Today, August 19, as our Church celebrates the Memorial of John Eudes, Priest, we are invited to reflect on a passage from Saint Paul's letter to the Philippians (3:7---4:1, 4-9), entitled "Rejoice in the Lord always". Our treasure, which follows, is from a treatise on the admirable Heart of Jesus, by Saint John Eudes, priest.
St. John Eudes was born in the diocese of Seez in France in the year 1601. After his ordination to the priesthood he spent several years in giving missions. Then he founded congregations dedicated to improving priestly formation and to encouraging morally endangered women to lead Christian lives. He also fostered great devotion to the hearts of Jesus and Mary. He died in 1680.
The Treatise on the admirable Heart of Jesus by St. John Eudes is on living in Christ in intimate union, as body is united to head. Jesus, who is the source of our life, wants to live in and through us:
Christ, our head longs to be in you.
You belong to him as a member belongs to the head. This is why he earnestly desires you to serve and glorify the Father by using all your faculties as if they were his. He belongs to you, but more than that, he longs to be in you, living and ruling in you, as the head lives and rules in the body. He desires that whatever is in him may live and rule in you: his breath in your breath, his heart in your heart, all the faculties of his soul in the faculties of your soul, so that these words may be fulfilled in you: Glorify God and bear him in your body, that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in you.
Christ our head, source of true life.
You belong to the Son of God, but more than that, you ought to be in him as the members are in the head. All that is in you must be incorporated into him. You must receive life from him and be ruled by him. There will be no true life for you except in him, for he is the one source of true life. Apart from him you will find only death and destruction.
Let him be the only source of your movements, of the actions and the strength of your life. He must be both the source and the purpose of your life, so that you may fulfill these words: None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master. While we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die, we die as his servants. Both in life and death we are the Lord's. That is why Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Living in Him through the Sacraments
Finally, you are one with Jesus as the body is one with the head. You must, then, have one breath with him, one soul, one life, one will, one mind, one heart. And he must be your breath, heart, love, life, your all. These great gifts in the follower of Christ originate from baptism. They are increased and strengthened through confirmation and by making good use of other graces that are given by God. Through the holy eucharist they are brought to perfection.
Philippians is written to a group of believers with whom Paul founded a church, during his second missionary journey in approximately AD 49. Philippi was a Roman colony, with believers consisting primarily of Gentiles. This letter, written about 12 years after the founding of the Philippian church, is largely a thank you letter to the Philippians. The main message of the Book of Philippians is for the Christian community in Philippi to be steadfast in faith and to express joy. Philippians is recognized as Paul's joyous epistle and is also known as the "friendship letter" because of its tone. However, because Paul wrote this letter during a time of house arrest in Rome, it includes the major theme of rejoicing during suffering.
