12 Jun 2015
Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of
Jesus
In most Catholic churches, the main piece of art in the
sanctuary is a crucifix. We don’t have
that here. Instead, we have the statue
of our patron, the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
And yet, it isn’t quite right to say the crucifix is not here. And that’s because the Sacred Heart of Jesus
is what’s behind the crucifix; it’s
what led him to the Cross; it’s the indomitable Spirit of divine Love poured
out.
The bleeding Heart of Jesus and the open wound on Jesus’ side
from which blood and water flow are the same.
The human body of Christ is broken open as is the divine Spirit of
Christ—they both overflow with blood, with life
and divine love. And this gush of Body and Spirit is the love
of the Bridegroom for his Bride, the Church.
Some people jokingly say that their wedding day was their
funeral. But for Jesus, his funeral—his
crucifixion—was his wedding day. It was
the day and the place that he gave himself, definitively, to the Church, his
Bride given to him by God the Father. And
behind that act of spiritual and bodily love for us is the Most Sacred Heart of
Jesus.
His love is not given in a spirit of sentimentality, as we so
often take “love” to be today. Instead,
the sacredness of his love is that it is unconditional; it is freely given and
sacrificial; completely selfless and given for the good of those who are open
to receive it. This kind of love is,
ideally, seen in marriage, in the family, within intimate friendships. And this relational, sacrificial love is
central to the Sacred Heart.
The image of husband and wife, where God is the husband and
Israel is the wife, is a thread that runs throughout the Old Testament
prophets. So, too, is the image of a
parent’s love for a child. The prophet
Hosea speaks of God who “fostered [Ephraim] like one who raises an infant to
his cheeks.” It’s a touching image, one
that has a sentimental and emotional aspect to it. But beneath that is the more primordial, unconditionally
devoted love of a parent for a child. We
adore God. But it’s important to
remember that God adores us first. That
divine adoration is his Sacred Heart poured out for us.
But Hosea notes also that, although God “stooped to feed
[his] child, they did not know that I was their healer.” The love of God was not acknowledged nor
returned with any gratitude. And that’s
the overarching story of Scripture; it’s the story of the whole of salvation
history. God loves us and creates
us. For a time, humanity returns his
love. But then we go on this roller
coaster relationship of fidelity and infidelity. We are faithful. We are unfaithful.
But the Sacred Heart of Jesus pours out one last definitive
show of divine love for us. And we have
the crucifixion, the wedding day when Christ the Bridegroom pours out his love
for his Bride the Church. The day when
his Sacred Heart moved him to give his whole body, his whole being in love to
the Bride, to us. And he says to us:
“Return to me.”
That’s the message of the prophets, the message of Christ’s
teachings, the message of our Scripture and Tradition as a whole: return to
God. Entrust ourselves to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus, to that love which knows no limits, which is eternally
forgiving, which is kind, gracious, and merciful.
This is the prayer of St. Paul when he writes to the
Ephesians. He kneels before the Father
interceding for us so that we might “know the love of Christ which surpasses
knowledge, . . . [and] be filled with all the fullness of God.” In effect, his prayer is that we be able to
pray the psalm from today: “God indeed is my savior; I am confident and
unafraid. My strength and my courage is
the Lord, and he has been my savior.”
And he shows himself our Savior on the Cross. There, his Sacred Heart is poured out in
sacrificial love: the Bridegroom gives himself to the Bride. And he says to her—he says to us: Come to
me. Follow me, whose Heart is aflame
with love for you.
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