24 June 2022 - Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – John 19:31-37

       Each time that we gather around the Lord’s table for mass as a community of faith, we celebrate God’s love for us in a special way. Today’s celebration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus falls 19 days after Pentecost, so it always falls on a Friday. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a beloved religious devotion in our Church, as it sees Jesus’ physical heart as a symbol of the love that he has for humanity.  Many saints have contributed to our understanding of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  I most associate the Sacred Heart with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French Visitation Nun of Holy Mary from the 17th century.  Her visions of Jesus conveyed this message: “Look at this heart which has loved men so much, and yet men do not want to love me in return. Through you, my Divine Heart wishes to spread its love everywhere on earth.” Devotion to the Sacred Heat goes back to the Medieval period.  In the 12th century, St Bernard of Clairvaux stated that the piercing of Christ's side reveals the goodness and charity of his heart for us. The earliest known hymn to the Sacred Heart is "Summi Regis Cor Aveto" written by the Norbertine Hermann Joseph von Steinfeld in the 13th century in  Cologne, Germany. The hymn begins: "I hail Thee kingly Heart most high."

       As we reflect upon Jesus’ Sacred Heart, our own hearts are to be touched by his death on a cross, by the way the soldier thrust a lance into his side, out of which blood and water flowed.  St Augustine of Hippo wrote about how Christ is the door through which we enter for salvation, how that door was opened for us by his death and resurrection, by the soldier’s lance that opened up his side.  We choose where we want to enter Christ, to enter from his side as he hung dying upon the cross, the side from which the blood and water flowed.  The purification we receive from Christ is the water that flowed from his side.  The redemption we receive from Christ is the blood that was shed for us.  

     In his encyclical On Devotion to the Sacred Heart, Pope Pius XII calls the Sacred Heart of Jesus “a symbol of that divine love which he shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit but which he, the Word made flesh, alone manifests through a weak and perishable body, since in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily."  May the Sacred Heart of Jesus call us to a life of holiness today.  May it call us to true devotion and love for Christ Our Savior.