Every time I am blessed to be at Adoration, one thought above all clings to my mind, thanks to God’s grace. I am struck by the immense beauty of our God present in the Holy Eucharist: “Oh Lord, You are beautiful!”
St Augustine so wonderfully captured this thought in his prayer: “Too late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient, O Beauty so new.” These words, and the pious emotion behind them, I found encapsulated in the second chapter of the Book of Sirach, which I happened to read today during Adoration. I shall quote here a couple of verses:
“Trust in God, and he will help you; […] Stay in fear of him, and grow old in him.” (Sir 2:6).
“You who fear the Lord, love him, and your hearts will be made radiant.” (Sir 2:9)
Besides containing an infinite richness of wisdom, for these words have been inspired by the Holy Spirit (cf 2 Tim 3:16-17), turning the heart towards the One who made all hearts (cf Ps 33:15), these words reveal some of the eternal and endless beauty of God for they allow us to peer into His Heart, into the Heart of our God. And what is this Beauty but Himself who is Love (cf 1 John 4:8).
To grow old in God. As the contemplatives do behind cloistered walls. As the priests do in their solitary hours of prayer. How great, however, that these words are addressed to all of us, they are an invitation to all of us to grow old in God. How beautiful, what infinite gentleness, what tenderness, and fatherly care from the Maker of all things, visible and invisible (cf The Nicene Creed).
To grow old in God. Lost in God, as St Charles de Focauld wrote.
We are encouraged to love Him so that our hearts may be made radiant. Our Lady, the most blessed Virgin Mary, knew and knows this so well. Her fiat was that single nod of the heart, complete and without turning back, which constituted an answer of love for God. As Thérèse of Lisieux said: “Only love can repay love”. “Be done to me according to thy will” (cf Luke 1:38). To do the will of God is to love Him (cf John 14:15).
As God is Love, when we love Him back, with His love in our hearts – for He has loved us first (cf 1 John 4:19) – it is our little hearts that become purified more and more, until they radiate the light of God to those around us.
“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Cor 13:4-8).
Gazing at the Holy Eucharist in the monstrance while reading the words of God recorded in the Scriptures, I was struck by the reminder of the great gift that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has left us: Himself. He truly is with us present until the end of time (cf Matt 28:20), even physically so!
There, a few meters away, upon the altar, the Gift Himself gazes at us, His little creatures, ready to heal us, to unburden us, to love us, to make our hearts radiant with His love. The more one contemplates on the glorious beauty and justice and love of God, the more one is compelled by the Living Flame of Love, who dwells alone in our hearts, as St John of the Cross wrote, to share with others how great, how good God is!
I wish to love you Lord, help me to love you more. I believe Lord, help my unbelief. Forgive me Lord, for I am a sinner. Who are you, my God, and who am I? You are Everything, and I am nothing.
The silence of a heart in love…the heart of Christ.
Image credit: Unknown
Nihil Sine Deo 