Let us meditate upon the life of the Holy Family, the life of Mary and of Joseph in Jesus.
I. Jesus was the centre of Mary's and Joseph's love. Where the body is, there shall the eagles be. Where the treasure is, there is the heart. To possess Jesus was the sole joy of those happy parents. They held neither to Bethlehem, nor to Nazareth, nor to Egypt. To possess Jesus was their all. He was the home of their heart.
After a forced absence, how quickly did Saint Joseph return, with what eagerness and joy, to the house in which was the Divine Child! He lost no time far from Him, for he knew that Jesus was Divine Love incarnate.
My house, my family, my centre, is the Eucharist, the tabernacle near which I dwell. Like Mary and Joseph, I ought to be happy only there.
II. Jesus was the end of Mary's and Joseph's life. They lived only for Him, they labored only for Him. O how gladly did good Saint Joseph labor to gain for Him and His Divine Mother their daily bread! With what satisfaction he brought home the small returns of his work! And when it had cost him a little more fatigue, how sweet that fatigue was to Him, since it was all for Jesus!
And so should Jesus in the Eucharist be the object of my life, the joy of my life, the joy and happiness of my labor. And what life more beautiful than that passed in the companionship of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament?
III. Jesus was the constant nourishment of Mary and Joseph's life of union and love. They were so happy in looking at Him, in listening to Him, in seeing Him working, obeying, praying, for He did all things so well.
But, above all, were they happy in regarding His interior, in studying His intentions, in discovering His sentiments, the motives of His virtues. They beheld Him incessantly seeking and choosing, by preference, occasions of poverty, obedience, and penitence. They contemplated His abasement, His self-annihilation. They admired His fidelity in referring all to the glory of His Father, wishing as man to be the object of no praise, no glory, but giving all to the Divinity.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph had but one end in their whole life, and they wished but one thing, the glory of the Heavenly Father.
Behold what I have to do! For that I must unite with Mary and Joseph. I must share their life, their family life, the interior life of which God alone holds the secret.
O how happy is the soul in contemplating the interior of the Holy Family, all that is said and done therein, the Gospel of the family of Jesus! The beautiful evenings spent in heavenly conversation and the prayers at Nazareth! Surely, Jesus explained to Mary and Joseph all that the Scriptures said of Him. He revealed to them Calvary and all the scenes of humiliation and suffering through which He was to pass. He showed them in His hands the place through which the nails were to pierce, and He did so, in order to plant in His Mother and His holy guardian the virtues of Calvary. He must have spoken to them of the Church, of the Apostles, of the Religious Orders which would consecrate them selves to His and their honor. He spoke to them of me, of my misery, and of the immense love that He bore me.
Nazareth had become a heaven of love, a paradise of the second Adam and of the new Eve, a heaven of the purest virtues, of the holiest love. What a delicious perfume ascended to the Lord from that delightful garden, in which flourished the Word Incarnate, Mary and Joseph the Just! The Heavenly Father found therein His delights; the angelic spirits looked upon it in admiration; and as for me, I desire to glean from it love for a life pious and recollected in Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Practice. In union with Mary, accompany the Blessed Sacrament when borne to the sick.
Aspiration. Queen of Mercy, we behold thee beside the King of kings, our Jesus, in the Eucharist!
- from Month of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, by Saint Pierre-Julien Eymard