In communion with the entire Dehonian family through Eucharistic adoration in memory of the 101st anniversary of the death of Venerable Jean-Léon Dehon, our founder, we re-read his meditation on the kingdom of Jesus Christ, whose codes, according to him, are "Gentleness and humility, patience and charity."
This is the teaching of the entire Gospel. God united the Incarnate Word to His kingship and entrusted Him with governing heaven and earth: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. – All things have been handed over to me by my Father,” says Our Lord in Saint Matthew (chapters 28 and 11). “The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. – My Father, my disciples were yours, but you gave them to me,” Our Lord also says in Saint John (chapters 3 and 17). “His Father put everything under his subjection and appointed him head over the whole Church,” says Saint Paul to the Ephesians (cf. Eph 1:22).
“It is not to angels that God has subjected the world to come,” says Saint Paul to the Hebrews (Heb 2:5 ff.). But he says of it in a passage of Scripture (Ps 8): “What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet.”
In putting everything under him, the Apostle adds, God left nothing that is not subject to him.
Our Lord Himself described to us His kingship of love: Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of Heart. The prophet had said to Zion: “See, your king comes to you full of gentleness” (Zech 9:9).
Infinite meekness, gentleness, and humility of heart—such is the character of our divine king Jesus. His yoke is easy, his burden is light, and near him there is consolation and relief: “Come to me, all you who suffer” [cf. Mt 11:28].
At Calvary, the cross is His throne; the spear is His scepter; the blood of His Heart covers His whole body like a purple robe.
The inscription on the cross proclaims His kingship to all ages: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” [Jn 19:19]. It is the reign of love, the reign of the Sacred Heart.
What is the code of this kingdom? Gentleness and humility, patience and charity—this is its whole law.
This kingdom has a sacred banner: first, it is the cross; it is the Crucified One whose chest is pierced by the spear. Then the Crucified One Himself draws back the curtain and shows us, in His chest, His open Heart, and this sacred Heart becomes a second sign added to the cross: a sign intended to mark a new outpouring of the Savior’s love, an ever more pressing request for love, a request for reparation and sacrifice out of love.
The reign of Christ becomes the love of the Sacred Heart.
(Source: L’année avec le Sacré-Cœur 8/223-224.228-230)
Ritual for Eucharistic Adoration in Memory of the Death of Venerable Jean-Léon Dehon
