Of all the Sacraments, the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar is the most holy. It is none other than Christ Himself hiding as it were under the appearances of bread and wine. While we have the great privilege of having Christ dwelling in every Catholic Church, and even within ourselves when we receive Him, how often do we visit to speak with Him? There is no better way to keep the love of Our Eucharistic Lord burning in our hearts than by making Holy Hours of Adoration. Hear from Fr. John Croiset, SJ in his book Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on visiting our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
Keep the Faith!
I. Motives that should induce us to visit the Blessed Sacrament.
Before the coming of our Saviour, in that period of rigour when Almighty God would be called the avenging God, the strong God, the God of armies; when He only spoke, as it were, in a voice of thunder; when princes and sovereigns alone were permitted to enter the holy place specially consecrated to Him; when He exacted so respectful a worship, and punished so severely the slightest faults committed against the respect due to Him; when kings and priests, overcome by holy fear, hardly dared to enter the Temple on beholding a simple cloud, which was only a somewhat more sensible sign of God’s presence in that place; when this prodigy obliged the people to prostrate themselves and cry out, full of admiration, and with the deepest feelings of gratitude: “How good is the God, Whom we adore! we will sing His mercies for ever, because He has deigned to choose Himself a dwelling amongst us:” if at that time what we have since witnessed could have been more clearly foreseen, if they had been told that this God, so terrible, would humble Himself so far as to become man for the love of men, and that, after dying for these very men, He would continually work one of the greatest miracles, in order to be with them even to the end of ages, would they have believed it?
There is, however, something which would have appeared more incredible to them still. Would they ever have believed, that after Almighty God had humbled Himself in this manner, mankind would refuse to love Him, pay court to Him, and visit Him? And yet this is what has happened. There are Christians, and those not a few, who consider it a trouble to pay this respect to Jesus Christ. And would not the disrespectful manner of the greater number of those who visit Him give us reason to ask the same question as our Saviour once asked: The Son of Man, when; He cometh, shall He find, think you, faith on earth? (Luke xviii. 8.)
If this faith is not extinct, is it not more extraordinary to believe the real presence of Jesus Christ on our Altars, and to have no other feeling for Him than indifference, and to be no more eager to pay Him our homage than those who do not believe in His presence? Civility, friendship, gratitude, and interest are usually the motives that induce mankind to pay visits. We cannot with propriety exempt ourselves from honouring a person distinguished for his merit, his employment; or his rank. Great friends part with regret, and allow few occasions of seeing one another to escape. We make at least some visits of civility to persons from whom we have received some service, and we are assiduous in our attendance upon those from whom we expect some benefit, or we fear some chastisement.
Does not Jesus Christ hold a sufficiently distinguished place in the world to merit that court should be paid Him? Has Jesus Christ loved us much? Have we received any benefit from Him? Have we reason to expect that He will do us any service? Since He will be our Judge, and since our eternal felicity or misery depends upon Him, have we any interest in gaining His favour? It is extraordinary that on this subject all agree on what ought to be done, and yet no one takes the trouble to do what he ought.
If it had been left to our choice to ask our divine Saviour for some manifest proof of His love for us, would it ever have occurred to us to entreat Him, when He was about to ascend into Heaven, to remain on earth with us to the end of ages? If He Himself had made this offer, with what sentiments of admiration, respect, and gratitude should we not have accepted it? Jesus Christ has granted us this signal favour. The excess of His love has led Him to give us this manifest proof of His tenderness. But His excessive love has only served, we may say, to make us carry our ingratitude to the highest pitch. What would be said of any one who rarely visited, and merely saluted in passing, a person of the highest rank and worth, who had come solely for the purpose of rendering him some service, and was residing for a long time in some foreign country, merely out of regard for him?
