Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the most important solemnities that we celebrate in the life of the Church. It not only reminds us of the beauty of Jesus’ heart — fully human and fully divine — but it also gives us our example of how our hearts should be. This feast day invites us to reflect more deeply on our own hearts, to discover what areas of our hearts are not like Christ’s. It’s a moment when we are invited into a moment of deeper conversion, a moment to ask the Lord Jesus who is meek and humble to make our hearts like His.
Our readings this morning should make us pause and remember all that Jesus has done for us as our Savior. He isn’t a God who is so far removed from our lives that He can’t relate to us. Instead, He’s a God who stepped into our human condition; He stepped into our reality. He endured the same things that we endure. He experienced the negative aspects of life: hardship, suffering, rejection. But He also enjoyed life to the fullest. He experienced the best of humanity: love, joy, peace, fulfillment. He did that in order to show us how to love as the Father loves, how to bring others into an encounter with that love, into and encounter with the Divine.
The most important thing that Jesus did in His life was to be a Shepherd to us, to guide us in our own journeys of life, to lead us to the heart of the Father. The heart of the Father is manifested in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And what does that heart do? How does that heart love? It seeks out the lost. It brings wholeness to those who are broken. It brings peace to the troubled and the wearied. It brings joy to those in sadness. It brings relief to the downtrodden. It brings protection and security to the defenseless. It brings life to the dead.
We are called to do the same. We are called to allow the Sacred Heart to manifest in our own bodies. The Eucharist is the way that happens. By receiving the Eucharist, we are receiving a piece of Jesus’ heart…the inner most portion of His heart, in fact. Every Eucharistic miracle that has happened has proven that what we receive is a piece of the muscle of Jesus’ heart. It’s meant to transform us, to make our hearts His own, to go out and to do to others what He does for us.
Today, as we approach the altar to receive the Eucharist on this feast day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let’s ask our Lord, let’s begin Him actually, to make our hearts like His — meek and humble. Let’s ask Him to transform us, to allow us to be His hands and feet in the world, going out and being the shepherds that He needs us to be. Don’t let this simply be another day. Let this be a day when we are truly changed so that we can now go out and change the world.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, please, make our hearts like Yours.
Photo: Sacred Heart at the center of a rose window, Santa Ifigênia Church, São Paulo, Brazil. CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0), Public Domain Dedication.
Fr. Tom Pringle 