The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
(Ezekiel 34:11-16; Romans 5:5b-11; Luke 15:3-7)
Long before the ubiquitous souvenir of New York was
conceived, images of a heart were seen in many Catholic homes. The heart belonged to Jesus but the image
indicated that he wanted to share it with others. To put it simply, the heart of Jesus indicated
belief in his eternal love for the household.
All the readings of today’s mass tell the extent that the love will go.
For a long time the reading from Romans was understood as
saying that God had made it possible for Christians to love Him. As busy as people get in this world, it does
seem like a supernatural feat to think about and then to love God. But Paul actually has God’s love for His
daughters and sons in mind in this particular passage. This purely unmerited love moved Jesus to die
on the cross. It now fills Christians’
heart so that they may freely do what is right and so merit heaven.
Always falling on a Friday, the feast of the Sacred Heart
gives us reason to contemplate Jesus love and then to imitate it. Sometimes it means just being patient with
those around us like a middle-aged man whose wife has been diagnosed with
terminal cancer. Under intensive
treatments, the wife has become irritable with her husband, but he patiently continues
to care for her. Such grace will enable
the woman to die in peace, and the man to live with peace of mind for a long time.
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