[Pearls Ep. 124: Monday Motivation]
As we continue reflecting on Corpus Christi, we turn to the precious blood of Christ as a source of vitality. St. Ignatius says it “inebriates” us. It’s not for nothing that crowds thought the Apostles were drunk when they emerged from the upper room on Pentecost. They were “inebriated” with the Holy Spirit. The same can be said of the martyrs who went not just willingly, but gladly to their brutally glorious end.
We’re going to turn this reflection over to Mother Mary Francis, whom we’ve quoted in the past – in this instance from her masterful meditation on the Anima Christi. The following excerpts, which speak for themselves, are from her mentation on the phrase, “Blood of Christ, inebriate me”:
“Unfortunately, we have come to associate with inebriation only one particular effect of a specific indulgence.”
We’re reminded of the saying, “why limit happy to an hour?” But getting back to Mother Mary Francis…
“With inebriation of the spirit it is different. Here are the true exhilaration and enlivenment that lift us above and beyond the ordinary… And when we go singing, not necessarily emotionally, but with that great inebriation of the will, which functions with or without the supportive factor of emotion, into daily little dyings, it is again the effect of the blood of Christ.”
“In all the hidden humdrum martyrdoms that are part of real Christian daily living, one must be inebriated to agree to them singing. In all the little sacrifices of each day when God cheerfully invites us: ‘Come, and die!’ we can respond with a joy more profound than a merely human one.
“One needs only to have an inebriated heart, able to transcend its natural limitations and to follow a difficult path with unflinching feet. ‘Yes! I will die.”
“We die to our own preferences; we die to the tart response that nature quickly frames when we are offended; we die to the caustic reply that pride proposes; we die to the sensual urges that often surprise us with their insistence.
“One goes singing into all these invitations to the little deaths of every day only when one is inebriated with the blood of Christ.”
“Why not turn to what is so accessible to us in the merits of the precious blood of Christ and become inebriated with it, so that we might have a strength that can discover, ‘No, this is not too much!’ I can do it. I can lift the weight of this cross. I can sustain this activity. I can suffer this oppression. I am inebriated! I have a strength beyond the ordinary. And all because I am possessed of the inebriating power that arises out of union with Christ.”
Thank you, Mother Mary Francis.
When we receive the body and blood of Christ worthily, and unite it with our relationship with Christ built on mental prayer, we can laugh at things that would otherwise incense us, bear things that would otherwise defeat us, and attain to things otherwise beyond us – all by the grace of “Him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph 3:20-21)
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life