June 29 — The Piercing of the Sacred Heart.

The Piercing of the Sacred Heart.

1. When Our Lord had breathed forth His soul into the hands of His Eternal Father, the Sacred Heart could for a time no longer continue its work of love for men. But as if to show that even in death it loved them still, God ordained that it should be pierced by the centurion’s lance, and should shed its last drops of blood for man. It was as if He whose lifeless Body hung there was not satisfied with suffering even to death, but needs must show how even in death from His Sacred Body grace and mercy poured forth for the healing of sin.

2. Out of His Heart flowed blood and water. That blood is the source of life to sinful man; with it the elect are inebriated, and all the saints before the throne of God have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. Reflect on these graces conferred by the Precious Blood, and pray that vou may wash in it and be clean.

3. Out of His Heart too flowed water, that living water of which He said: He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall not thirst forever. Of that water the redeemed drink in heaven. Their Lord Himself leads them to the fountains of the water of life. That water now refreshes His servants in this world’s weary paths. Jesus, my Lord, give me to drink of that living water that shall make me thirst after Thee, and after nought else but Thee.