Knowledge of Jesus: Day Seven

Eucharistic Adoration of Jesus in the Monstrance at Little Flower, photo by user ExorcisioTe, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons

Day thirty three at Fish Eaters.

Day thirty three at The Catholic Company.

Today's readings come from Imitation of Christ and True Devotion. The selection from Imitation of Christ is Eucharistic, which is fitting, since the Blessed Sacrament is the source and summit of our faith. In gratitude (for Eucharist means thanksgiving), we receive our Lord: body, blood, soul, and divinity. We do so in a foretaste of seeing Jesus in his glory, after we've been purified of our sin and flaws.

My eyes could not bear to behold You in Your own divine brightness, nor could the whole world stand in the splendor of the glory of Your majesty. In veiling Yourself in the Sacrament, therefore, You have regard for my weakness.

The selection from True Devotion continues the topic from yesterday. Thirdly, we do our actions in Mary. This recalls Mary as the ark of the New Covenant, where Mary bore Jesus for nine months. Since she was created as a fitting vessel for Jesus, in that time, Jesus was in paradise, of which the Garden of Eden was a figure. It reminds me that we're like Mary when we bear Jesus for a few minutes after receiving Holy Communion. Of course, we're not perfect, but we should be free from the state of mortal sin (that is, being spiritually dead) before we receive. We hope that within us, God is creating and transforming our interior life such that it also may be a place of rest for Jesus. In the Church, which is a type of the New Eve, which is Mary, we are formed into the image and likeness of the Father's Son.

And fourthly, in gratitude, we do all for Mary. Yes, we are servants of God and servants of our neighbor (out of love for God and love for neighbor), in particular, the kindly neighbor of the Blessed Virgin who has accepted us as adopted children, and therefore, we are also adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus. 

It is not that we can take her for the last end of our services, for that is Jesus Christ alone; but we may take her for our proximate end, our mysterious means, and our easy way to go to Him. Like a good servant and slave, we must not remain idle, but, supported by her protection, we must undertake and achieve great things for this august sovereign.

We must defend her privileges when they are disputed; we must stand up for her glory when it is attacked; we must entice all the world, if we can, to her service and to this true and solid devotion; we must speak and cry out against those who abuse her devotion to outrage her Son, and we must at the same time establish this Veritable Devotion; we must pretend to no recompense for our little services, except the honour of belonging to so sweet a Queen, and the happiness of being united by her to Jesus her Son by an indissoluble tie in time and in eternity.

Since this is the last day before consecration or re-consecration, a person should go to confession before receiving the Blessed Sacrament at the Mass of the feast day.