A brutal detonation tears through the silence of a calm summer day. Driven by the instinct for self-preservation, the sparrows fly away hastily from the branch on which they were perching peacefully until then.
It would be difficult to say how many times we have seen this scene, so common in the countryside. But it should be less common in church; unfortunately, it is not! It happens there all the time, and no one seems to be astonished or scandalized by it. Although it is true that the sparrows in church are of a particular kind, since they are, in fact, the parishioners.
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
A brutal detonation tears through the silence of a calm summer day. Driven by the instinct for self-preservation, the sparrows fly away hastily from the branch on which they were perching peacefully until then.
It would be difficult to say how many times we have seen this scene, so common in the countryside. But it should be less common in church; unfortunately, it is not! It happens there all the time, and no one seems to be astonished or scandalized by it. Although it is true that the sparrows in church are of a particular kind, since they are, in fact, the parishioners.
When the priest crosses the threshold of the sacristy at the end of the Mass, the faithful, indeed, leave immediately, driven by an instinct which is not, this time, of conservation, but simply of conversation! This sudden flight prevents the establishment of any intimacy with God. Instinct speaks louder than Faith and commands to leave the church without giving to our good God a few minutes of our invaluable time. It would be beautiful to see that we remain with the Divine Guest to adore and to thank Him, and to entrust our joys and our sorrows to Him!
Actually, it is a sad scene which is certainly not bucolic and should provoke a great astonishment. How is it that we pay so little attention to the divine Presence? Are we so ignorant of the expectations of Our Lord, who comes to make His abode in us and who so greatly wishes to be intimate with us, to pour into our hearts the treasures of His love? Is our faith so wavering that we do not know how to enter into contact with the mystery of the Eucharistic Presence? Is our spiritual idleness, daughter of our mediocrity, the principal cause of our rudeness towards the divine majesty?
The spectacle of the hurried flight of the parishioners, as soon as Mass is finished, reveals such an ignorance of Our Lord! This ignorance should cause us pain.
Do we really know who He is and what He wants? Do we know that our casualness prevents a divine intimacy desired, wanted, bought at the price of His blood? But it matters little to us: the desire for a bit of conversation or some other activity has, in our eyes, more importance! We want our satisfactions above all, at any price. Even when the price is contempt addressed to God! "Two loves have made two cities," said Saint Augustine. And we belong to the City of Man, where seeking for oneself leads unconsciously to the hatred of God...
His delicacy towards us makes Him keep His silence. Mercifully, He prefers not to rush things, and waits His hour. Our ignorance of the things of God is so great nowadays! We hardly realize the contempt that we address to this divine Presence. Our faith, wavering much in this paganized world, does not strengthen any more our weakened souls. Our Lord - who has pity on us - knows it well. Thus, He does not want to come to us as Judge, but as Physician. He waits only for one little spark in our hearts, a slight desire, to attract us to Himself. If we knew the gift of God and Him who speaks to us in the intimacy of our souls at the time of communion, we would ask Him to give us the living water promised to the Samaritan woman, that poor woman lost in her passions; our sister so close to us in character! Why wouldn't we be eager to receive from the Messiah the teaching which our souls so urgently need?
At the hour of the eucharistic intimacy, Our Lord repeats to us what He taught to that poor soul at Jacob's well: "God loved the world so much that He sent His Only Son to save it. Those men who, in a spirit of adoration, receive Him and subject their lives to Him, become Sons of God." It would be absurd not to pay attention to this invitation.
Then, let us take the firm resolution to devote time to Our Lord after the Mass, despising the complaints of a nature that would like to keep us under its dominion and that will use all its artifices to tear us away from this divine intimacy. On the contrary, let us adore Our Lord present at the center of our souls, thank Him for condescending to stoop to our misery and remaining in us; let us ask Him to live always according to His grace, and offer to Him our own lives so that they become a praise to the glory of His Father.
The thanksgiving, made in the spirit of faith, hope and charity, is certainly an inexhaustible source of graces. The devil, who knows it, tries to divert us - often successfully, alas! It would be deplorable to let him continue his infernal play and to leave unfruitful so many choice graces bought at the price of the Blood of Christ. It must not be.
In Christo Sacerdote et Maria,
Fr. Yves le Roux
NEWS FROM THE SEMINARY
The Seminary has available, as usual, Christmas cards which, for a token donation to the Seminary, can be sent to friends with the promise that their intentions will be included in a Novena of Masses to be said at the Seminary for nine days starting on Christmas Day.