Ninth Elevation
Heart unknown to men
Seventh complaint of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus to all the faithful
I
Reflection. – When one bears a famous name, to be misunderstood and to pass for nothing is simply an error, which can only hurt vanity. But to be disregarded in the righteousness of one’s thoughts or the purity of one’s feelings is a legitimate suffering because it hurts justice and a truth to which one has a right. But if the disregarded person is an outstanding benefactor whose generous acts have flooded the life of a loved one, the suffering is deeper because the wound is in the heart as well as in justice and truth. For the unrecognized heart, there is yet another pain: forced to underestimate those it loves, it is exposed to no longer loving them.
II
Jesus – I came to you as a King full of gentleness[1]. I hoped to be understood and to find open hearts in which it would be possible for me to spread all the richness of my love, the foretaste of the joys of heaven and the pure contentment of earth promised to souls of good will[2]. For this, I gave myself as no friend or spouse ever did; I gave myself as food, I made you my masters in the Eucharist where you have me at your disposal at all times, I let myself be confined to obscure retreats[3], and there, in the depths of your poor tabernacles of stone or wood, I remained, waiting for you, touched by so much love and penetrated by gratitude, to come and warm my heart with the ardor of your own And here I am in your midst almost as a stranger. When you pay your respects to my sacramental body, my sacred Heart, happily loved in its other dwellings, is forgotten in the Eucharist, as one forgets a long-buried dead person. For a long time indeed, I had discovered it to my people, this Heart-Hostie, but they did not receive it with the love that I had reason to expect. However, my sighs have been heard, and, knowing all the evil that you have done to yourselves, my heart is softened and it seeks some reason to be indulgent…
Since I am a hidden God, a veiled Heart, I say to myself, must I not have expected to be sometimes misunderstood? … will I not forgive you this long forgetting of your hearts for mine, when you have loved me in some other way? Yes, I will forgive you, but since you now know him, love him and bring your love to the place he has chosen to give himself to your souls. You, zealous worshippers of the Eucharist, you, friends of my Sacred Heart, come to increase still further, to dilate, to rejoice, to complete here the worship that you already give me; come fervent, come lukewarm, come sinners, come all, and come with confidence if you come with love. All is not lost if you have gone astray for a moment, even if, alas, you have gone far down the path of evil; I know the silt from which you are formed, and since it is my heart that calls you, do not be afraid: what is lost, I will seek; what has gone astray, I will bring back; what is weak, I will strengthen[4]. Come, then, and if you bring a spirit of peace to make me forget your ingratitude, I will be of one heart with you[5]. Now that you have received my complaints and are humbled, my heart will open to hope and entrust its desires to you.
III
The soul – What, Jesus, you still call me on your heart, instead of punishing me? Here is where comes the just indignation that we deserved!… We sinned against the sky and against you, Lord, and because repentant, I return to my Father, you open your arms to me at once.
Ah, what an incomprehensibly good and tenderly generous Heart is yours, Lord! On earth, you still had holy wraths, just punishments: in the Eucharist, you are only sweetness. Ah, why did I know you too late, why did I love you too much! How can it be that in adoring your august Real Presence, I did not feel that this treasure of heaven given to the earth could only be a gift of your Heart and its domain? He who loves with discernment, says the author of the imitation, pays more attention to the heart of the giver than to the gift itself …
Here, in truth, the gift and the giver are one, the attention could not therefore be less for the one and the other; but this attention of our souls, it must be awakened nevertheless, to double, hundredfold our love, our gratitude, our returns towards such a Giver for such a Gift. Ah, Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, I have not only disregarded you, I have rejected you under this title, under puerile pretexts, invoking the law as if the law could condemn what confirms it, as if it were not necessary to fulfill the law and not to reject what is just and good with it[6]! I have therefore also left you, Heart of my Jesus, alone and without consolation in your tabernacles, forgotten, forsaken, humiliated, outraged and disregarded by men! Unhappy as I am, where will I go to mourn my ingratitude, how can I make amends for it, in what obscurity can I atone for it? Ah, I know where I will go: I will go to the obscure sanctuary where you are alone as a prisoner, I will cling to your chains, I will cover them with kisses and I will never leave you again, O my adored Master; then, perhaps you will cast a glance of pity on me, and this glance will be my salvation, my forgiveness, my justification, my rehabilitation! Lord, you once said to the unfaithful wife: Return to me and I will receive you, tamen revertere ad me, dicet Dominus, et ego suscipiam te[7].
Here I am, O merciful Jesus, I am coming back, what do you want me to do?
10th Elevation: Heart loving our hearts
[1] Cf. Math. XXI, 3.
[2] Cf. Luke XI, 4.
[3] Cf. Ps. CXLII, 3.
[4] Cf. Ezech. XXXIV, 16.
[5] Cf. II Cor. XIII, 11.
[6] Cf. Luke XI, 42.
[7] Cf. Jerem. III, 1.