No; there is no nation so happy as the Christian people in the ease with which their God may be approached. In times past, under the ancient Law, there was only one temple for all the earth; there was only one Sanctuary, into which the High Priest alone, was permitted to enter; and even he was obliged, out of respect, to fill the sacred place with the smoke of incense, so that
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nothing could be seen. In our days, not only does the God of infinite greatness dwell in a Temple by the effects of His grace, but He dwells bodily in as many places as there are Churches and Altars throughout the world.
Under the old Law, it was not only not permitted to touch the Ark, but even to look at it too closely. The Bethsamites were punished for having looked on it with too much curiosity. Now, we may, and we are even commanded, not merely to touch, but to eat Him of whom the Ark was only the shadow. We may truly say that we have no faith ; that having eyes, we see not, and that having ears, we hear not.
People make pilgrimages into foreign lands to honour God in the relics of His Saints, and it is well ; but at the same time, they will hardly take a hundred steps to go and pay their respects to the adorable Body of the God of Majesty !
We may say still more ; that the excess of God's love causes our excessive coldness and insensibility, by our abuse of His grace. Is it possible that, if God had not loved us so much, we should love Him more ? Learn this terrible truth from what we, see. Is it not true that, if the loving Jesus had established the presence of His Divine Body in only one spot on earth, all nations would have hastened to come from every part of the world to offer Him, in the Adorable Sacrament, their adoration and prayers? On arriving at the place, they
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would no doubt be overwhelmed in the Presence of the Wonderful Mysteries, and would be seized with holy fear on considering their greatness ; they would offer every possible respect from astonishment and love ; but because God, in His infinite goodness, has established His presence, not only in one spot, but in every province, and town, and place where there is a Church, and even in the poorest villages, therefore people do not take the trouble to visit Him, and His love is rejected. He is at our doors — He is waiting for us night and day; and yet, through an incomprehensible neglect, this Divine Lover of men is abandoned by His creatures. He is in our poor little country churches alone all the week, so that the poor have not far to go to find Him on Sundays and Feasts. Oh, how foolish we are ! Will our hearts always be insensible to the attractions of Divine Love ?
We envy the happiness of the Magi, who came with great difficulty and trouble from afar, to adore the Divine Saviour of our souls. We have not, like them, to leave our kingdoms ; it is not necessary for us to make long journeys; what, then, do we do, to pay our respects to our Master, in the Most Holy Sacrament?
When our Blessed Lord preached to the multitude it was very difficult to approach Him, so great was the throng around Him ; those poor people were zealous; they, who did not know Him as we do, made openings in the roofs of houses to let down
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their sick, to place them before Him who so mercifully came to heal all our diseases. The doors of our Churches are open, and the Children of Zion weep because they are deserted, and hardly any one is seen there.
Lastly, it must be said that even the Blessed Virgin herself could not always have the access she desired to the most loving Son that ever was, for the Holy Gospel informs us she could not sometimes approach Him, whilst we worms of the earth have all possible liberty to draw near to Him, to speak to Him, and remain in His Divine Presence ; and yet we will not make a holy use of such a precious favour !
SIXTH MOTIVE.
JESUS IS IN THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT FOR EVERY ONE.
Venite ad me, omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis, et ego reficiam vos. — Come to me, all you that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. — (Matt. xi. 28.)
Come unto Me, says the loving Jesus, all who are in trouble and are heavily burdened, and I will comfort you. These tender words, which the Loving Heart of the charitable Saviour of our souls has expressed, are addressed to every one. He is, in the Most Holy Sacrament, for the poor as well as for the rich. He gives Himself equally to the learned and ignorant, to the great and small, to monarchs and their subjects, to the lowest on earth as well as
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to those seated on thrones. The Bread of Angels, says the Church, is become the Bread of men ! O wonder ! O miracle ! The Lord of all things has given himself as food to the poor, to the slave, to the most abject persons in the world. Jesus, the Sovereign of the Universe, has no guards to keep off those who wish to approach His Divine Person ; all the avenues of the palaces of the God of Heaven are freely opened ; it costs nothing, no money is needed to have the honour of speaking to Him. Ineffable consolation ! Christian souls being so easily able to enjoy the Presence of Him, who makes the felicity of the Blessed, already partake, in some degree, of the joys of a blissful eternity. They find Paradise out of Paradise; earth is changed into heaven, and men have no great reason to envy the angels their happiness, seeing they possess Him who makes the height of angelic bliss.
Would to God that all the poor, all the afflicted, all those who are persecuted and forsaken, all who are held in contempt and who have had losses, would listen to these truths, and would remember the words of the Apostle : — Quomodo non cum illo omnia nobis donavit ! That the Eternal Father, in giving us his well-beloved Son, has given us all things.
Jesus is ours in the most Holy Sacrament ; He belongs to all who will receive Him ; but Jesus is God, therefore He is the Great and Supreme Good,
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Can there be anything wanting to Him who is in possession of this Infinite Treasure? O afflicted souls, be comforted ! He who satisfies all hearts, who fulfils all desires, is yours ! Rejoice, ye poor, for ye are very rich, you can enjoy Immense Good ; while the great and rich ones of the world reject you, and turn you from their houses and their society, and will not listen to you, the Great King of Angels gives you an audience as often as you desire it. He is pleased to hear you, and He likes your conversation when it comes from the heart; He fills you with His graces, He caresses you with His most precious favours, and places you in the rank, and amongst the number of His dearest favourites. Esurientes implevit bonis, et divites dimisit inanes. He has loaded the needy with His gifts, while He sends away the rich, who are full of this world's goods, but deprived of His favours.
SEVENTH MOTIVE.
JESUS IS VERY HUMBLE IN THE MOST HOLV SACRAMENT.
Discite a me quia mitis sum, et humilis corde. — Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart. — (Matt. xi. 29.)
O my soul ! we must here exclaim with the Prophet that the works of thy God, His designs and His thoughts, are impenetrable to all human understanding. We cannot contemplate them seriously without being overcome with love; for, when we
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reflect on the God of Paradise with all His Infinite Greatness fixing His dwelling amongst men, until the consummation of the world, for love of them, does it not seem that nothing more could be expected from His Infinite Love ?
But when we think, when we know, that this ever Adorable Being, hiding all His greatness, bears extreme humiliations in the Divine Eucharist, can we find words, or even thoughts, on a subject which will be the astonishment of all eternity?
Jesus Christ, says the Apostle, emptied Himself in becoming man; the holy writer could not use stronger terms to tell us something of the Humility of the Son of the Eternal Father. But where shall we find words able in any way to