191 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year humbly, and endures so patiently the bitter lashings of impudent tongues! Wonder at and admire this highest model of patience and imitate His way of life! As you detest this Pharisaic malice and calumny, never allow yourself to be carried away by rage. But instead, suffer the rage of others willingly and with a joyful spirit. For the Lord also has something against you: So many of your evil deeds and so many wrongs done to Him are placed before His eyes. For it is the greatest ingratitude, or at least a striking half-heartedness, that you do not try to gather any fruit from His deeds, which are most worthy of every kind of imitation, and from the manner of His Passion, abounding in so many virtues. Be silent, therefore, when faced with the biting tongues of other people; ponder the injuries and calumnies endured by the Savior, and ask this Lord in today’s Holy Communion for nothing else but for the admirable virtues of patience and meekness. After Holy Communion 1. “you dishonor [M]e” (Jn 8:49). O with what pain does the august King of Heaven complain of being spurned by the Jews, and not only because they did not treat Him with due honor, but also because they showed Him the greatest contempt! Indeed, these complaints are not without grounds. For He had come to them as to His chosen and beloved people; He had come as a shepherd to save the sheep [f.38r] of the house of Israel, which had been lost. But instead of finding gratitude, love, and great veneration, He found ingratitude, hatred, and contempt. They did not recognize Him; hence, neither did they worship Him. You too, take heed and be on your guard, lest the same Lord say to you on the last day, the dreadful Day of Judgment: “And you did not honor Me.” If having received Him into the dwelling of your heart, you were to insult Him; if when He had come to you so lovingly, led by pity for your soul and in order it heal it (seeing it wasted by the sickness of so many imperfections), you were to treat Him injuriously and to conduct yourself shamelessly, ungratefully, impiously, and carelessly in His presence; if you did
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