Sixth Mediation
(. . .)
Behold the first great Master of the Divine Apostleship. Behold in Jesus of Nazareth the first apostle of prayer! This was the occupation of His Sacred Heart. He loved, He adored, He repaired, He prayed, He immolated Himself for the Father's glory, for the salvation of the universe. He traced out the Divine plan of His Church, according to the eternal design He had seen in the bosom of the Father, and as each stratagem of His enemy for the defeat of that plan and the overthrow of His Church passed before Him, He devised the infallible means by which the evil influence should be counteracted, and the cause of good should triumph.
Of what importance was it that the hands of Jesus did but plane wood in a carpenter's shop whilst His Heart was thus incessantly and divinely occupied? Could there really be monotony in such a life as this? Whatever may have been its exterior, the interior of that life was the most sublime that can be imagined.
Sublime also is the hidden life of those who have learnt to imitate Him, whose hearts, like His, are wholly occupied, as far as they can be in this life, with the interests of God and of souls; a life indeed which the wise ones of this world despise - which materialists scorn as useless. But in the great day of revelation they will be forced to exclaim: "We fools esteemed their life madness and their end without honour; behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints."
And now let us look into our own interior, and examine the thoughts and desires that succeed each other incessantly throughout the day. To whom, to what, do they relate? To Him who gave us understanding in order that we might know and contemplate Him, a heart but to love Him, faculties of soul and body but to serve Him with? Or do we not rather concentrate our thoughts, at least for the most part, on self, on our own personal interests, wishes, and affairs, or on those of the limited circle of beings who come within our sphere, and between whom and ourselves perhaps only natural ties exist?
The trials of the Church, the loss of souls, the darkness in which the poor heathen are sitting for want of missioners to bear to them the light of truth, the revolt of nations from their allegiance to God and His Vicar, besides many other like interests all so intimately involving the glory of God, are these the objects which occupy our hearts and minds, which are so constituted that they must be incessantly occupied with something?
(. . .)