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 27, 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.”
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 give us both His infinite love and receive our love in return. The image of the Sacred Heart reminds us of the 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 both 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, a few or many, known to others or completely unknown to all except you and God. The greatest expression of God’s love for us is His becoming a human being like us in all things except sin. Then He offered His life for us on the cross. This love is celebrated and made present at every Mass. So going to Mass every Sunday is the most important thing we do on this earth.
This Friday is the Fourth of July, and we will celebrate 249 years of independence. As we celebrate Independence Day, it is good to reflect on the great freedom we enjoy in the United States of America. There has never been a country like ours in the history of the world. We live in a truly great country and as citizens of the United States of America we have every reason to be proud of what this country stands for and the principles on which it was founded.
So many brave men and women have done so much to make this a great country, many going even so far as to sacrifice their lives for the freedom we enjoy. We should be humbled by the sacrifice that so many have made for us and future generations. If we are to pass the same heritage on to our children and grandchildren, we must make certain that America remains faithful to the principles on which she was founded.
Let us remember that our freedom is given to us by God and that we are all His children no matter where we come from. Every human being should enjoy the God-given freedom that is ours from the moment of conception to natural death. This is God’s plan and His will. The great men and women who founded this country knew and believed in God. They looked to Him for guidance and strength and so must we today. If we turn away from God as a nation and no longer trust in Him, then we cannot expect to continue to enjoy the freedom we have for the past 249 years.
Pray for our country. There is much division in our midst that can only be healed by the grace of God and our willingness to turn to Him looking to the example of Jesus in the Gospel. Without God we can do nothing and with Him all things are possible. IN GOD WE TRUST!
A BIG THANK YOU to Fr. Joe Robinson and to all who participated in our Corpus Christi Procession last Sunday. It was truly a great show of our faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
