Solemnity of the Most
Sacred Heart of Jesus
June 23, 2017 9:30am
Saint Mary, Pylesville
Today’s feast of the Sacred Heart
of Jesus reveals something very warm about Jesus and God.
Saint John in the second reading
speaks of God’s love for us.
God’s heart, the Sacred Heart is
one of complete love for humanity – so much so that God sent His only Son into
the world.
This reading brings a fuller and
even corrected understanding to the first reading, the Old Testament passage.
On the one hand, that passage speaks
beautifully of God’s faithfulness and covenant with his people.
But on the other hand, it also
speaks of God destroying those who do not keep his covenant.
With the coming of the fullness
of revelation in Jesus, we would say that God – who is love – does not destroy,
but that we injure ourselves when we ignore or disobey the way of Jesus.
That is a big and important
distinction in the way we understand God.
The Sacred Heart, full of love,
keeps drawing us to himself and wanting only what is good for us and never
injures, much less destroys us.
That is the way of perfect love.
And the other insight I want to
highlight is again from our second reading
Saint John says: “In this is love, not that we have loved God
but that he has loved us.”
So God has taken the initiative
in loving us.
And in loving us, the Sacred
Heart has planted the love of his heart in us, and now we are to accept that
and live out of that.
So, things that we do for the well-being
of others, our compassion or empathy, our generosity with the poor – these are
actions flowing from God’s love within us that has transformed us and moved us
to live in this way.
That is the power and effect of
the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
