Divine Appeal Reflection - 44
Today, consider in Divine Appeal 44: "With tears I bow down My head after gazing on My own ministers who are celebrating."
With unspeakable tenderness, Our Adorable Jesus bows His Head—not in defeat, but in sorrowful fidelity. He gazes upon His ministers and weeps, because the heart meant to celebrate Heaven has learned to rejoice too easily in earth. Scripture (cf. Isa 29:13) already trembles with this grief: a people who honored God with lips while their hearts wandered elsewhere . Christ’s tears fall when celebrations are shaped more by calendars of sport, political victories, ethnic pride, and social acclaim than by the Paschal Mystery. The altar remains, the words are spoken, yet the interior sanctuary is crowded. The Catechism reminds us that the ordained are sacramentally configured to Christ to act in His Person, not as representatives of worldly passions (cf. CCC 1548–1551). Jesus weeps because ministers celebrate social media influence, goals scored, offices won, and alliances secured with greater animation than the Eucharistic Gift silently offered. Practically, this disordered joy forms hearts: priests discussing teams more than the Gospel; bishops weighed down by political optics; deacons tempted to identify first as citizens of factions rather than servants of the Altar. St. Paul’s cry resounds: “Is Christ divided?” (cf. 1 Cor 1). Christ bows His Head because every misplaced celebration slowly catechizes the people into believing that Christ is secondary. His tears plead for reordered love—not joy abolished, but joy crucified and risen.
Jesus weeps because celebration has been separated from fasting, pleasure from penance. The world teaches ministers to enjoy without restraint, to feast daily while avoiding the holy hunger that keeps the soul awake. Scripture warns that feasting without conversion hardens the heart (cf. Amos 6). Christ bows His Head when His ministers celebrate while the discipline of the body is neglected and the Cross is politely ignored. The Catechism teaches that penance, fasting, and self-denial remain essential to conversion (cf. CCC 1434–1438). Yet practically, fasting is dismissed as extreme, simplicity as unnecessary, sacrifice as outdated. Saints knew otherwise: John the Baptist lived on little so that God might be everything; Francis embraced poverty to guard joy. Jesus weeps because ministers handle the Bread of Life without tasting hunger for God. Daily delicacies numb spiritual urgency; constant comfort dulls reverence. For priests, small hidden fasts restore interior authority. For bishops, simplicity becomes prophetic governance. For deacons and laity alike, restraint reorders desire. Christ bows His Head not to shame, but to awaken: without voluntary emptiness, celebration loses its redemptive weight. The altar was born on Calvary, not at a banquet of excess.
Our Adorable Jesus weeps when celebration bends under political pressure and ethnic allegiance. Like Pilate, truth is often sacrificed for peace with power (cf. Jn 19). Christ bows His Head when ministers celebrate neutrality while injustice speaks loudly, when ethnic loyalty shapes pastoral decisions more than the universality of the Gospel. Scripture condemns shepherds who scatter rather than gather (cf. Ezek 34). The Catechism (cf. CCC 2246; 2032) insists that pastors must illuminate consciences and resist ideological captivity . Yet fear of losing influence tempts silence. Jesus weeps because the altar is asked to coexist with hatred, corruption, and violence without prophetic grief. Saints like Ambrose confronted emperors; Oscar Romero preached despite mortal danger. Practically, Christ’s tears call bishops to speak as fathers, not politicians; priests to preach conversion without calculation; deacons to serve without tribal favoritism. For families and communities, refusing ethnic contempt becomes Eucharistic witness. Celebration that avoids truth becomes complicity. Jesus bows His Head because love without truth betrays souls. His tears sanctify every courageous word spoken from the altar in a hostile age.
Christ also weeps when sacred celebration is subtly converted into a ladder of ascent—toward power, visibility, and self-assertion—rather than a descent into service and self-emptying. Even in the shadow of the Last Supper, (cf. Lk 22:24–27) with the chalice of the New Covenant still warm in His hands, the disciples disputed about greatness , revealing how quickly proximity to mystery can be distorted into rivalry. So too today, Jesus bows His Head when ministry is weighed by applause, numbers, titles, and influence rather than by conformity to the Crucified. Yet ambition easily disguises itself in pastoral vocabulary, cloaking self-seeking in the language of mission. The Catechism teaches that ecclesial authority exists only to serve, never to dominate, (cf. CCC 876) for it participates in the pastoral charity of Christ Himself . The saints perceived this danger with holy fear. Gregory the Great trembled before episcopal office, calling it a burden that endangered the soul; Thérèse of Lisieux fled visibility, choosing littleness as her surest path to truth. Practically, Christ weeps when promotions are anticipated more eagerly than sanctity, when platforms are cultivated more carefully than prayer,(cf. Mt 6:1–6) when recognition is desired more than fidelity in hidden obedience . Even the liturgy, the Church’s highest act, can be reduced to performance when reverence yields to display and offering is eclipsed by self-expression (cf. Phil 2:5–8). For priests, choosing obscurity consoles the Heart of Christ more than eloquence devoid of humility. For bishops, bending low to hear the least restores the shape of true governance (cf. Mk 10:42–45). For lay leaders, serving without being seen purifies intention and aligns action with grace. Jesus bows His Head because He Himself chose the downward path—hidden years in Nazareth (cf. Lk 2:51), silence before accusers (cf. Isa 53:7), (cf. Jn 6:51) glory veiled in Bread . Celebration united to Christ always descends before it rises; only what passes through humility can be lifted into true glory.
Our Adorable Jesus weeps not from weakness but from wounded love when sacred celebration tolerates irreverence, division, and a cultivated silence before moral evil. The prophets already unveiled this grief: God turns away from solemn assemblies when hands lifted in worship remain unwashed by repentance and justice (cf. Isa 1:11–17; Amos 5:21–24). In the same sorrow, Christ bows His Head when the Holy Sacrifice proceeds as habit while charity withers,(cf. 1 Cor 11:27–30) when scandals are absorbed into normalcy rather than met with fasting and reparation , when confessionals fall silent yet ceremonial splendor multiplies. The Church is holy because Christ is holy, (cf. CCC 827; 1427) yet she journeys through history always in need of purification and continual conversion . This is not condemnation but a Eucharistic appeal. Practically, reverence must be restored not as nostalgia but as truth: silence that allows God to speak (cf. Hab 2:20), preaching that wounds in order to heal (cf. 2 Tim 4:2), kneeling hearts that confess dependence before Majesty (cf. Phil 2:10–11). Ministers must celebrate as men standing between heaven and earth, conscious that souls are entrusted to their fidelity (cf. Heb 5:1–3). Families must re-teach awe; youth must rediscover that Christ is not one interest among many but the axis upon which all meaning turns (cf. Col 1:16–18). Yet His tears remain an appeal of hope. Jesus still believes His priests can love Him above applause, power, tribe, and ideology. When Christ is truly placed first—believed, adored, obeyed—the Church heals from within. Then the bowed Head of the Crucified is lifted, the Sacrament is received with fear and love, and joy, no longer fragile, becomes eternal
Prayer
Our Adorable Jesus, bowed and weeping before disordered celebrations, reorder our hearts. Free Your ministers from worldly loves that eclipse You. Restore fasting, truth, reverence, and courage at Your altar. May we celebrate Christ alone—crucified and risen—until Your tears are turned into glory. Amen.
Sr. Anna Ali of the Most Holy Eucharist, intercede for us.
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