185 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT Before Holy Communion 1. “Jesus went to the other side” (Jn 6:1). My soul, you learned from experience that the cause of such a great sadness, nay, of so many evil deeds and imperfections, was your neglect or withdrawal from the Divine Presence. For as long as the heavenly Light is in you, you see most clearly what you should do or what you should shun. Then you endure all bitter things with sweetness, you possess all agreeable things with a readiness to renounce them. Then you have a pure conscience, and it seems to you as if you dwell and rest in an earthly paradise, which you believe to have already found, to enjoy its delights to the full. Whenever you pray, you feel as if you were in the presence of angels; hence you pour out your prayers with great devotion, humility, and care. I will pass over in silence countless other blessings, which the Divine Presence brings to you. On the contrary, when you do not have God’s presence before your eyes, when Jesus departs from your mind, you become sad, you suffer from dryness, you are shattered, you fall, you stagger, you sink into even the worst offenses, and it seems to you that you are in hell, or close to it. Quite right was the one who said: “To be without Jesus is a grievous hell; and indeed, to be with Jesus is a sweet paradise.”68 Therefore, you can see how much [f.35v] you should value God’s presence and with what great diligence you should preserve it after receiving the Lord at the sacred table! 2. “a multitude followed [H]im” (Jn 6:2). Consider that those faithful people, those pious souls, that holy flock who were refreshed and nourished by His most ardent, most delightful, and salutary sermons, did not leave Jesus when He departed across the Sea of Tiberias (cf. Jn 6:1-2). Rather, they followed Him through many dangers, through places exposed to 68 Cf. IC, Bk. II, Ch. 8, § 2.
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