2016/06/03 — Solemnity of the Sacred Heart

The Feast (technically a solemnity) of the Sacred Heart of Jesus has its roots in medieval devotion to the Five Wounds of Jesus Christ — the last of which is the piercing of his heart by the soldier's lance. The greatest impetus for its becoming a liturgical celebration came from St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who in the 1670's reported visions of Jesus in which he spoke to her of his Sacred Heart. Especially since 1856, the devotion has been strongly supported by various Popes.


Devotion to the Sacred Heart is based on the heart as the symbol of love. Thus it is a reminder of God's love for us, manifest in the Son of God's taking on of human flesh for the sake of our redemption.


This year's first reading is Ezekiel 34:11-17. The Lord promises the people that he will bring them back from exile to the promised land. He uses the image of himself as a shepherd gathering his sheep who have been scattered.


The responsorial psalm — Psalm 23, with verse 1 as the refrain — expresses our confidence in God as our shepherd who provides for us.


The second reading — Romans 5:5b-11 — tells us of God's love for us in action: the self-sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us sinners. God loves us despite our sinfulness and wills to redeem us. As Jesus says, there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for another.


The gospel this year is Luke 15:3-7. Here we return to the shepherd imagery. The shepherd seeks out and brings home the lost sheep. As in the passage from Ezekiel, the action is that of the shepherd. The scattered sheep of Ezekiel and the lost sheep of Jesus do not find their way home on their own: the shepherd finds them and brings them back. These passages assure us of what St. Paul tells us directly: God's love is directed to each of us; none of us is outside his love.

2015/06/12 — Solemnity of the Sacred Heart

I've decided to do an extra post in my series on the scriptures proclaimed at Mass. The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is never celebrated on a Sunday: it is on the third Friday after Pentecost (a week and a day after Corpus Christi's traditional date). But it is of a higher rank in the Church's calendar than the Sundays of Ordinary Time, so I think it deserves attention.

The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus has its roots in medieval devotion to the Five Wounds of Jesus Christ — the last of which is the piercing of his heart by the soldier's lance. The greatest impetus for its becoming a liturgical celebration came from St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who in the 1670's reported visions of Jesus in which he spoke to her of his Sacred Heart. Especially since 1856, the devotion has been strongly supported by various Popes.


Devotion to the Sacred Heart is based on the heart as the symbol of love. Thus it is a reminder of God's love for us, manifest in the Son of God's taking on of human flesh for the sake of our redemption.


This year's first reading is Hosea 11:1, 3-4, 8c-9. The prophet quotes the Lord as recalling his rescue of Israel from Egypt. Verses not included in the reading tell of Israel's infidelity and of the exile. Then the Lord says that he cannot let anger at the people's infidelity overcome him. "My heart is overwhelmed." He will rescue them. The love of God for his people is like that of a parent for his or her child.

The mention of the Exodus reminds Christians of the saving action of Jesus who, by his death and resurrection, delivers us from slavery to sin. The tenderness of God toward his people is represented for us by the Sacred Heart.


The responsorial psalm — Isaiah 12:2-5 — is our joyful response to God's forgiveness and the salvation he brings. This is something we must make known to all.


The second reading — Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19 — is Paul's praise of the "loving wisdom of our God" (as Bl. John Henry Newman put it). The love of Christ surpasses knowledge. God's fatherhood is the exemplar of all parenthood. Paul (and we) must proclaim the joyful message of God's love, manifest in Jesus, to the nations. (This passage — esp. v. 17 — reminds me of the Carter Family song "Anchored in Love.")


The gospel this year is John 19:31-37, the account of the piercing of Jesus's heart. Those who were crucified had a piece of wood on which they could place their feet. Their bodies hung by their wrists, which impede breathing, but they could raise themselves using the footrest and thereby draw a breath. Ultimately, they were too weak to do so and died by asphyxiation. It could take several days for a strong person to succumb. Breaking the legs prevented them from taking full breaths any more and thus hastened death.

John sees the piercing of Jesus' side without the breaking of his legs as fulfilling two scripture passages. Exodus 12:46, forbids the breaking of any bones of the Paschal Lamb. Thus Jesus is seen as the sacrificial lamb whose blood saves us from death. (See also Psalm 34:20-21, which promises that the Lord delivers the just, so that not one of their bones shall be broken.) Zechariah 12:10 gives the prophecy that "they shall look on him whom they have thrust through." In context, it speaks of general mourning for this one, but this is in a broader context of the conferral of a spirit of "grace and petition" on the family of David and the people of Jerusalem, of purification from sin, and of rescue from Jerusalem's enemies. Commentators see similarities between this figure and the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 who gives his life to bear the burden of the sins of the people.

