Part Thirteen: Wrapping Up — our Amazing Privilege

We finished last time reflecting on the fact that you and I have the tremendous privilege, by our acts of faith and love, of consoling the Heart of Jesus, the Son of God. What could bring Him greater consolation than when we offer up our sufferings, in union with His own on the Cross, to obtain graces for struggling souls? Or when we simply trust in Him, in the midst of our afflictions, to find a way through them for us, and even to bring some good out of them in time, according to His wise and mysterious plan? The novelist Ivan Turgenev wrote a journal of his travels around 19th century Russia, and although he was not much of a believer himself, he was struck by the holiness and charity of one person he met on his journey, above all the rest: a poor woman who had been bed-ridden for many years, and who did little else but offer up her sufferings and her prayers each day for others. He called her a “living icon.”

But there is even more to this great mystery of consoling the Heart of Jesus. For whenever we do good to any of our neighbours in need, relieving their sufferings or lighting the way home for them back to our Savior, at the same time this assuages His burning thirst for their good.

The truth is that Jesus Christ sees the needs, sufferings, and sorrows of every heart, and He carries them all in His own compassionate Heart. That is why, in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, Jesus tells us that whenever we show compassionate love toward our neighbors in need, we are simultaneously showing "mercy” to Him. His Heart is so closely bound to the poor and the suffering by tender compassion for their plight — whether their suffering is physical, emotional, social, or spiritual — that acts of caring love directed toward them are actually received as consolation by Him as well. Jesus said:

For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was naked, and you clothed me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me ... Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. (Mt 25: 34-40)

Pope St. John Paul II commented on this very same Scripture passage in his encyclical Dives in Misericordia (Rich in Mercy). He said that each one of us has the astounding privilege and special vocation to show mercy to the Heart of Jesus our Savior through the merciful love we show to one another:

[Jesus] is the One who stands at the door and knocks at the heart of every man, without restricting his freedom, but instead seeking to draw from this very freedom love, which is not only an act of solidarity with the suffering Son of Man, but also a kind of "mercy" shown by each one of us to the Son of the Eternal Father (no. 8).

The Heart of Jesus, therefore, is not only the Source of merciful love that fills us; He is also the Recipient of all our acts of merciful love, just as if they were done directly to Him. When He calls us to serve Him by works of loving service, therefore, He is not asking us to do something in addition to the loving, personal relationship we have with Him, but something that is an inseparable part of our personal relationship with Him. For this Merciful Heart has room enough for the sorrows and sufferings of the whole world.

So let’s resolve to trust in Jesus more and more, in the light of faith, and in the midst of all the crosses we must bear. When and as we can, let’s also resolve to offer up our unavoidable sufferings, in union with His Cross, for the needs of all souls who are struggling and suffering, just as we are. And let’s not forget to reach out with compassion to the poor, whose needs are ever close to His Heart.

But let’s resolve to do all this not only, or even primarily, for our own sake (that is, for the light and strength and increase of grace that we ourselves receive by doing it), or even, primarily, for the sake of others (to relieve their sufferings and obtain graces for them). Rather, let’s do it all, primarily, for His sake: for the One who made us, who bought us with His own blood on the Cross, who adopted us by the Holy Spirit into the family of His Church, and who opens for us the way to everlasting life. What an amazing privilege: from now on — and even forever — you and I can bring consolation and joy to the Heart of Jesus Himself!

Robert Stackpole, STD

Mere Christian Fellowship