“Our daily life – from the small to the big things – is to become continuous worship through self-giving love. United to Christ through Holy Communion, we become a 'fragrant aroma' pleasing to the Father."
By Fr. Thaddaeus Lancton, MIC
A gaze of the heart. Examining the depth of one’s heart.
There is no one way to translate the Latin title Inspectio Cordis, given to the collection of meditations for Sundays by the Founder of the Marians, St. Stanislaus Papczyński (1631-1701).
These meditations, published weekly on Fridays in preparation for the Sunday Mass, follow the style and purpose of our holy Father Founder. While his original text is worth reading, his examples and style can feel outdated to the modern reader. As his spiritual son, I will attempt my best to imitate his style and imitate his ministry of preaching to hearts.
The goal is to allow Jesus to gaze into your heart and teach you self-examination, leading you to a more fruitful reception of Holy Communion, where there is a true encounter of our hearts with His Sacred Heart – especially fitting during this period of National Eucharistic Revival.
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B
August 11, 2024
Before Holy Communion
1. “This is enough, O LORD!”
Elijah’s honesty in complaining to the Lord is refreshing. We may want to attend Mass filled with gratitude, joy, and peace in the Lord. The reality could be vastly different: we are at our wit’s end, frustrated, and want to be done with life. Elijah even states, “Take my life.” He cannot bear more; life without the Father’s love is not worth living.
Without the Father sustaining us with His love through the Eucharist, we are like cars that run on empty and then stall for lack of fuel. But with Holy Communion, we, too, can walk days and nights to the “mountain of God” – Heaven. As you come to Mass, bring to the Lord your exhaustion, your emptiness, and even your complaints about the burden of life. He will refresh you as you rest on Sunday, strengthening you for the journey of the week ahead, as you persevere in walking to Heaven.
What have you had ‘enough’ of this past week? In what ways do you not want to live your life as it is? How can you bring that pain to Jesus in Holy Communion? How do you draw strength from the Eucharist as fuel for the journey?
2. “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”
To be refreshed by the Eucharist, we need to not only receive Holy Communion but taste – and savor – the goodness of Jesus. Part of this requires a time of silence – either in Mass after Holy Communion or after Mass itself – to relish the gift of His Heart. Another manner is through praising, glorifying, and exalting the Lord, both after Mass and throughout the week. We do so not because God needs our praise, but because we need to praise Him and so allow our hearts to expand and see His goodness present in our lives.
The Psalmist praises God for how He answered and delivered him from fears and distress. We, too, taste His goodness by calling out to Him in honesty – like Elijah – and giving Him opportunity to respond. Then, we will be “radiant with joy” as we “take refuge in Him” who hears our pleas and delivers us from dangers.
Where in your life do you need to savor Jesus’ goodness? How often do you praise God and so focus on His goodness? How do you give Him chance to respond to you in your pain and so make you radiant with joy?
3. “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”
Saint Paul urges the Ephesians – and us – to avoid sinning by reminding us that sin grieves a living Person. Each time we sin, we sadden the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Notably, St. Paul’s instruction comes after his teaching on the tongue and what kind of words we ought to use with each other, and he continues by making explicit that “all bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reliving must be removed.” Saint Faustina implored Jesus to heal her tongue, lest the tongue that received Him in Holy Communion harm Him in her neighbor and grieve the Spirit within her.
We need Jesus, too, to touch us as we receive Him, so that we be truly kind to each other. The Greek for kind is chrestos, one letter different than christos (Christ). When we are kind, compassionate, and forgiving, we are being Christ to each other and rejoice in the Spirit of God.
Do you experience how you grieve the Spirit when you sin? What sins of the tongue do you need Jesus to remove from you? How can you be kind – Christ – to others?
After Holy Communion
1. “As a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.”
Living – walking – in love means imitating Christ’s gift of himself to us on the Cross. His worship – sacrificial offering – is His willingness to offer Himself in love on our behalf. We participate in the Mass not only during the hour or so on Sundays, but throughout our week, by patterning our lives on His sacrifice.
Our daily life – from the small to the big things – is to become continuous worship through self-giving love. United to Christ through Holy Communion, we become a “fragrant aroma” pleasing to the Father.
Having received such a great gift and such blessings in Jesus Christ, how can you unite the small and big things of daily life to the sacrifice of Christ? How can your life become continuous worship in self-giving love?
2. “Stop murmuring among yourselves.”
Whereas Elijah’s complaint was answered by the Lord, the Jews here are told to “stop murmuring.” The complaint of Elijah arose from his pain and exhaustion, which he surrendered to the Lord; the Jews murmured in disbelief that Jesus of Nazareth could say what He was teaching. When we complain, we need another to cry with us, to feel their compassion and love, to revive us and so strengthen us to continue our journey. Murmuring regrets the journey itself and doubts His Providence.
The Hebrews in the desert murmured and so lamented that they had ever left Egypt, desiring to return there rather than press forward to the Promised Land. Similarly, murmuring in our lives is a doubt in the Father’s goodness, a disbelief that He provides for us in our needs. To taste the sweetness of the Bread of life, we, too, must stop murmuring.
Do you recognize when you murmur? What causes your disbelief in the Father’s goodness and provision for your needs? How can you learn to “complain” and ask the Father to “cry with” you - "in all their afflictions, he was afflicted" (Is 63:9)?
3. “Whoever believes has eternal life.”
Jesus does not promise eternal life after death; He promises eternal life in the present. Whoever stops murmuring and believes already has a share in this eternal life. We often fall into the trap that everything will improve in the future, in heaven. But when we let go of sin, when we no longer grieve the Spirit, when we stop murmuring, we have a foretaste of heaven and eternal life in each Holy Communion. We need that experience again and again, for otherwise – like Elijah – this life will become too burdensome.
We will live, not fully alive, but already dying. As we listen and obey His Word, we absorb Jesus as Bread of Life; but we also are to consume His flesh as our Bread, so that we may “eat it and not die.”
How would you think of your life differently if you thought of “already” having eternal life? How would you share that eternal life with others who do not believe? How do you experience Holy Communion as a foretaste of eternal life?
Next week: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 18.
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