April 30

Tuesday after Fourth Sunday in Lent

[Lord,] abide with us. S. Luke 24:29.

"WITHOUT a friend thou canst not well live; if Jesus be not above all a Friend to thee, thou shalt be indeed desolate." Listen we then to every whisper of our conscience, "Do this; do not that; speak not that word of unkindness or exaggeration; avoid this or that evil society." It is Jesus Who, within, is speaking to us by His Spirit. Hearken we to every call which rouses us to more diligent service; to love Him alone, meditate on His Passion, share His Sufferings, by bearing patiently what He lays upon us, by denying ourselves for those for whom, with us, He died. It is Jesus saying to us, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?" S. Bernard says, "If He entered not into His own glory without suffering, think we, without suffering, to enter, not into ours, but into His?"

He speaketh to us, and is with us, in everything by which He would win us back from the world or draw us to Himself. If a deep Scripture word pierces our souls as it never did before, He it is Who is speaking to us. He comes to us in another and another form, while our eyes are holden: in sorrow, in joy; in fast (as now) or feast; in humiliation or forgiveness; in awe of His majesty or the soft whisperings of His mercy. We may know His presence by the deep, breathless stirrings of our hearts. He Who made the heart, He it is Who shaketh it, He it is Who bids us "bestir ourselves;" for the Lord goeth on before to subdue our enemies before our face. Only, in all we say, think, do, fear, hope, enjoy, let us say, "Abide with us, Lord."