Today is the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the readings are so beautiful and help us reflect on the love that God has for each and every one of us, and the love that He calls us to love each other through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, his Son, and in the Holy Spirit.
Before the 6:30 Mass this morning, at Saint Mary Cathedral, I had the blessed opportunity to lead the congregation in praying the Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (image below) and the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that the U.S. Bishops have asked all faithful Catholics to pray today in reparation for the harm inflicted on the Sacred Heart of Jesus (https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/catholics-invited-pray-act-reparation-solemnity-sacred-heart).
As I prayed the Act of Reparation, these words convicted by heart: "have mercy on all who wound your Sacred Heart by sin, unfaithfulness and neglect"; "broken by our ingratitude, pierced by our sins, yet loving us still"; and "draw me ever nearer to your Sacred Heart. . . teach me, Jesus, your blessed way to eternal life." As the first reading, from the Book of Deuteronomy, states, we are "a people sacred to the Lord, your God." Yet, we have lost sight of the divine and transcendent, choosing to look inward in ourselves and dependent on our own will rather than look to God and trust in Him and His love, mercy, and forgiveness.
Then, the second reading, from the First Letter of Saint John, states that "[whoever] acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he is God. We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us." Yet, so many people in today's society reject Jesus, even go as far as mock him, his Passion, death, and Resurrection for our salvation. They reject the love of God, a love so great that "God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins."
Saint John tells us, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. . . God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us." We all know that the Great Commandment is to love God and love our neighbor; however, love of neighbor must be rooted in love of God. Therefore, we must love God first and foremost (God tells us this in the First Commandment) so that we know how to love others in the way that He loves them. We love like God loves when we will the good of the other (our neighbor) and there is no greater good than to help them stay on the path that leads to heaven, to eternal life in the presence of our loving Father in heaven.
We often think that loving God is hard because we fear what God might ask of us; whether we can do what He asks of us or what we might lose or have to let go of or give up to love as God loves. Yet, Jesus tells us: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." His yoke is easy and his burden is light, whereas the yoke of this world is difficult and the burden of this world heavy on our hearts but, most of all, wounds the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Therefore, rather than yoke ourselves to the lifestyle, bad habits, vices, and pleasures of this world are are fleeting and never, ever satisfy, let us yoke ourselves to Jesus and help others to do the same. If our love for another means letting them do what they want to do or live the lifestyle they wish to live, then are we truly willing their good, the ultimate good of which is to avoid a life of sin that wounds the Sacred Heart of by "sin, unfaithfulness and neglect" and separates us from the love of God? When we love God above all in our lives, then the Sacred Heart of Jesus will help us to love others as God created them to be and not as how we want to love them or think they should be loved. Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
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