells in me and who himself does the works that I do[7].
This last name of my heart is the sign of my love par excellence, the sign of my new covenant with you, and the one that will be from generation to generation the memorial of my last sacrifice for your salvation; give it therefore honor and glory, and do not honor me only with the tip of your lips[8]; but let your prayers, your praises, your adoration, constantly raise pure incense. Make my Eucharistic Heart known, loved and glorified and, I repeat, I will answer your prayers and bless you[9].
III
The soul – O Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, « have mercy on us », have mercy on us, you who are a God full of compassion and clemency, patient and full of mercy.
Have mercy on your Church, for so long the victim of enemies who strengthen themselves to make her suffer, remembering that you are her life and that she is yours in the conversation of the august sacrament of the Eucharist.
Have pity on our holy Pontiff, your representative on earth, and because of this, for us, similar to you, divine and human heart divinized by his supreme mission; he, Heart of the holy Church, and heart afflicted in his prison of love in the Holy of holies of catholicity.
Have mercy on your priests, your sons and your teachers in the Eucharist; may their tried hearts always remain strong and their consecrated hands always pure.
Have mercy on your virgins, keep them chaste and preserve them, body and soul, from all harm.
Have mercy on our children, Lord, the future of your beloved people and your priesthood, guard their will against the evil that surrounds them.
And then, sweet Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, have pity on yourself, be weary of waiting, and let your kingdom come. Enlighten those who do not understand you, project upon them a gentle, penetrating ray of your contained glory, that they may be forced to see, and that those who already love you may love you even more, O most lovable of hearts in the most touching of mysteries.
Finally, have mercy on all, and especially « have mercy on me, a sinner[10] ».
Saint Gertrude, favored one day by the apparitions of Saint John the Evangelist, asked the beloved disciple why, after having had the joy of resting on the Savior’s adorable breast during the Last Supper, he had written nothing for our instruction on this divine Heart. The apostle replied with these remarkable words: « I had received the beautiful mission of writing, in favor of the nascent Church, the word of the Incarnate Word; but, for the sweetness of the movements of this divine Heart, God has reserved to make them known in the last ages, in the old age of the world, in order to rekindle charity which will have grown very cold in hearts[11]. »
Wouldn’t that time be ours, O Jesus? Wouldn’t we be in these last ages of the world, indicated by the moral decrepitude into which most nations have fallen, and at this sad moment when faith has grown cold in hearts? If indeed we are in these unhappy times, does not your Eucharistic Heart show itself on purpose to show us where we must go to know its movements and taste its sweetness contained in the Eucharist?
Saint John knew them at the Last Supper, when leaning over your bosom, he witnessed the first Eucharistic act, falling from your Heart like a testament, the supreme largesse of a dying man to those he loves. When for two hundred years devotion to the Sacred Heart has revealed to us all the excellences of your passible and mortal Heart, what remains to be known but the excellences of this same Heart, still human though glorified, hidden in the Eucharist, which is called a sacrament of love only because it comes from and contains your Heart?
[1] Cf. Cant. I,2.
[2] Cf. Ex. XXXI, 11.
[3] Cf. Phil. II, 10
[4] Cf. Ex. III, 14-16.
[5] Cf. John XVI, 15.
[6] Cf. John XVII, 10.
[7] Cf. John XIV, 10.
[8] Cf. Matthew XV, 8.
[9] Cf. Ex. XX, 24.
[10] Cf. Luke XVIII, 13.
[11] Cf. St Gertrude, The Herald of Divine Charity, 1. IV, chap. IV.