The Book of Perpetual Adoration. H.M. Boudon
inconceivable abasement of the same God of Majesty in the Most Holy Sacrament ? Ecce puerum dedi te gentibus; contcmptibilis tu es valde, says the Scripture. We must confess that the Eternal Child is in a state of great humiliation ; but at His birth angels poured forth celestial music, while in the Divine Eucharist all is silence. He dwells in Egypt as an exile, but at His arrival every idol fell to the ground. He is despised by the Pharisees in His Public Life, but He raises the dead, and six or seven thousand persons follow Him to make Him their King.
If He is abject on Calvary by His Death, He is glorious by the marvels that are accomplished; the rocks are rent, the sun is darkened, the graves are opened; but in the Blessed Sacrament, His humi-
The Book of Perpetual Adoration.
liation is carried to excess; the senses there perceive nothing. Here, my God, who is the God of Glory, is clothed only in the fragile species of bread and wine ! He might, at least, have appeared only a child, as He did in the manger, or a man, as He did on Calvary ; but no, we perceive only the appearance of bread. O my soul ! let us remember that this is the study of pure Love, the Divine school where we must learn to walk in the holy paths of Christianity, into which we have been called and brought by such special grace.
After this abasement of our Blessed Lord, if humility has ever seemed difficult to us, ought not vanity now to be placed among things that are impossible ? O dust, O ashes, what sayest thou to such startling truths? It would be good for us here to place before our eyes those questions in which our pride suffers ; is there a heart to be found that still refuses to submit to the greatest humiliation possible, at the sight of the surprising abjection of its God ?
The Great All reduces Himself below that which is nothing; where then shall nothingness place itself? It often happens that, when there are numerous communicants, imperceptible fragments of the Sacred Host fall to the ground, so that, in a certain manner, the God of Paradise is in the dust, at our feet. Strange Spectacle for the eyes of the holy Angels who, seeing their Sovereign brought so low, behold, at the same time, nothing but
The Book of Perpetual Adoration.
insolence in the greater number of those who are in our Churches. Pride reigns in their minds, in their intentions, in their posture, in their dress ; pride so excessive, that it often leads these followers of This Humbled God, to dispute precedence in His Presence, to dispute their places, and the vain honours of this world, which is so deceitful and so miserably deceived. This seems inconceivable, but alas ! it is seen every day.
I say, therefore, that it will be difficult to find a perfect Christian, and thus it is that the God of Christians is humbled ; we hear and we see people who call themselves Christians, but who live and speak like infidels. These wretched white-washed Christians say : Why should I yield ? Why do you ask me to humble myself to a person who is my inferior ? O words, O thoughts, O designs that deserve to be held in execration by all the faithful ! O my soul, my resolution is made, — you must yield to every creature, you must humble yourself beneath all men, whoever they are. We must always think ourselves below every one else, look upon ourselves as the last in the world : after the humiliation of our Master in the Most Holy Sacrament, all our honour ought to be to bear every possible abjection. We must make humiliation this point of honour, and the contempt of others ought to be a subject for our glory. A soul that is a little enlightened on the humility of Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament, is capable of practising all
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kinds of humiliations. O my God, my Sovereign ! alas, how is it possible for any one who knows Thee, to act in any other way ? The world does not understand these practices : but the world knows not God !
EIGHTH MOTIVE.
JESUS IS VERY POOR IN THE MOST HOLY
SACRAMENT.
Pauper sum ego. — I am poor. — (Psalm lxxxvii. j6.)
That voice, O my soul, which thou nearest, is the voice of the Holy Spirit. This ought to remove all doubt from our minds; it ought fully to convince us of an inconceivable but very certain truth, which the Divine Spirit teaches us by the mouth of the Royal Prophet, who, speaking in the person of our Blessed Lord, assures us that He is poor : Pauper sum ego. Let us admire this striking truth in the Divine Eucharist, where He, who is the Lord of all things, is exceeding poor, and in many places scarcely possesses a Church wherein to repose. Thou knowest, O Eternal Greatness! Thou knowest, O Worthy King of Paradise! how often we have found only Ciboriums of pewter, poor Tabernacles draped with a little piece of the most common stuff, and Chalices so mean, into which Thy Precious Blood is received, that it was painful to see them. A person only in moderate circumstances, would be ashamed to use such a cup at table, and we hear it said that there
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are not sufficient means to help the adorable Jesus in the extreme poverty to which He has reduced Himself, by His own Will and through His boundless Love ; yet the rich people of the world are served with silver and other precious things.
Again, the greater number of our poor people in the country have clean and neat linen ; it is only Thou, O my dear Lord and my God, who art reduced to such poverty. Ah ! my heart, what ought we to think of this ? If we were not so hardhearted, we should weep tears of blood, we should cry out incessantly against this behaviour of creatures towards their Creator.
I confess and declare, in the sight of heaven and earth, that my heart must be hardness itself, not to be consumed with love at the sight of this precious love of God. A good and noble heart that loved its Master could no longer exist, it would speedily die of love and sorrow at seeing so loving and so generous a God so little loved, in spite of all His favours.
Truly, truly, this mystery of Love is fearful, and what account shall we have to give of it on the day we are judged ? O rich ! O poor ! I have only one word to say to you. Ye rich ones, weep and howl in the midst of your riches, according to the words of Holy Scripture : be confounded with shame at the sight of a God so poor ! Ye poor, be consoled ; be full of holy joy at being like unto your Saviour ! Let every Christian admit that poverty must be good, because it is so tenderly loved by the God of Love.
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NINTH MOTIVE.
JESUS IS VERY OBEDIENT IN THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT.
Ego autem non contradico. — I do not resist. (Isaias 1. 5.)
Let man rebel against God, let creatures renounce the dependence they owe their Creator, let them disobey His commandments, but Jesus, for love of them, will obey all and put Himself into the power of men without resistance. As soon as the Priest has said four words, behold ! He leaves the bosom of His (Father, yet without departing from Him, to put Himself into the hands of His Priest ; placing Himself under his control without limit of time or place; for it is not God who fixes the hour to the Priest, but He comes at the time named by him with such an extraordinary punctuality, that He has never once missed doing so for ages.
The Scripture teaches us that He was obedient to the Most Holy Virgin and to her virginal Spouse, Saint Joseph ; this rejoices all holy souls and overcomes them with Divine Love. But here are other marvels in the Most Blessed Sacrament ; He obeys as many Priests as there are in the world, as many as there have been since the Law of. Grace, and as many as there will be until the end of the world. When He is beneath the consecrated sacramental species, He faithfully remains there without ever being weary : He allows His Priests to carry Him
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whither they will, from Altar to Altar, to the houses of the sick, in procession in the streets : Ego autetn non contradico. He does this with such great obedience, that He never resists man ; He gives Himself up absolutely into the hands of His frail creature. Obediente Deo voci hominis, is written in the old Law. God therefore obeys man through love : and will not love make man obey God ?
We must here meditate at leisure on the causes which lead us to disobey God's