THE HEART OF JESUS IS COMPLAINING

SAINT MANUEL GONZÁLEZ

“Abandoned!”

In that suffering—the sum of all the sufferings known as the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ—the Gospel tells us four times that the Man saturated with disgrace expressed His sorrow.

The first time was because of His three closest companions, who had fallen asleep: “Could you not keep watch with Me for one hour?”

The second was because of Judas, who sold and betrayed Him: “Friend, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

The third was because of the officer of the tribunal who struck Him in the face: “If I have spoken wrongly, tell Me what I said wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike Me?”

And the fourth was because of His Father, who deprived Him of the sensible experience of His presence: “My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?”

These four complaints, so calm and composed that they seem more like laments than complaints, were drawn from the lips and Heart of Jesus Christ not so much by four different sufferings as by one single suffering manifested in four different forms.

Abandonment!

That is the great sorrow of the Heart of Christ. It is the pain that floats upon the boundless, shoreless sea of suffering in which His Heart is immersed.

The abandonment of human friendship, in the sleepy indifference of His closest companions and in the treachery of Judas; the abandonment of human justice, in the insolent slap; and the abandonment of the consolations of God, in the abandonment by His Father...

Always abandonment, adding the bitterest drop to the chalice of His bitterness!

Marys, Marys!

Take up this teaching, savor it, and answer a question.

As for you, it is not recorded in the Gospel that during His Passion Jesus received from you even a word of praise to encourage you, nor a complaint with which to rebuke you.

This means that Jesus counted on the women who followed Him in the Gospel during the hour of His abandonments...

Will He continue to count on you during this seemingly endless hour of abandonment in the tabernacles, which He is still enduring?

Think of the abandonment He continues to suffer in His tabernacles: from His priests, from those whom He has called, and from those who hate and despise Him...

Listen, then, to that gentle invitation of Christ in the tabernacle: “If only you would love Me.”

And keep Him company in all your duties and work.

Prayer for Priestly Vocations

O Jesus, my Savior, You who entrusted to priests—and to them alone—the power to celebrate the Eucharist, the principal purpose of their priestly ordination; to forgive sins; to administer the other Sacraments; to preach the Word of God with authority; and to lead the other faithful to look toward You and ascend to You through Your Most Holy Mother,

I offer You, for the sanctification of priests and seminarians, during this day, all my prayers, works, and joys, as well as my sacrifices and sufferings.

Give us, Lord, truly holy priests who, inflamed by the fire of Your love, seek nothing other than Your glory and the salvation of those whom You have entrusted to them.

Amen.