4nd Step - Return love for love
«Return love for love»
We delve deeper into the message of Paray. After discovering how Margaret Mary experiences the love of Jesus' Heart for her, in the third stage, let us now hear the complaint He addresses to her, in this fourth stage.
The complaint of Jesus
During the first appearance, Margaret Mary has a vision of the heart on a throne of flame surrounded by thorns. Jesus says to her, «If you knew how ardently I desire to be loved by men,» and «I am thirsty, I burn with the desire to be loved.» This is a lament: love is not loved! These are the thorns! The subsequent apparitions will provide precious insights into these «thorns.».
From his second major apparition, Jesus expresses the sorrow that his love, so great, receives in return «only ingratitude and indifference, coldness and rejection for all my eagerness to do them good… This wounds me far more deeply than all I suffered in my Passion.» (Autobiography §§ 55-56)
This complaint will be developed in the third great apparition: I receive nothing but ingratitude from most people for their irreverence and sacrilege, and for the coldness and contempt they have for me in this Sacrament of love. But what is still most sensitive to me is that it is hearts consecrated to me that use it in this way (Autobiography, § 92).
Some aspects of Jesus' complaint
01 It is interesting to note ...
It is in 17th-century France, where all French people are practising Catholics, and where vocations are at an all-time high (120 seminaries in France welcoming thousands of students), that Jesus complains about not being loved.
02 The message seems even more relevant today
in
03 Sacrament of love
Jesus expresses that it is the attitude towards the sacrament of the Eucharist, his «sacrament of love», that makes him suffer the most, on the part of the baptised, who are «consecrated» by the consecration of baptism. He speaks of «coldness» and «contempt» towards the Eucharist. Let us ask for the grace, here, to become aware of Jesus' thirst to be loved; that everyone's love counts for him; that every lack of love is suffering for him. I thirst, but I thirst so ardently to be loved by men in the Blessed Sacrament that this thirst consumes me; and I find no one who strives, according to my desire, to quench my thirst by making some return to my love" (Letter 133). We are all affected by this painful complaint.
04 Sacrilege
The Lord speaks of «sacrileges» against the Eucharist committed particularly by the consecrated such as religious and priests. This complaint can be understood in light of the sacrileges committed by priests at the court of France, as the first «black masses,» ritualised by Abbot Guibourg, were taking place at that time. This is the famous poison affair which would erupt a few years after the apparitions of Paray and horrify all of France.
But it's not just a question of the Eucharistic Body of Christ being desecrated by these sacrilegious acts. It is also about the other desecrations suffered by the little ones in their bodies. I'm thinking in particular of the bodies of little children desecrated sexually by criminal priests, with the scandals that have come to light in recent years. «What you did to one of the least of these, you did to me». It is Jesus himself who is affected when the dignity of the poor is damaged. As Ben Sirach the Wise says, “Do not the widow's tears run down God's cheeks?” (cf. Si 35:18). How many tears are still flowing down God's cheeks when our world is witnessing so many abuses of human dignity, including within the People of God.
Love for love
Jesus reiterates His passionate love for all people and complains that it is not reciprocated. This would be a little overwhelming, were there not also a request that can be summarised as: «You, at least, love me.» It is about returning love for love. This is what Saint Margaret Mary testifies to: «I received excessive graces of His love from my God, and felt touched by the desire for some return and to give Him love for love.» (Autobiography, § 92)
To make this concrete, Jesus makes several requests of him:
02 Make room for him in your heart
To welcome him, to make room for him in her heart, and to signify this concretely, by wearing the image of the Sacred Heart and displaying an image of him where she lives. This is the enthronement of the Sacred Heart, which we will return to.
03 Communion frequent
To receive communion as often as possible, especially on the first Friday of the month.
04 The Holy Hour
To live the «holy hour», every Thursday, from 11 pm to midnight. It is about keeping him company as he suffers his agony in the Garden of Olives, to allow ourselves to be caught by his suffering of love and to sympathise with it, and to obtain mercy with him for sinners.
05 The Feast of the Sacred Heart
That a great feast of his Sacred Heart be instituted for the whole Church. On this occasion, he asks for a Communion of reparation, that is, that one communicates with particular attention and love, which will console all the offenses made to his Heart in the sacrament of the Eucharist. This feast will be definitively instituted by Pope Pius IX in 1856.
Finally
Ultimately, the answer of love that Jesus asks for is to give ourselves entirely to him, to consecrate ourselves to him. In the next step, we will move into the second part of our journey, explaining what consecration is.
