THE SACRED HEART REVEALS GOD'S LOVE


SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS 

Ezek 34:11-16; Ps 23; Rom 5: 5-11; Lk 15:3-7

The Sacred Heart for Repentant Sinners

The Church celebrates the solemn feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. The heart is a symbol of love. Hence, by this celebration, the Church invites her children to meditate on the love of God poured out on us through the human heart of the Son of Man. The selected readings are for this purpose. John the Beloved Apostle gave a concise definition of God when he said that God is love. The love God has for us we have explained to be a Trinitarian love, for the three Persons of the Trinity are united in showing unbounded love to us, men. Since the revelation of God belongs to the Son, his Incarnation is the unprecedented outpouring or demonstration of the love of God for man. Found in human nature, God poured out his love on us through the Sacred Heart of the Son of Man. The reading from the prophet Ezekiel is replete with symbols pointing to this outpouring of love for us. God compares himself to a shepherd looking after his flock. “I am going to look after my flock myself and keep all of it in view. As a shepherd keeps all his flock in view when he stands up in the middle of his scattered sheep, so shall I keep my sheep in view.” The Lord God accomplished this promise when he sent his Son to assume human nature to preach the Gospel of salvation to all. God keeps his whole flock in view by appearing in our nature. By his life, death, and resurrection, he has rescued us from all evil and gathered us from different countries to the mountain of Israel, the Church that is his body, where there are pastures in abundance.

The Psalmist helps us understand that God is truly our shepherd, and his words are our eternal pastures. “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want. Fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose. Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping spirit.” Saint Paul helps to interpret these symbols to mean Jesus Christ as the eternal pastures, for he reveals the Father to us, and the Holy Spirit as the restful waters, for he renews our spiritual life in God by making us alive in spirit to experience the love of the Father. “The love of God has been poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us. We were still helpless when at his appointed moment Christ died for sinful men.” The Father was present in his Son, who appeared in our mortal nature to rescue us from the powers of evil and chains of darkness of ignorance of God. By that same act of Incarnation, which made it possible for him to die for us and rise again with us to immortal life conferred by the knowledge of the Father, he brought us back to our homeland. These prove the love of God for us, as Paul explained, saying, “But what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.” Through the visible shepherd, we see the invisible shepherd, who is always present to us in love. The love that pours out from the heart of the visible shepherd leads us to the love of the Father. “Not merely because we have been reconciled but because we are filled with joyful trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.”

The reconciliation is what the love of the Sacred Heart represents for us. The Sacred Heart is not a symbol of judgment and condemnation, but a symbol of love poured out. It is the symbol of consecration or sacrifice of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to our salvation. It shows that God is not holding back anything but sacrificing everything for our love and salvation. The priority placed on our salvation by God in his love for us causes the whole heaven to rejoice at the repentance of a soul. “In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance.” Since there are no such ninety-nine virtuous men, our Lord implies here that the whole heaven practically rejoices constantly as we get converted daily. There is no such collection of ninety-nine virtuous men, for each of us commits sins against the Sacred Heart of Jesus daily, by our thoughts and deeds, actions and inactions. For this reason, the Church describes herself as dark but beautiful, the Church of repentant sinners. Thus, the celebration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a joyful day for us, for in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we experience the assurance of forgiveness and love. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You.

Let us pray: Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who glory in the Heart of your beloved Son and recall the wonders of his love for us, may be made worthy to receive an overflowing measure of grace from that fount of heavenly gifts. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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