So often, in today’s culture, we associate the heart with affections, emotions and other sentiments, but in the bible, the heart has a much deeper meaning. When we encounter the heart in the bible, it indicates the core of the person’s being. In the bible, the heart is the interior reality of the person, and so today’s feast of the Sacred Heart invites us to the core of Christ, not simply to recall the wonders of His love, but also to receive the overflowing measure of grace that He extends to each of us.
In today’s gospel, we hear St. John recount how blood and water flowed from the pierced heart of Jesus on the cross. From the core of His being flows water and blood, which the early Church understood to be the cleansing water of baptism, which makes us pure, and the gift of His body and blood in the Holy Eucharist, which redeems us. It is from the Sacred Heart of Christ hanging on the cross that we are both redeemed and saved. This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “as Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam’s side, so the Church was formed from the pierced heart of Christ hanging from the cross.”[1]
Today’s gospel is a staunch reminder that we cannot separate Christ’s Sacred Heart from the Church. While there can be a temptation to “create a Christianity of thoughts and ideas divorced from the reality of the flesh-sacrifice and servant,”[2] the Sacred heart beacons us right here to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where Christ offers the totality of who He is for us. The Sacred Heart calls us then to pick up our cross and follow Christ through the cross to light.
This devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is intimately united to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Eucharistic adoration. For you see, every time we witness the consecration at Mass, what was once bread and wine, becomes the whole Christ with His human heart. Every time, we come to adore the blessed sacrament we adore Christ with His human heart.
This connection between the Holy Eucharist and devotion to the Sacred Heart is seen clearly in history too. While devotion to the Sacred Heart had been around for centuries prior, it became popular when St. Margaret Mary Alacoque had a personal revelation, involving a series of visions of Christ as she prayed before the Blessed Sacrament. It was there in eucharistic adoration, as she prayed before His Sacred Heart, between 1673 and 1675, that Christ emphasized His love and His woundedness by man’s indifference to His love. In those revelations Christ offered to us the First Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart, which calls us to frequently receive Holy Communion, make a weekly Holy Hour, receive the sacrament of confession, attend Mass on the first Friday of the month, and to celebrate the fest of the Sacred Heart.
Friends, it is in the Eucharist that Christ gives totally of Himself for us. Yet, this love of Christ is not some mere sentiment, no, this love came at the price of His own blood. Adoring the Heart of Christ, which was pierced for us calls us to repentance and reparation. This offering of Christ’s entire being, is constantly pushing and nudging our hearts to conform to His most Sacred Heart.
That love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus thus demands a response and not merely a sentimental response, but a response from our heart, a response from our whole being. But how are we to respond to this love that Christ has for us? Well in the same way He offers His love to us, by offering our lives to Him. Just as Christ sacrificed for us, His most Sacred Heart invites us to conform, surrender, and sacrifice our wills to His.
So today, as we gather in this beautiful chapel to celebrate the Mass of the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart, we find ourselves here at the foot of the cross, where Christ’s heart was pierced for us. We give thanks to God for offering us the sacraments for our sanctification and redemption and we commit ourselves to a deeper devotion to the Sacred Heart through the frequent reception of Holy Communion, the monthly reception of the sacrament confession, and through a commitment to spending time before the Sacred Heart of our Lord in eucharistic adoration. Friends, the Eucharist is the Sacred Heart and so if we want to adore His Sacred Heart let us begin by renewing our devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist.
[1] John Paul II, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., (Washington DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2011), sec. 766.
[2] Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal. Jesus of Nazareth Part II. San Francisco: Ignatius Press,2011. Pg 226
Through The Cross To Light 