51. THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

I. Love is the last and highest service that man can render. All else leads up to love and ends in it. Faith itself is the basis only; it needs to be made perfect by charity, and to receive its practical and efficient form from charity. Jesus Christ is the image and manifestation of the Divinity; we see God in Him, and we love God in loving Him. As man, Our Lord is deserving of all our love, and He possesses in an eminent degree all those qualities which command human love. 1. He has supreme beauty as human and as divine, on earth and in glory, in His person, His character, His life. “Thou art beautiful above the sons of men” (Ps. xliv. 3). 2. His words made the hearts of men burn within them while He was on earth. “Grace is poured forth in Thy lips” (Ps. xliv. 3). We have these words written in the Gospels, and whispered by Him in our souls. 3. The works of Jesus towards men are full of benevolence, generosity, utility, grandeur. 4. His magnificent gifts are another inducement to love Him. He has given us all that we have, and much more than we are as yet able to appreciate. He has given us Himself with all His infinity. None other has bestowed so much. Consider each of these points separately; see how they show the surpassing goodness of Our Lord, how much He deserves from you in return, and how little you have rendered to Him hitherto.

II. Jesus says to you, “My son, give Me thy heart” (Prov. xxiii. 26). Theologians distinguish four expressions of love, or forms of sentiment which we may feel towards God and Jesus Christ. 1. The love of complacency. By this we take pleasure and delight in Our Lord, rejoicing at His goodness and perfections, at His happiness, greatness and glory, at the adoration and love which He receives from so many. 2. The love of benevolence. This consists in wishing well to another. Our good-will can confer nothing on the infinite Son of God; yet we may wish Him to receive all praise and honour from creatures. We may wish that we had the power to do something for Him; and we may actually promote His accidental glory by making Him known to others, and carrying out His will and His work on earth. 3. The love of esteem. We show this by esteeming Jesus, His doctrine, His service, above our own interests, and pleasures, and possessions; by readiness to sacrifice all these for His sake; by saying with the Apostle: “I esteem all things to be but loss . . . and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ” (Phil. iii. 8). 4. The love of desire, by which we aspire after the sight of Our Lord and union with Him, “having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ” (Phil. i. 23). Declare your affection for your Lord in each of these ways, and consider how you can express it effectively in your actions.

III. The love of Our Lord needs to be carefully cultivated and increased by practice. Being invisible to us, He will disappear from our minds unless we take measures to keep Him always before us. 1. We should choose as subjects for our meditations the life, actions, virtues of Jesus Christ, and the interior sentiments of His Heart. 2. We should carefully keep ourselves free from all sin. Sin is the contradictory of Christ, it drives Him from His abode in our hearts, it obscures the vision of the soul, and prevents us from seeing Him and hearing His voice. 3. We should frequently seek the presence and conversation of Christ in prayer, and especially before the altars where He dwells: above all we should unite ourselves with Him as to body and soul in Holy Communion. 4. When we are unable to devote ourselves to lengthened prayer, we may raise our minds to Our Lord by silent remembrance for a moment, and speak to Him in brief ejaculations of love. It is an aid to this if we keep pictures and images of Him where we can often see them. Inquire of yourself whether you take any means to keep alive the love of Jesus in your heart. Resolve to carry out some practices of devotion with this view.

50. THE ASCENSION

 

I. The day had come for Our Lord to conclude the long series of His mysteries, to return whence He came, and to take His place upon the throne of David for ever, on the right hand of His Father. Henceforth He appears no more on earth till He comes from heaven at the last day as the Judge of mankind. He went forth to His triumph humbly, as usual; He left Jerusalem on foot among His disciples, and thence went up to heaven. But how great was the invisible glory of that day! Millions of souls came forth from their long detention, souls of Jews and Gentiles, who had served God according to their condition and desired His kingdom; the angelic host came forth to meet them, and with this double escort Christ ascended to His Father. We cannot picture to ourselves the jubilation that filled all the unseen universe, the surpassing splendour of the glorified Humanity of Jesus Christ, the delight of the souls redeemed, the confusion of Satan and hell, the glory of the heavenly Father. Therefore is this a day of triumphant joy to the Church on earth. Turn your thoughts away from the miseries and dangers of this life, and be comforted at the thought of what awaits you.

II. The departure of Our Lord was necessary for Him. The full course of human life included His entrance into heaven and the reception of His reward. This completes the parallel between His life and ours, and shows us the whole of our destiny. As God, no reward was possible for Our Lord; He possesses supreme elevation and glory that cannot be increased. But in His Human Nature Jesus merited reward and the highest elevation. 1. He was victor over Satan, sin, and death, over human weakness and misery, which He had passed through unscathed. 2. He was a worker; for, beyond all the rest of men, He had laboured and done good; and thereby He exerted a universal and eternal influence. 3. He was a sufferer, for He endured in body and in mind more than all mankind, since He bore in full and with perfect comprehension of it, the burden of the sins of humanity. So, as man, Jesus holds the first place among His race, which is called the right hand of the Father. These are the three elements of your life here and hereafter—struggle, labour and suffering. They are painful and often discouraging. But you are happy if you receive a larger share than usual of them, for they will bring you into closer association with Christ in the glory which results from them.

III. The departure of Our Lord, although a painful loss, was necessary to the Apostles, the Church, and to us. He says of it: “It is expedient for you that I go; for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go I will send Him to you” (John xvi. 7). The Holy Ghost was to give permanent life and vigour to what Christ had commenced. He also said, “I go to prepare you a place” (John xiv. 2); so that His departure from us now enables us to enter His presence immediately after our death. It was further necessary that He should cease to exist among us in His visible Humanity, in order that He might be present with us everywhere under the form of the Most Holy Eucharist. He also left us in order that we may have the merit of living by faith and not by sight, and that the full enjoyment of Him may be matter of future hopes rather than of present possession. It is further in accordance with the general law of Providence that He should not speak to us and rule us in His own person, but through the ministry of others; and that He should allow the natural energies in human nature to work out their evolution without visible intervention from above. Our Lord’s absence from your sight must not make you think that He has forgotten you; He bears you in His heart as if He were visibly present; He is engaged always on your interests before His Father; and also He is really present with you.