Solemnity of the
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
(Deuteronomy &:6-11; I John4:7-16; Matthew 11:25-30)
Certainly we all need to be loved. We need to feel important to someone. We need
to be cared for. Increasingly people,
not feeling this need met with those around them, stretch out through the
Internet to find others who care. Of
course, the assurance such virtual relationship give is tenuous. When the reality of a personal encounter
approaches, the old insecurities can take over.
We Christians claim that our need for love is satisfied
by God. He loves us despite our faults
or, better, with our faults because, as a cynic once said, His business is to
love. But we do not mean to say that the
love of God avoids the moment of truth from interpersonal relationship. No, God’s love grounds us for personal
encounters in the community of which we are members.
Today we celebrate the love of God for us. The Sacred Heart of Jesus represents this
love which encompasses at one time each and all of us. It offers us the Church, the Body of Christ
celebrated this past Sunday, as its physical embodiment to both manifest its
care for us and to elicit from us a fitting response. If we do not love in return, the love that God
has given us would be fruitless. It
would not have made us into the productive, life-giving subjects that we are
meant to be.