In a way, this passage recalls the origin of the feast in devotion to the Five Wounds of Christ, and specifically to the pierced side and heart of Jesus.


The merciful, parental love of God for all his people is made manifest above all in the death of Jesus on the cross for our sake, including the piercing of his Sacred Heart: the symbol of that love. It's up to us to announce this love, to manifest it in our lives.

End of Holiday Season; Canada Day; Our Crosses

End of Holiday Season.  This year, the Church calendar had seven major feast days ("solemnities") in the period from May 17 through June 29. All but the last two are based on the date of Easter, and can shift about 2 1/2 weeks earlier or later than they were this year. This year, they were about in the middle of their possible range. So we celebrated —
May 17 — Ascension
May 27  — Pentecost
June 3 — Trinity
June 10 — Corpus Christi  (in many countries its original Thursday date, June 7 this year, is retained)
June 15 — Sacred Heart of Jesus
June 24 — St. John the Baptist
June 29 — Sts. Peter & Paul

I had a whole lot of celebrating to do (even aside from the point that the entire Easter season — April 8 to May 27 this year — is one big celebration, but you can't really party every day). Now there is no comparable concentration of big days until November-January, when from November 25 through January 6 we'll celebrate Christ the King, Immaculate Conception, Christmas, Mary Mother of God, and Epiphany.

Canada Day.  On July 1, 1867, the British North America Act came into effect, making Canada independent as a Dominion in the British Empire. Happy Canada Day to all!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsHSVE5d3sc&feature=related

Our Crosses.  I happen to be reading a book written several years ago by Cardinal Dolan when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee, To Whom Shall We Go? It is a series of reflections on St. Peter's words and actions as told in the New Testament, and I'm at the part where he writes about Peter trying to dissuade Jesus from being crucified. Cardinal Dolan says that we also have to resist the temptation to avoid the crosses in our own lives: the struggles and hardships and difficulties which we must endure if we are to live as we ought.

Symbol of God's Love: The Sacred Heart of Jesus

For centuries, a devotion to the heart of Jesus as a symbol of his love for humanity has developed in the Catholic Church. In the 13th Century the mystic St. Gertrude the Great wrote of her visions of Jesus in which she was allowed to hear the beating of his heart. As time went on, other saints also supported the devotion. But it was not until the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 1670's, publicized by Charles de la Colombière, that the devotion seems to have really caught on with the public.

In its essence, the devotion takes the general idea of the heart as seat of emotions in general, and of love in particular, and applies it rather straightforwardly to Jesus. Thus the heart of Jesus is seen as the apt symbol of his love for his fellow humans. But since in Christian belief Jesus is God as well as man, his love is not merely a human love but God's love. So the Sacred Heart of Jesus means God's love — the love spoken of in 1 John 4:16 (God is love…) and John 3:16 (God so loved the world…).

That this is a saving love is underscored by the passage, read at Mass today, which tells of Jesus' crucifixion and a soldier thrusting his lance into Jesus' side and blood and water flowing out. (John 19:31-37) Thus the love represented by his heart is the love by which he gave himself up to death for our redemption.

From time to time, there are people who say that Jesus did not die for all, that there are some people who are inevitably damned, people whom God does not want to save. This can be an abstract theory. It can also take another form in the words of self-styled Christians who proclaim that "God hates homosexuals." The message of the Sacred Heart is that God loves all people,  that his salvation is available to all. (1 Timothy 2:4) It encourages all of us not to despair. No matter what we have done, God's love is there, and we can accept it. God does not hate us. Let's not hate him. And we realize that those who say God hates homosexuals have not understood the meaning of Jesus.

Today, the third Friday after Pentecost, is the day on which the Catholic Church celebrates the Sacred Heart. At Mass this morning the priest recalled the Morning Offering prayer which he learned as a boy and recites every day. His wording differs slightly from that in this link, but it is substantially the same.

There is also a Litany of the Sacred Heart. Litanies are a form of prayer in which invocations, usually stated by a leader, are responded to by all present. In private, one does both parts. In the linked version, the leader says what is in the left column, and the others present respond with what is to the right. The leader recites the prayer at the end, and all say "Amen." Seeing all the ways in which the heart of Jesus can be thought of, gives one an idea of the meaning of this devotion.