6/27/2014 – Solemnity of Sacred Heart of Jesus – Friday of 12th week in Ordinary time - Matthew 11:25-30

       Each time that we gather around the Lord’s table for mass as a community of faith, we celebrate the love that God has for us in a special way.   Today’s solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus always falls 19 days after Pentecost, which is always on a Friday.  The Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the most beloved religious devotions in our Church, as it sees Jesus’ physical heart as a symbol of the love that he has for all of humanity.  Many saints have contributed to our understanding of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, especially St. Margaret Mary Alacoque of the Visitation Sisters of Holy Mary.  Her visions of Jesus in the 17^th century conveyed this message: “Look at this Heart which has loved you so much, and yet you do not want to love Me in return. Through you My Divine Heart wishes to spread its love everywhere on earth.” 

      As we contemplate Jesus’ Sacred Heart, our own hearts are 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 wrote about how Christ became the door for our 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, where we can 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.  As Jesus tells us today to come to him for rest, we who are labored and burdened, may Christ’s Sacred Heart call us to true devotion and love for him.