Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, our parish patronal feast. Although the actual celebration of this feast was this past Friday, June 12th, we are permitted to move the celebration to Sunday because it is our patronal feast.
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is a very powerful image of the love of Jesus Christ for all of us. The symbol of the “heart” is one that is very much used today almost to the point of overuse. People will insert the symbol of a heart in place of the word love. It seems now that people will just say the word “heart” for the symbol instead of the word “love.” This may seem very popular today, but somehow it takes away from the real meaning of what a person may wish to say by using the actual word “love.”
Love is a much overused word in our day and as a result it can lose much of its real meaning and purpose in our speech and in our lives. We use the word “love” to apply to many things, such as a favorite food, color, movie, book, picture, activity, other people, and God. Maybe our love for a person and God should not be described with the same word that we use for all the other things we are attracted to or enjoy having or doing.
Maybe this Feast of the Sacred Heart can afford us the opportunity to reflect more prayerfully on what we are saying when we use the word “love”. Jesus teaches us all about what love is by what He says to us, and more so by what He does for us. The image of the Sacred Heart shows us Jesus with His heart exposed and open to both giving us His infinite love and receiving our love in return. The image of the Sacred Heart reminds us of Jesus hanging on the cross when the soldier pierced His heart with the lance and water and blood poured out. These are familiar images in Catholic art and they depict very vividly the immense power of God’s love.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a feast that reminds us of all that Jesus has done for us in His love, as well as challenges us to grow in a greater love for Him and for others. The Sacred Heart is indeed at the very center of our Faith teaching us all that we need to know about the love of God. Love is best understood in the context of God’s love for us, which He showed us by first becoming one of us, and by suffering and dying on the cross and rising from the dead. This is what true love is all about. It has less to do with feelings of attraction and more to do with our willingness to give of ourselves.
The Sacred Heart shows us that love is best expressed in the willingness to sacrifice. There can really be no love unless there is a willingness to sacrifice for another. This is exactly how God loves us and this is the love He calls us to have for one another. So, before we say we “love” this or that, we should think about what we are really saying. When we say that we love another person, we need to be prepared to make sacrifices for them, whether those sacrifices be great or small, few or many, known to others or completely unknown to all except you and God.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus should be a part of our family life. Every home should have at least one image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus displayed prominently in the home. It is most appropriate and beneficial for a family to pray in front of this image of Jesus. Today in the bulletin you will find a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which has been blessed (so make sure it is not discarded in the trash) and is suitable for framing, as well. In addition, you will find prayers that can be said by the family to enthrone the Sacred Heart of Jesus in your home.
On June 6, we had a visit from Bishop Amos, our former auxiliary bishop and the retired bishop of Davenport, Iowa, to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation for 46 of our young people. Please keep them in your prayers. This is a very important time for these candidates, as it is the beginning of their adult formation in the Catholic Faith. Thanks to Fr. Joe Robinson, Deacon Rich, Maggie McCarron, and several volunteers who have developed a very fine program for the candidates after Confirmation.
