“O Jesus, You now arrive at the cenacle together with Your beloved disciples and You begin Your supper with them. How much Sweetness, how much affability You show through all Your Person, as You lower Yourself to taking material food for the last time! Everything is Love in You. Also in this, You not only repair for the sins of gluttony, but You impetrate the sanctification of food.

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Jesus, my Life, Your sweet and penetrating gaze seems to search all of the apostles; and also in this act of taking food Your Heart remains pierced in seeing Your dear apostles still weak and listless, especially the perfidious Judas, who has already put a foot in hell. And You, from the bottom of Your Heart, say bitterly, ‘What is the usefulness of My Blood? Here is a soul so favoured by Me—yet, he is lost!’

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And You look at him with Your eyes refulgent with Light and Love, as though wanting to make him understand the great evil he is about to commit. But Your Supreme Charity makes You bear this sorrow and You do not make it manifest even to Your beloved disciples. And while You grieve for Judas, Your Heart is filled with joy in seeing, on Your left, Your beloved disciple John; so much so, that unable to contain Your Love any longer, drawing him sweetly to Yourself, You let him place his head upon Your Heart, letting him experience Paradise in advance.”

 

Reflection:

In our imaginations we can picture Jesus and his disciples entering into the cenacle together and beginning his last supper with them. He lowers himself to taking material food for the last time. In this lowering we see the humility of Jesus. The Son of God lowering himself to take what is prepared for him by human hands and in human wills .Our sins lower us before our God but love lowers him before us. Love oozes from him in all his actions. His mission is close to being accomplished and yet He leads the way in little things so we can follow in due time. The word “last” is repeated here and a few times in the previous hours and we see Jesus gradually letting go of life in human terms. He has already given his blessed mother his last word, his last kiss, his last embrace. He has told his disciples in the previous hour that this would be the last time He would walk the streets of Jerusalem. We can spend time in this paragraph in meditation upon Jesus’ letting go of his physical life here on earth, and of those whom He holds dear. We can see a deeper meaning in many of Jesus’ actions and in his eating He repairs for the sin of gluttony. This gluttony can apply to the whole world in all of the ways we overindulge. As Jesus makes reparation so too are we called to do likewise. We also make reparation for those who deprive others of food.

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He scrutinises the apostles who while healthy in their physical bodies, are still weak spiritually and his heart is pierced. He is especially sorrowful in looking at Judas and knows the path he will take. Luisa hears him brokenheartedly saying how even all the love He poured out on Judas and also his sufferings won’t be enough to save his soul from hell because of his free will.

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Jesus looks at him with eyes full of love, trying to make him understand the great evil he is about to do. We could say Jesus gave him a knowing look, trying to get him to reflect on his path. How often do we speak to others with our eyes rather than with our voices? Those close to us usually understand what we mean and the fact that Judas didn’t respond to Jesus could indicate that they didn’t share a close relationship. Judas had in spite of being with Jesus for three years become hard hearted. Jesus however has his mission to complete and while his heart was broken regarding Judas, He has to keep moving towards Calvary. He carries the grief of Judas whilst also focussing on the love of John. God is love and love lives by giving. He sees the openness of John and draws him to rest on his heart to allow him to share paradise in advance. He also invites us to rest on his heart and allow him to pour out his love in our lives.

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We also see in this last paragraph Jesus being able to withhold his grief at the loss of Judas who is closed to him, out of consideration for the rest of the disciples, but He does show his love to John who is open to him.

 

 "And it is in this solemn hour that the two peoples, the reprobate and the elect, are portrayed by the two disciples: the reprobate in Judas, who already feels hell in his heart; the elect in John, who rests and delights in You.

 

O my Sweet Good, I too place myself near You, and together with Your beloved disciple I want to place my weary head upon Your Adorable Heart, praying You to let me experience the delights of Heaven also on this earth so that, enraptured by the Sweet Harmonies of Your Heart, the earth may no longer be earth for me, but Heaven.

 

But in the midst of those Most Sweet and Divine Harmonies, I hear sorrowful heartbeats escaping You: these are for lost souls! O Jesus, O please, do not allow any more souls to be lost. Let Your heartbeat, flowing through them, make them feel the heartbeats of the Life of Heaven, just as Your beloved disciple John felt them, and attracted by the Gentleness and Sweetness of Your Love, they may all surrender to You.

 

O Jesus, as I remain upon Your Heart, give food also to me, as You gave it to the apostles: the Food of Love, the Food of the Divine Word, the Food of Your Divine Will. O my Jesus, do not deny me this Food, which You so much desire to give me so that Your very Life may be formed in me."

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Reflection:

In the first paragraph above we see that it is all about the two disciples, Judas and John, the bad and the good. The believer and the non-believer. This theme is repeated many times throughout the bible and also in our own lives. We can see the Divine Will here too as we unite with Luisa in placing our weary heads and hearts in our human wills upon his Adorable Heart. As we grow deeper into living in the Divine Will the earth becomes heaven for us.

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We are also invited to do rounds on Jesus’ sorrowful heartbeats. We, by fusing in Divine Will can place our “I love you and Glory to the Father” on each of Jesus’ heartbeats and uniting them to the heartbeats of all mankind make intercession and reparation for all souls, past, present, and future.

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