Fourth Elevation
Humiliated Heart
Second complaint of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus to the rebellious soul
I
Reflection. – When friendship must reign between two unequal beings, it is the greater who must begin. On the contrary, when a noble sentiment inspires it, it is a sign of the greatness of the soul of the one who bows down; and the more this condescension comes from above, the more it honors the one from whom it comes and the one who is its object.
What humiliates a noble and generous heart, deceived in its esteem and affection by a despicable being, is to have judged him worthy of it; it is to have despised himself and to have raised him up. The degradation of the guilty party does not affect him in his greatness; what affects him in his innermost being, what humbles his heart, is to have loved him. [At least this is often the case, in the human order of things, with magnanimous hearts, which can err in giving their trust to someone who does not deserve it, for example, with a sovereign betrayed by an unworthy minister. There is something analogous in our Lord, with this difference that he cannot err and does not give his trust unwisely, although he gives his gifts to many who will later prove unworthy of them].
II
Jesus. – I have been humbled by those whom I, the Most High, had exalted[1]. I saw fallen humanity in disgrace, and my heart was moved; I had compassion on it because of its weakness; I loved it, and forgetting its faults, I took it as my own; then I covered it with my benefits[2]. I will take a body and offer it to you as a ransom, and I will redeem the guilty one; I will purify her, I will speak to her heart,[4] and she will understand her happiness, will be touched and converted. After having redeemed her with my blood, I called her to my table; and in an ineffable Gift, in which I gathered all my marvels, I gave her the height of my glory; I gave her my heart, asking only for hers for all gratitude[5].
But, alas, the heart of the foolish is like a cracked vessel that holds no wisdom,[6] deprived of understanding, the foolish did not understand me, did not love me, turned away and, like the foul animal that returns to its vomit,[7] preferred its misery.
Therefore, my pain is above all pain and my heart is sad[8], because it is humiliated[9] in what it had loved[10].
III
The soul. – O my Saviour! your reproaches to ungrateful humanity are concentrated on my soul, and I repeat with the Prophet: « My heart is troubled within me, and desolation has arisen in my soul. When you had descended into the abyss into which I was plunged, in order to draw me out of it and wash me in the waters of baptism, I humbled you, making the first glimmers of my reason serve to offend you, already cancelling the sacrifice of my ransom.
When you called me for the first time to your sacred banquet, discovering for me the holy tabernacles of the Eucharist where, from then on, your dwelling place and your heart always open to mine would be for me, I humiliated you with my late intelligence and my childish love, … making promises to you that I did not keep.
When I entered adolescence, you wanted, by your divine attractions, to attach me to you in order to preserve me from evil, I only gave you a distracted look, running to the attractions of nature, to the pleasures of the world, to the slavery of passions. How much then and since, by my numerous sins, have I not disappointed, offended, humiliated your Heart, O Jesus!
And this Eucharistic Heart descending from heaven to dwell among us, what a dwelling place do we offer it in exchange for our souls that are closed to it! Is not the irreligious destitution of most of your temples a painful humiliation for you?
When one sees the comfort with which the poor themselves strive to provide their dwellings, and when one considers your churches, which are often, alas, so poor, one blushes and weeps at such insensitivity. You love poverty, O Jesus, yes, when it is you who choose it to teach us to love it; but when we ourselves impose it on you, in order to better enjoy our riches, we cruelly humiliate your Heart, saddened by this harsh impropriety. While thousands of torches light up the follies of the world, a small lamp, often extinguished, alas! indicates alone that God, the good God, the person of Jesus Christ, his Heart all burning with love for us is there!
In truth, He has no need for Himself, the Shining One of eternal light: candor lucis aeternae, of our puny splendors! Jesus only veiled his face to let us approach him and give us the honor of working here below for his glory: he has no need of this accidental glory that he allows us to procure for him. He is, however, sensitive to the gratitude that many deny him, and He alone, in his love for us, knows perfectly well of what immense goods we deprive ourselves by closing our souls to the graces he offers us. Then he is humbled, before the nations, whom our zeal should conquer to the true faith, by the title of Christian that he has given us.
Et ingressi sunt ad gentes, ad quas introierunt, et polluerunt nomen sanélum meum, cum diceretur de eis: Populus Domini iste est, et de terra ejus egressi sunt[12].
[1] Cf. Is. I, 2.
[2] Cf. XVI, 1.
[3] Cf. Ps. XXXIX, 7-8.
[4] Cf. Ps. XLIX, 7.
[5] Cf. Prov. XXIII, 26.
[6] Cf. Eccl. XXI, 16.
[7] Cf. Prov. XXVI, 11.
[8] Cf. Jer. VIII, 18.
[9] Cf. Prov. XII, 25.
[10] As we noted earlier in the Preface, although our Lord no longer suffers in his glory, sin displeases him, and if he receives an accidental beatitude from the loving gratitude that some show him, many deny him this. He has also suffered here below, in a way superior to time, from all the ingratitude to come. Finally, he continues in a mysterious way to suffer in his mystical body, in his afflicted members who are saintly united to him.
[11] Cf. LIV,3.
[12] Ez. XXXVI, 20: In the nations where they have gone, they have profaned my holy name, for they say, « These are the people of the Lord, and they have gone out of his land » (trans. aelf.org)