JESUS TEACHES THE MULTITUDES FROM THE SHIP OF SIMON PETER

 

“And it came to pass that when the multitudes pressed upon Him to hear the word of God, He stood by the lake of Genesareth, and He saw two ships standing by the lake; but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And going into one of the ships that was Simon’s, He desired him to draw back a little from the land. And sitting He taught the multitudes out of the ship.” (Luke 5, 1–3)
First Prelude: Picture our Divine Saviour surrounded by the multitudes—who are for the most part, poor and unlettered.

Second Prelude: Grant me the grace, O Jesus, by my fervent prayers, to urge Thy Sacred Heart to impart to me generously all the graces necessary for my sanctification and that of the souls entrusted to me.

First Point

The Zeal of the Multitudes to Hear the Word of God

Contemplate the multitudes crowding round about Jesus as He stands on the shores of lake Genesareth. All are eager to hear and see Him, to be in His immediate nearness. Indeed, who should not desire to hear the Word of the heavenly Father Himself? In His great love, the Saviour devises a means to satisfy all, and therefore enters the ship of Peter and teaches the multitudes out of the ship. Never did the Heart of Jesus resist when the crowds pressed round Him for help, to see or hear Him or to beg for the cure of some malady. We are so fortunate as to have a better knowledge of Christ’s Heart and to realize its ardent desire to do us good! We please the Saviour by coercing Him, as it were, interiorly, by our fervent desires, our affections, and our good will; by importuning Him with a holy violence by our confiding trust.

Let us then approach the Heart of our loving Master and beg Him to allow us to hear the words of eternal life, which will urge us on sweetly but irresistibly to follow Him in the exercise of virtue, that we, too, can say with St. Paul: “The charity of Christ presseth us” (2 Cor. 5, 14). Let us give full sway to the love of Christ in our hearts, let us present no obstacles by our evil habits, but let us maintain ourselves in constant recollection, attentive to the voice of the Lord, as were the multitudes. Let us beg the Saviour to render effectual His sacred word, announced to us through the mouth of His servants and by means of pious exhortations, that it may yield fruits of salvation in countless souls.

Second Point

Jesus, Our Model in Love of the Poor

Behold Jesus surrounded by the multitudes—the poor, the sick, the halt, the weak and helpless, in short, those who count as naught in the eyes of the world and upon whom human pride looks with disdain. But they are the favored of the Lord, whose hearts are receptive for His word. Though they urge Him, impose upon Him, even deny Him the necessary rest, His loving Heart bears it all with incomparable mildness and goodness. What a glorious example does the Master set His spouses, who are primarily called to minister to the wants of His little ones and to share His tender and loving solicitude!

How happy must we deem ourselves to be permitted to devote our whole life, our energy, our health to these beloved ones of Christ. Let us then rejoice if obedience assigns to us a place in which we can devote ourselves to the care and instruction of such as are rejected by the spirit of the world. Let us enter wholly into the sentiments of the Sacred Heart, and exercise toward our charges mildness and compassion, indulgence, untiring devotion and self-immolation. The more we rejoice the Heart of Jesus in this manner, the more will He dispense His mercies to us.

Affections: O Divine Saviour, imbue me with the zeal of these simple folk that crowded round Thee to hear Thee and to have the happiness of being near Thee. Let my heart burn with fiery ardor that the fervor of my prayers, the intensity of my desires, may exercise a holy violence over Thy Sacred Heart, and I may draw richly from the fount of graces for my own sanctification and that of the souls entrusted to me. They are Thine, O Jesus, Thou lovest them, and therefore, I will also love them with a tender, delicate and self-sacrificing love. I thank Thee for having called me to so sublime an office. Give me grace to become ever more fit for the duties of my holy calling, and more worthy to promote Thy honor and win souls to Thee.

Resolution: I will see Jesus in the poor, and all those entrusted to me, and will serve them with sentiments of love and esteem.

Spiritual Bouquet: “The charity of Christ presseth us.”

Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding, and my whole will.
Thou hast given me all that I am and all that I possess;
I surrender it all to Thee that Thou mayest dispose of it according to Thy Will.
Give me only Thy love and Thy grace;
with these I will be rich enough, and will have no more to desire.

(Indulgence of 300 days, once a day — Pope Leo XIII, May 26, 1883)