CONTINUATION OF CHRIST'S DISCOURSE AT THE LAST SUPPER.
“Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments you shall abide in My love; as I, also, have kept My Father’s commandments and do abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be filled” (John 15, 9–11).
First Prelude: Kneel at the feet of Jesus and reverently hear Him admonishing the disciples before leaving them.
Second Prelude: Divine Saviour, give me a firm and enduring love for Thee; grant me grace to find in it my joy and happiness.
First Point.
“Abide in My love.”
Knowing our extraordinary weakness and inconstancy, as well as the many sufferings of this mortal life, our Divine Saviour lovingly willed to arm us against the dangers and afford us help and consolation. “As the Father hath loved Me, so do I love you.” What a source of consolation! What happiness for us poor mortals to be the objects of the love of God—the eternal, unchangeable, all-good, and all-powerful One! In the possession of His love we need fear no evil, but without it, our heart, not finding rest, will easily fall a prey to its enemies! Therefore our Saviour adds: “Abide in My love,” and tells us explicitly how to do this, how to preserve the precious treasure of His love. “If you keep My commandments you shall abide in My love, as I, also, have kept My Father’s commandments and do abide in His love.”
During His whole life, our Divine Saviour gave us the example of obedience to the Law of God, to the Will of His heavenly Father, and herein we must imitate Him. This imitation, however, exacts our whole attention and all our solicitude, because the enemies of Jesus, namely, the world, Satan, and our own corrupt nature, constantly urge us to break away from His love. Let us resist their attacks at the outset, and by fidelity in little things merit the grace to be faithful in greater ones. Let us, above all, in every danger and assault, at once take refuge to Jesus that He may Himself ever keep us in His love.
Second Point.
The Effects of His Love.
“These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you and your joy may be filled,” said our Blessed Lord to His disciples and through them to us. Sin has converted this earth into a vale of tears, where sufferings and misery abound. Our Divine Saviour came to redeem mankind and to secure for His true disciples holy joy, as fruit of the reconciliation and the love of God. The false, fleeting earthly pleasures are accompanied by unrest, fear, and pangs of conscience, and lead to eternal perdition, but the joy of the Holy Spirit fills the soul with peace and tranquillity, giving it a foretaste of heavenly bliss. This joy buoyed up the saints in the midst of suffering and martyrdom.
We, too, should find joy in the thought of the infinite love of God for us, in implicit trust in His Divine Providence, and in the hope of His promises. Above all, there is joy in the assurance that we please Him by our fidelity. In truth, how pleasing to our Divine Bridegroom is our inviolable love in which no creature is suffered to have part,—how pleasing to Him, our faithful service and our intimate converse with Him! He enlightens and purifies us ever more, and incessantly stimulates us to perfection. Oh, that we should be found worthy of such happiness! What genuine interior joy should we then taste in God, our Saviour, the sole object of our love! We should then find delight in those things, only, that promote His honor, rejoice in His power, His greatness, His bliss, in all His mysteries, in all that tends to the salvation of souls and the exaltation of Holy Mother Church. We should rejoice in our trials and difficulties, because through them we participate in the sufferings of Jesus, and with Him glorify the heavenly Father. Our joy, too, being grounded in God and the accomplishment of His holy Will should then be perfect.
Let us strive to become deeply penetrated with the conviction that a spirit of sacrifice and undivided surrender of our hearts to God are the essence of true joy, and that the most self-sacrificing religious are always the happiest. O my soul, that thou wouldst seek no other happiness in this life than to taste and enjoy the love of thy God!
Affections: O Jesus, enrich me with the precious treasure of Thy love and permit not that it ever be lessened or entirely extinguished in my heart. Grant that Thy love may abide in me and I, in Thy love. Give me a strong, generous, and energetic love, that I may strive earnestly to secure my election, render it firm and irrevocable by good works. Let me share in the happiness and perfect joy of a truly faithful soul, devoted wholly to Thee. Confirm me in Thy love, till I shall be inseparably united with Thee for all eternity.
Resolution: I will endeavor to perform all my actions in union with my dear Saviour and in the manner most pleasing to Him.
Spiritual Bouquet: “If you keep My commandments you shall abide in My love.”
