For The Nine Days Following The Feast Of The Sacred Heart
Second Day - The Heart Of Jesus, Model Of Self-Denial
Preparation. - The crown of thorns represented around the Sacred Heart, may mean, first, Christ's mortification, or love of sacrifice, and secondly, the self-denial we ought to practice after His example. We shall then generously resolve not to allow a single day to pass without denying ourselves and our propensities, so that we may punctually perform all our duties and patiently bear every trial. "Let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily" (Luke 9. 23).
I. The Heart Of Jesus, Model Of Sacrifice.
"When Christ cometh into the world," says St. Paul, "He saith: Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldst not; but a body Thou hast fitted to Me ... Then said I, Behold I come to do Thy will" (Hebr. 10. 5, 9), and to immolate My body for Thy glory, O Father, and to expiate the sins of men. Thus did Jesus offer to pay our debts to the divine justice, and the eternal Father accepted this offering, prompted by the loving Heart of His divine Son. Thenceforth our adorable Saviour's life was a constant immolation. The hardships He underwent in His childhood, the fatigues of His ministry, the cruel torments of His Passion made Him a perpetual Victim for our salvation. All this is brought to our mind by the crown of thorns encircling His Sacred Heart.
Not content with immolating His body, Jesus wished also to sacrifice His will, for He said: "Behold I come to do Thy will, O God." And, indeed, what else did He desire on earth, than to do the will of His heavenly Father? He was ever submissive to it, and this even in the Garden of Olives, though His soul was a prey to mortal anguish, a cry of obedience still proceeds from His Heart. "Father, not My will, but Thine be done" (Luke 22. 42).
"He was," says St. Paul, "obedient unto death, unto the death of the cross" (Phil. 2. 8). And, as Christ Himself says: "Greater love than this no man hath, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15. 13). Our Saviour did not refuse this proof of love even to His enemies. Being insatiable of love, He was insatiable also of immolation and was satisfied only after He had unreservedly delivered Himself up for the salvation of all. O prodigy of devotedness!
When we behold a God so generously sacrificing Himself for our sake, can we still hesitate to mortify a certain defect or inclination of ours, which is the source of so many faults and imperfections? Can we refuse to Jesus the sacrifices He demands of us, and remain attached to sensual gratifications, to the desires of self-love, and to the thousand trifles that hinder our progress in virtue?
No, my divine Master, I will no longer refuse any thing to Thy Sacred Heart. Burn, cut away, crush in me whatever is mine and not Thine, and make me docile to the attractions of Thy love. I am resolved no longer to complain of my dally crosses, of the displeasures and the hardships opposed to my pride and inclinations.
II. Motives For Imitating Christ's Self-Denial.
The happy habit of denying ourselves and our individual tastes, and of subjecting ourselves to God's good pleasure, is productive of several good effects in us. It facilitates in us supernatural views of things, by removing from our heart the obstacles to the divine light, that is, our perverse inclinations and our daily faults. It breaks in our will, rendering it more constantly docile to the attractions of the Holy Ghost. As sinners, by yielding to their evil inclinations, are enslaved by them, in like manner, the faithful soul, by practicing self-denial, disengages herself from her own self and fully subjects herself to the Lord.
Thence follows the intimate union she contracts with His Sacred Heart. What, in fact, is better calculated to unite two hearts, than to animate them with the same sentiments, the same affections, the same desires? Self-denial peculiarly tends to cause us to renounce our personal inclinations to adopt those of Jesus. How beautiful is the union of a soul dead to herself and living solely for Jesus Christ! By mortifying her vices she practices the contrary virtues; and the more she denies herself, the more fit she becomes to receive grace and faithfully to correspond therewith. May we not conclude therefrom that death to self is the standard of our supernatural life, or our union with Jesus Christ?
We have been for so many years caressing a certain defect; what have we gained by so doing? Bitterness, remorse, spiritual dryness; and we have lost treasures of graces, and remained stationary in the way of holiness. Why not this day sacrifice to Jesus our inclination to sloth, our habit of mental dissipation, our too worldly relations, our frivolous reading, our fondness for criticizing, for complaining, for getting discouraged in difficulties? All these spiritual miseries not only impede our progress, but also disturb our interior peace and hinder our true happiness.
O Jesus, enable me to overcome my repugnance in discharging certain duties, and give me the courage to embrace them generously. Through Thy merits and those of Thy Blessed Mother, fill me with the spirit of self-denial, which deprives the thorns of this vale of tears of their sharpness, and transforms them into odoriferous roses in the heavenly courts through Thy grace and my patience in bearing every thing.
