We all need to be loved and we need to know we're loved! Remember the scene in Les Mis when the gendarmes bring Jean Valjean back to the bishop's house after they find him with the silver he's stolen? Instead of condemning him, the holy bishop dismisses the gendarmes telling Valjean in their presence that he forgot to take the candlesticks which he puts into his knapsack. When the gendarmes leave, the bishop tells the wounded and bitter man, "I've bought your soul for God." That single event transforms Valjean from an angry soul alienated from both God and his fellow man, to an icon of love and charity.
Like the bishop, we are called to love "without counting the cost" as St. Ignatius says. What was the cost of Christ's love for us? The passion and cross! If we meditate on that reality, we should come to realize how precious we are and how much we are loved. Even if the whole world hates us, there is One who will never betray us, and will run after us every day of our lives especially when we are fleeing from Him. He is, indeed, the Hound of Heaven.
There was a wonderful meditation last Sunday in the Benedictus prayer book written by two Dominican scholars, Fr. Charles Callan and Fr. John McHugh who collaborated on many books of Sacred Theology. The meditation included this:
How assiduous the pastor should be in stirring up in the minds of the faithful the frequent recollection of Our Lord's Passion...and pains should be taken by the pastor that the faithful, excited by the remembrance of so great a benefit, may be entirely devoted to the contemplation of the goodness and love of God toward us.
What a great admonition during the season of Lent. May we contemplate every day on the price Jesus Christ paid for us and may we pass it forward through exercising the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Highly important reminders! I certainly fall short. Thx for posting, Mary Ann.
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