Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)
I am often asked what it means to make reparation or to be, as we say here at the monastery, a reparator. To be a reparator is to give Our Lord Jesus Christ what others deny Him; it is offer Him what other souls refuse to give Him, not in condemnation of such souls, but by identifying with them, and by representing them before Our Lord.
Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst. (John 19:28)
Long ago, Our Lord said, "I thirst" -- yet that thirst continues, not yet quenched, because it is a thirst for souls and for the faith, and love, and adoration, and hope, and thanksgiving, and confidence that only souls can offer Him freely. The terrible thirst of Our Lord's Passion will continue until the end of time, but so too will the call to reparation continue to enliven His Church with souls who will offer themselves in the name of their brethren, to quench His thirst, and to comfort His grieving Heart.
Between the porch and the altar the priests the Lord's ministers shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people: and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God? (Joel 2:17)
The Sacrament of Love is rightly the object of reparation because it is there that Our Lord suffers the coldness, the indifference, the ingratitude, and the irreverence of men, beginning with His priests. For this reason, reparation must begin with His priests, with priests who will adore Him and, in adoring Him, offer themselves to His Heart as victims of reparation and of love.
I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled? (Luke 12:49)
Those who offer themselves to Our Lord Jesus Christ, in this way, will experience the consuming fire of His merciful love making of them a holocaust of love to Love. Our Lord will send upon them the fire of the Holy Ghost, not to destroy utterly, but to purify, leaving nothing, after its flames have done their work, but what is wholly acceptable to Him and pleasing to His Father.