August 2024 Jesus, the only comforter
All human consolation is weak because it is poor in truth, poor in hope, and especially poor in love. So why seek human consolations so eagerly? Have the disappointments of the past not yet convinced us of this triple poverty of man? Now, consolation is a mixture of truth, hope and love.
Truth is an element of consolation. When we are in pain, Jesus teaches us that pain satisfies God’s justice by purifying our soul from the stain of sin. Jesus experienced this in his Passion. Hope gives something deeper: all the sufferings offered, accepted, open to us the promise of an eternity in heaven. Jesus showed the way by his Resurrection.
What completes consolation is love. Knowing that our miseries will have an end is not always enough to be fully consoled, so much do we need to feel a little love in our poor, always thirsty hearts. Jesus showed it to us in his human condition, enduring our pains, our sufferings, our anguish to the point of agony. It is total love, given in fullness for all. It is absolute love in which we must root ourselves, sure that we are loved with a love that surpasses all understanding.
Jesus alone consoles in depth. It is to Him alone that we must ask consolation. And He will give it to us! Certainly, He will do it in His own way. Sometimes it will be in the pages of a book, sometimes in the words of a spiritual father, a confessor, sometimes during a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, sometimes in a sudden invasion of our whole soul… But whatever the path by which He wants to pass, it is always Jesus who will be the source of consolation, all the rest are only the means that He uses.
(Comments on the zealous posts of Sr Marie du Sacré Cœur Bernaud – canon J.Théloz 1908)