SIXTH DAY WITHIN THE
OCTAVE OF THE NATIVITY
JESUS SLEEPING
Very short and painful were the slumbers of the Infant
Jesus. A manger was His cradle, straw was His bed, and straw His pillow; so
that Jesus was constantly interrupted in His sleep by the hardness of this
rough and painful little bed, and by the severe cold of the cave.
Notwithstanding all this, nature succumbing to its wants, the sweet Babe from
time to time slept amidst His sufferings. But the sleep of Jesus differed very
much from that of other children; the slumbers of other children are useful for
the preservation of life, but not for the operations of the soul, because the
soul being buried in sleep with the senses, cannot then work; but such was not
the sleep of Jesus Christ: “I sleep, and My heart watcheth” (Cant. v. 2). His body was asleep,
but His soul was watching; because in Jesus there was united the person of the
Word, who could not sleep, nor be by the slumber of the senses. The Holy Infant
slept therefore; but while He slept He thought of all the sufferings He was to
endure for our sakes during all His life and at His death. He thought of the
labours He was to undergo in Egypt and in Nazareth during. His miserable and
despised life; He thought more particularly on the scourges, the thorns, the
ignominies, the agonies, and on that miserable death that He should at last
suffer upon the cross; and whilst He was sleeping He offered all this to His
Eternal Father to obtain for us pardon and salvation; so that whilst our Saviour
was sleeping He was meriting for us and appeasing His Father, and obtaining
graces for us. Let us now beseech Him, by the merit of His blessed slumbers, to
deliver us from the deadly slumber of sinners who unhappily sleep in the death
of sin, forgetful of God and of His love; and to give us instead the blessed
sleep of the holy spouse, of which He said: “Stir not up, nor make the beloved
to wake, till she please”(Cant. ii. 7). This is the sleep that
God gives to His beloved souls, which is none other, as St. Basil says, “but
the most profound oblivion of all things; and this is when the soul forgets all
earthly things, to attend only to God and to the things that concern His glory.
AFFECTIONS AND
PRAYERS
My beloved and holy Infant, Thou sleepest, and O, how
do Thy slumbers enamour me! With others sleep is the emblem of death; but in
Thee it is the sign of eternal life, because whilst Thou art sleeping, Thou art
meriting for me eternal salvation. Thou sleepest; but Thy Heart sleeps not, it
is thinking of suffering and dying for me. Whilst Thou art slumbering, Thou art
praying for me, and obtaining for me from God the eternal rest of Paradise. But
before Thou dost carry me (as I hope) to repose with Thee in heaven, I desire
that Thou shouldest repose forever in my soul. There was a time, O my God, when
I drove Thee away from me; but I trust that, by means of knocking so often at
the door of my heart,—now by making it afraid, now by enlightening it, now by
the voice of love, — Thou hast already obtained an entrance there. This, I say,
is my hope, because I feel a great confidence that I have been forgiven by
Thee; I feel a great hatred and penitence for the offences I have committed
against Thee,—penitence that causes me great sorrow; but a sorrow of peace, a
sorrow that comforts me and makes me hope most assuredly for pardon from Thy
goodness. I thank Thee, my Jesus, and I pray Thee never again to separate Thy self from my soul. I know indeed that Thou wilt not
leave me, if I do not drive Thee away; but this is the favour I ask of Thee
(and I pray Thee to give me Thy assistance that I may always seek it of Thee),
that Thou wouldest not permit me ever to drive Thee from me. Make me forget everything,
in order to think of Thee who hast always thought of me and of my welfare. Make
me always love Thee in this life, so that I may breathe forth my soul in Thy
arms, united to Thee, and may repose eternally in Thee without fear of losing
Thee again. O Mary, assist me in life and in death, so that Jesus may always
repose in me, and that I may always repose in Jesus.
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