135 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE NATIVITY Before Holy Communion 1. “[Joseph] and [Mary] marveled at what was said about [H]im” (cf. Lk 2:33).31 The Holy Mother together with the guardian, her holy spouse, was wondering at Simeon’s words and the prophecy about God’s and her only Son. As for you, wonder at your own inefficiency and inability to make spiritual progress. For whenever you are called to self-denial or prompted to obey the persuasions of others and the instructions of those more prudent than you, you neither accept their counsels nor follow the lead of divine inspirations. There is however something in this present Holy Communion that you should admire more than all else, namely that under the little piece of bread, already transubstantiated into His Body, remains the incomprehensible God-Man. He distributes Himself to all, and yet remains intact; and, what is even more astonishing, He becomes food for both the virtuous and the wicked. As for you, aspire and endeavor to be well prepared for receiving most fruitfully the heavenly bread “having all sweetness within it” (cf. Wis 16:20).32 This depends most certainly upon your will and disposition. 2. “and Simeon blessed them” (Lk 2:34). Behold how St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother — as indeed the divine Jesus Himself — humble themselves before an old man and await [f.11v] his blessing! Would you dare to place yourself above others: to presume much about yourself and yours? To value yourself highly, wanting to be highly regarded? Not to yield your own ways of thinking to another’s? However, this is what the Infant Jesus and His Virgin Mother teach us today, by submitting themselves to Simeon 31 St. Stanislaus used the names of Joseph and Mary, whereas the RSV just says: “his father and mother.” 32 Here St. Stanislaus uses the Latin phrase “omne delectamentum in se habentem,” which is the response at Benediction to the phrase “panem de cælo præstitisti eis” (“you have given them bread from heaven”), which itself is also fromWis 16:20.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==