The particular circumstance of the precise time which Our Lord chose to give this Gift opens up further avenues of prayerful reflection. For He gave It "on the night He was betrayed," as a parting Gift. It is our way to cherish something left us by father or mother as they lie dying; an exile will often go back in memory over the last days at home; a young man facing life, will, if he is wise, often recall the parting advice he received from the father who loves him and has his best interests at heart.
Such a Giftat such a time! It is not vain to suggest that Our Lord deliberately waits till this, His last night on earth, in order to ensure that His Gift will be valued all the more.
But there is something else about this point of time that should help me to pray. As He sits here at the table, He looks around this group of His friends. Judas is there in the beginning of the meal at least, and Jesus, knowing that he has signed a pact with His enemies to sell Him this very night, this very night chooses to give His Gift. Peter is here. He has stood up from table in his impetuous eagerness to protest his loyalty to his Master, and Jesus looks and sees that this very night Peter will deny Him, cursing and swearing that he never knew Him. And as for the others, this very night they will scamper away in terror at the very first appearance of danger.
Put yourself in His place for a moment. Let me suppose you have a great friend. For years you have shared each other's secrets. Whenever you were in a difficulty or trouble, you turned instinctively to this friend of yours; whenever a great joy came into your life, he was the first to be told, as a matter of course.
Now this evening you find to your dismay that all the time he has been playing you false. He has been blackening your character; in fact, this very night he has laid careful plans to undermine your reputation with your employer with the object of having you dismissed from your job and disgraced.
Your reactions? Perhaps, if you were spiritually minded, you would try to forgive. Could you smother your indignation the next time you meet him and give him the impression that nothing had happened, that you trusted him just the same? Could you, on this very evening when you first discover his galling insincerity, go down town and buy him an expensive gift, and send it, without delay, on this very evening, to his home? Such a reaction would not be the way of nature but of grace. If nature has its way, I fear you will write him a scathing letter and treat him next time with icy reserve and look on him with an expression full of scorn.
Need we press the parable, as we sit with Our Lord at table and look around at His friends there? Such a Gift, at such a time!
And, as He sits there, He knows that history will repeat itself. Many a Judas will dare to receive His Gift in the state of mortal sin, masquerading as His friend, while actually casting the Bread of Angels underneath the feet of swine. He foresees many a Peter, loud in protestations of love in the hour of triumph, but sadly forgetting them all in the time of trial. He foresees that whole nations will be turned against Him, that His Gift will be held up to mockery and desecrated by innumerable sacrileges. He foresees the godless processions and the unnamable degradations to which the Host will be subjected in the diabolical campaign of our day.
Why, we might ask, give the Gift at all if It is going to be insulted in this manner? Here at this place of prayer is the proper atmosphere to allow the wonderful answer to sink into my soul. For Our Lord knows, too, that He will have those who will love and atone, who will be goaded by the very excesses of His enemies to unite in making reparation. So highly does He value this love of even a comparative few that He is prepared to endure all those insults and outrages to secure it. It is amazing that God should set such store on the love of His creatures, but of the fact there can be no doubt.
And among these friends of His Sacred Heart, I find myself at home. Jesus, it is my inestimable privilege to unite with those who love in making reparation for sin. Deign to grant me a high concept of this noble purpose. May my life be a consolation to You for the crimes that are rife today; may my devotion to Your Eucharist repair the apathy and opposition of so many others