Because we’re human beings, we need reminders … everything from the decal on the windshield of your car for the next oil change to the marking of your calendar for important days like birthdays and doctor’s appointments and that Sunday is Father’s Day. We even have reminders that ring out on our cell phones!
Well, today, we remember, we celebrate, and we seek a deeper appreciation for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is a special day for Holy Cross priests like Father Boby, Father Pinto, and Father Fred for their founder, Blessed Basil Moreau, dedicated the priests of Holy Cross to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Through Prayer and Action
Perhaps like you, my earliest memories of the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus come from great-aunt Irene’s bedroom, which prominently displayed a captivating image of Jesus’ Sacred Heart outside of his body, ringed with thorns, a bright red, pierced with blood dripping from it, and a cross and flame above it with Jesus’ hands indicating that He was offering His heart to me and each of us … His sacrificial love.
As a young boy, I had little understanding of what Jesus did in offering His life for us. But every time I could, I’d take a look at Jesus’ Sacred Heart and it obviously made an impression.
This week, I talked to people, asking them if they had a devotion to the Sacred Heart and what it meant to them. Many said, the same as I used to, that it was in their grandparent’s generation and that they only could remember a picture or a phrase. That’s something we can change this week through prayer and action.
Jesus Rules this House
You know there’s a wisdom to displaying religious images in our homes. I’ve learned from Father Pinto and others that as you walk into the homes of Catholics in Kerala, India, most often, the first thing you see is the image of the Sacred Heart, reminding all who live there and all who visit that the love of Jesus rules over that family and flows through those familial bonds and carries outward.
My brothers and sisters, we need the love of Jesus every day, both in our homes and outside. We need to be reminded that the Sacred Heart is a symbol of Jesus’ threefold love: human, spiritual, and divine.
We hear in the Old Testament of God’s love as a parent’s love for his or her children or a husband’s love for his wife. In the New Testament, the promise of the living water, the Holy Spirit, is fulfilled in the pierced heart of Jesus from the Cross flowing outward.
It Begins in Our Home
But, as Father Peyton often taught, everything begins at home with our families. We need the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to remind us of Jesus’ never-ending love for our families and each one of us. No matter the successes or trials, it is Jesus’ love who allows us to love one another and ourselves as we were made to do which includes being able to forgive one another as Father Boby preached about yesterday.
There’s a saying, “out of sight, out of mind,” which taps into our need to be reminded through seeing and doing. May we always have an image of the Sacred Heart, even as small as a prayer card, to remind us of His love that transforms our hearts, words, and actions to be like His at home and beyond.
As we continue this Mass, let us be mindful of the words of Blessed Basil Moreau:
“It is on the altar that (Jesus becomes present) … within our soul, His heart speaking to us with all its affection, and our own hearts to beat with His.”
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