Prayer: Soul of Christ. . .
“Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments you shall abide in My love; as I, also, have kept My Father’s commandments and do abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be filled” (John 15, 9–11).
First Prelude: Kneel at the feet of Jesus and reverently hear Him admonishing the disciples before leaving them.
Second Prelude: Divine Saviour, give me a firm and enduring love for Thee; grant me grace to find in it my joy and happiness.
First Point.
“Abide in My love.”
Knowing our extraordinary weakness and inconstancy, as well as the many sufferings of this mortal life, our Divine Saviour lovingly willed to arm us against the dangers and afford us help and consolation. “As the Father hath loved Me, so do I love you.” What a source of consolation! What happiness for us poor mortals to be the objects of the love of God—the eternal, unchangeable, all-good, and all-powerful One! In the possession of His love we need fear no evil, but without it, our heart, not finding rest, will easily fall a prey to its enemies! Therefore our Saviour adds: “Abide in My love,” and tells us explicitly how to do this, how to preserve the precious treasure of His love. “If you keep My commandments you shall abide in My love, as I, also, have kept My Father’s commandments and do abide in His love.”
During His whole life, our Divine Saviour gave us the example of obedience to the Law of God, to the Will of His heavenly Father, and herein we must imitate Him. This imitation, however, exacts our whole attention and all our solicitude, because the enemies of Jesus, namely, the world, Satan, and our own corrupt nature, constantly urge us to break away from His love. Let us resist their attacks at the outset, and by fidelity in little things merit the grace to be faithful in greater ones. Let us, above all, in every danger and assault, at once take refuge to Jesus that He may Himself ever keep us in His love.
Second Point.
The Effects of His Love.
“These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you and your joy may be filled,” said our Blessed Lord to His disciples and through them to us. Sin has converted this earth into a vale of tears, where sufferings and misery abound. Our Divine Saviour came to redeem mankind and to secure for His true disciples holy joy, as fruit of the reconciliation and the love of God. The false, fleeting earthly pleasures are accompanied by unrest, fear, and pangs of conscience, and lead to eternal perdition, but the joy of the Holy Spirit fills the soul with peace and tranquillity, giving it a foretaste of heavenly bliss. This joy buoyed up the saints in the midst of suffering and martyrdom.
We, too, should find joy in the thought of the infinite love of God for us, in implicit trust in His Divine Providence, and in the hope of His promises. Above all, there is joy in the assurance that we please Him by our fidelity. In truth, how pleasing to our Divine Bridegroom is our inviolable love in which no creature is suffered to have part,—how pleasing to Him, our faithful service and our intimate converse with Him! He enlightens and purifies us ever more, and incessantly stimulates us to perfection. Oh, that we should be found worthy of such happiness! What genuine interior joy should we then taste in God, our Saviour, the sole object of our love! We should then find delight in those things, only, that promote His honor, rejoice in His power, His greatness, His bliss, in all His mysteries, in all that tends to the salvation of souls and the exaltation of Holy Mother Church. We should rejoice in our trials and difficulties, because through them we participate in the sufferings of Jesus, and with Him glorify the heavenly Father. Our joy, too, being grounded in God and the accomplishment of His holy Will should then be perfect.
Let us strive to become deeply penetrated with the conviction that a spirit of sacrifice and undivided surrender of our hearts to God are the essence of true joy, and that the most self-sacrificing religious are always the happiest. O my soul, that thou wouldst seek no other happiness in this life than to taste and enjoy the love of thy God!
Affections: O Jesus, enrich me with the precious treasure of Thy love and permit not that it ever be lessened or entirely extinguished in my heart. Grant that Thy love may abide in me and I, in Thy love. Give me a strong, generous, and energetic love, that I may strive earnestly to secure my election, render it firm and irrevocable by good works. Let me share in the happiness and perfect joy of a truly faithful soul, devoted wholly to Thee. Confirm me in Thy love, till I shall be inseparably united with Thee for all eternity.
Resolution: I will endeavor to perform all my actions in union with my dear Saviour and in the manner most pleasing to Him.
Spiritual Bouquet: “If you keep My commandments you shall abide in My love.”
Prayer: Soul of Christ. . .
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