Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Lectionary: 172

The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Romans 5:5

I knew a woman several years ago who had heart surgery. She was blessed with acute hearing and the continual click of her metallic heart valve worried her. She feared her grandchildren might not want to rest against her chest when they heard that weird sound. I suggested she tell the children it was the sound of her love for them. She liked that.

Despite its outdated images -- maudlin, at best and often ghastly -- the Sacred Heart celebrates a most sacred and beautiful mystery, the personal care of God for every person. After suffering the trauma of our Savior's Good Friday passion and death, after celebrating his Easter Resurrection with a billion fellow Christians and all the saints and angels, the devout soul, on this mid-summer Friday after Corpus Christi, may rest her head against the bosom of Jesus and, like the Beloved Disciple, listen to his sacred heart.

In that divine place we hear today's first reading,

I myself will look after and tend my sheep.

As a shepherd tends his flock

when he finds himself among his scattered sheep,

so will I tend my sheep.

I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered

when it was cloudy and dark.

Some tormented souls, perhaps remembering the parents who neglected them and the teachers who ignored them, think that God is too busy to notice them. "He has other, more important things to do!" they say.

I reply, "Your God is too small. Our God has a heart which engulfs the Universe; but his eye is on the sparrow."

There is, of course, a challenge with the invitation of the Sacred Heart. Am I willing to be comforted in my disappointments, traumas and suffering? Or do I cling to a stoic approach, rising above human emotion, disdaining the company of huddled masses and wretched refuse. Stoicism looks good from a distance. His uniform is clean and crisp; his bearing upright and martial. Up close we find addictions to cigarettes, alcohol, anger and hate. If the image of the Sacred Heart is maudlin, at least it's not sneering.

As hard as it may be, each of us must admit we need comfort. We may not deserve it; we might not earn it, but we may receive it from the One who pours the Holy Spirit into our hearts.

Saint Paul pondered this mystery of comfort at the beginning of 2 Corinthians, which followed his "letter of tears."

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God. For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow.

Saint Paul was able to comfort because he had been comforted. Jesus, also, encourages us in every affliction because the Blessed Mother consoled him on the road to Calvary, and the Father gladdened him in the Resurrection.

Turning to the Sacred Heart on this mid-summer Friday, we thank God for the traumas we have survived, the assurances we have received, and our gentle ministry to one another.