What is the motive which induced Jesus Christ to remain with us, after the work of our Redemption was accomplished? After He had ascended to His Father, why would He return invisibly on earth? Why does He remain, day and night, in an obscure and humble guise upon our Altars, except that He cannot, as it were, separate Himself from mankind, and that His delight is to be with them? Be not afflicted, my children, He says to us, I will not leave you orphans. I am ascending to Heaven, but at the same time I remain on earth. You are weak, sick, and languishing. You will be often afflicted. You will fear the anger and the justice of My Father. But you will find in Me, in the Blessed Sacrament, a Father who will console you, a Physician who will heal you, a Guide who will conduct you, a Master who will solve all your doubts, a Heavenly Food which will give you new strength, and finally, your Redeemer and your Saviour. Will not this be enough to move mankind, who have so much feeling for their own interests, and are naturally so strongly inclined to gratitude? To any other person we should be less ungrateful, even though it were for smaller favours. But when it is to Jesus Christ that gratitude is to be shown, ingratitude ceases to be a crime.
We abandon and forget Jesus Christ upon our Altars. We can always spend many hours of the day in idleness and in vain amusements. But if we have to find some time in the afternoon to visit Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, our employments will not admit of it; we have no time. Is it then so very difficult to perform this duty, though it is, as all allow, so just and reasonable? Does it require so much time? No: a quarter, or half a quarter of an hour, is enough. Very often we have only to take a few steps. But our want of love for Jesus Christ makes this visit difficult and inconvenient. We at once find a hundred false reasons, a hundred obstacles, which in any other case would have no weight with us, but which hold us hack when we have something to do for Jesus Christ. Instances are recorded of newly-converted Christians among the savages in Canada, in the Indies and Japan, who have travelled 200 leagues to some Church, in order there to adore Jesus Christ. Others, who could not undertake so long a journey, prostrated themselves more than a hundred times a day in the direction in which they knew there was a Church. They would thus fain satisfy, by their repeated adorations, their desire of assiduously paying their court to Jesus Christ. In the day of judgment what answer will so many negligent Christians be able to make, who have only to take a step, as it were, to adore Jesus Christ, and yet repeatedly pass by the spot where Jesus Christ resides, and allow whole days to elapse without visiting Him? What answer will so many religious persons be able to make who, having Jesus Christ in their own house, care so little about visiting Him? Populm vero mess oblitus est mei (Jerem. ii. 32). Those who profess to be wholly consecrated to My service, and whom I regard as My special people, even they have forgotten Me.
Medius vestrum stetit, quern vos nescitis (Joan. i. 26). We know Him not, nor do we desire to know Him, though day and night He is in the midst of us. He is our Lord and our God, Who is on our Altars expressly to hear our prayers, and to receive our homage. Are we sad, afflicted, or unhappy? Let us have recourse to Jesus Christ. Let us go and lay before Him, as our good Father, the misfortunes that have happened to us, or that threaten us. Do we find it difficult to make some resolution? would we see peace restored in the bosom of some family? is there some one whose conversion we have at heart? are we tepid, inconstant, imperfect in God’s service? Let us run to Jesus Christ, let us ask Him for these graces with simplicity, with a humble and respectful familiarity, but above all with great confidence. Let us seek, let us knock, let us ask even with importunity. It. is this importunity, this confidence that gains the Heart of Jesus Christ. It is all powerful. Jesus Christ often defers granting our request merely to oblige us to visit Him more frequently.
What a loss it is for Christians to neglect so easy and powerful a means of becoming happy and holy! What remorse will so many religious persons feel at the hour of death, who now feel this loss so little? They need not be surprised that they feel so little devotion, that they go on creeping day after day in the path of piety, that they do not receive consolation or interior sweetness, that they live in uneasiness and melancholy, and that at last they die in remorse and fear. Our neglect in not frequently visiting Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, our dissipation of mind, our want of modesty and respect when we make these visits, are the most ordinary source of the greater part of our misfortunes.
Those, on the contrary, who are faithful in visiting the Blessed Sacrament as often as they can, know by their own experience, that there is no more easy or certain means for obtaining all they ask for from Jesus Christ. They know that if they only visit Him with faithful assiduity and respectful confidence, especially at certain hours of the day when few visit Him, there is scarcely any grace that they do not receive, but most especially true devotion, and a tender love of Jesus Christ. Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis, et onerati estis; et Ego reficiam vos. Come to Me all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you (St. Matt. xi. 28).
