03-10-2021, 12:03 PM
MEDITATION 2: THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE INSTITUTION OF THE EUCHARIST
Jesus Christ having loved His own, loved them to the end (John xiii, 1). Is it not indeed an
excess of love which makes Jesus perpetuate His presence in the midst of His disciples? He makes
them an inestimable gift; He assures them of an all-powerful remedy for all the tribulations of the
world; He opens to them a source of special graces. Let us meditate on the wonders of the divine
love.
The love of Jesus Christ in the institution of the Eucharist shows itself:
1. BY THE GIFT THAT HE GIVES US.
By the Eucharist He feeds His children, not with the Manna with which the Jewish people
were fed in the desert, but with His adorable Body and His precious Blood. Who could have ever
thought of it, if He Himself had not told us and done it at the same time.
Has anyone ever seen the tenderness of a father, the liberality of a king for his subjects, go so
far as that of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of our altars. Parents in their wills leave their goods to
their children: but in the testament of Jesus Christ it is not temporal goods that He bequeaths to
us, it is Himself He gives us with His divine riches. Is not this truly wonderful generosity on the
part of God for His creatures?
Oh! how worthy these marvels are of our admiration and our love! A God after taking on
Himself our weakness makes Himself the food of our souls! O, Christian people, how happy you
are to have a God so good and so rich!
2. THE MOTIVE FOR WHICH HE GIVES THIS GIFT.
Knowing that the time had come for Him to return to His Father, He could not make up His
mind to leave us alone among so many enemies, all seeking our destruction. He wanted us to have
the happiness of being able to find Him always whenever we wished, and by this great sacrament,
He pledges Himself to remain with us day and night, to be our Father, Consoler and our food.
More happy than those who were alive during His earthly life, when He was only in one place,
we find Him today with His Body, His Soul and His Divinity in every corner of the world, and this
happiness is promised to us until the end of the world. O immense love of God for His creatures!
How great is His fatherly kindness.
3. OF THE GRACES HE GIVES US IN THIS GIFT.
In the Eucharist Jesus Christ is God Our Saviour, who, each day, offers Himself for us to the
justice of His Father, and who, not satisfied with becoming man for our salvation, gives Himself to
each of us in particular, urged to this by His love. And He desires that in Him we should find all
our happiness. If we are in trouble or distress, He will comfort and relieve us. If we are ill, He will
cure us or will give us strength to suffer in such a way as to merit heaven. If the devil, the world and
our inclinations make war on us, He will give us arms to fight, to resist and to come off victorious.
If we are poor, He will enrich us with all kinds of riches for time and for eternity.
Is all this enough, think you? Indeed no, He has still other gifts to bestow on us that His
immense love has formed in His Heart burning with love for the world. But, let us pause, let us
open, rather, the door of this sacred and adorable Heart; let us enclose ourselves, for an instant, in
its flames, and we shall see what a God who loves us can do! O my God, who will be able to
understand it!
Jesus Christ having loved His own, loved them to the end (John xiii, 1). Is it not indeed an
excess of love which makes Jesus perpetuate His presence in the midst of His disciples? He makes
them an inestimable gift; He assures them of an all-powerful remedy for all the tribulations of the
world; He opens to them a source of special graces. Let us meditate on the wonders of the divine
love.
The love of Jesus Christ in the institution of the Eucharist shows itself:
1. BY THE GIFT THAT HE GIVES US.
By the Eucharist He feeds His children, not with the Manna with which the Jewish people
were fed in the desert, but with His adorable Body and His precious Blood. Who could have ever
thought of it, if He Himself had not told us and done it at the same time.
Has anyone ever seen the tenderness of a father, the liberality of a king for his subjects, go so
far as that of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of our altars. Parents in their wills leave their goods to
their children: but in the testament of Jesus Christ it is not temporal goods that He bequeaths to
us, it is Himself He gives us with His divine riches. Is not this truly wonderful generosity on the
part of God for His creatures?
Oh! how worthy these marvels are of our admiration and our love! A God after taking on
Himself our weakness makes Himself the food of our souls! O, Christian people, how happy you
are to have a God so good and so rich!
2. THE MOTIVE FOR WHICH HE GIVES THIS GIFT.
Knowing that the time had come for Him to return to His Father, He could not make up His
mind to leave us alone among so many enemies, all seeking our destruction. He wanted us to have
the happiness of being able to find Him always whenever we wished, and by this great sacrament,
He pledges Himself to remain with us day and night, to be our Father, Consoler and our food.
More happy than those who were alive during His earthly life, when He was only in one place,
we find Him today with His Body, His Soul and His Divinity in every corner of the world, and this
happiness is promised to us until the end of the world. O immense love of God for His creatures!
How great is His fatherly kindness.
3. OF THE GRACES HE GIVES US IN THIS GIFT.
In the Eucharist Jesus Christ is God Our Saviour, who, each day, offers Himself for us to the
justice of His Father, and who, not satisfied with becoming man for our salvation, gives Himself to
each of us in particular, urged to this by His love. And He desires that in Him we should find all
our happiness. If we are in trouble or distress, He will comfort and relieve us. If we are ill, He will
cure us or will give us strength to suffer in such a way as to merit heaven. If the devil, the world and
our inclinations make war on us, He will give us arms to fight, to resist and to come off victorious.
If we are poor, He will enrich us with all kinds of riches for time and for eternity.
Is all this enough, think you? Indeed no, He has still other gifts to bestow on us that His
immense love has formed in His Heart burning with love for the world. But, let us pause, let us
open, rather, the door of this sacred and adorable Heart; let us enclose ourselves, for an instant, in
its flames, and we shall see what a God who loves us can do! O my God, who will be able to
understand it!