The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 11, 2021

John 19:31–37

Since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may come to believe. For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled: Not a bone of it will be broken. And again another passage says: They will look upon him whom they have pierced.

This Feast, promulgated for the whole Church by Pope Pius IX in 1856, celebrates the love of our Lord Jesus Christ for us.  So often in our human relationships we take for granted the love of the people to whom we are married or related or with whom we are dear friends.  We are prone likewise to take our Lord’s love for granted also.  It is everywhere present within us and outside of us.  It is like the air for us, or like the sea for fish.  It is so very present that sometimes it is hard for us to recognize it as something apart from ourselves.  On this Feast we take the time to think upon the love of the Lord for us, a love which brought him down from heaven to become like us and to die for us, and to seek to love him in return with all of our hearts.

If we look deeply at his love for us, we must note that it is preposterous.  It is even ridiculous.  When we consider what he has done for us who reek with unworthiness, it seems even impossible.  It is like the love of a person with his or her first crush.  The world becomes unhinged for that person, and the image of the object of the crush enters the mind and will not let anything else in.  The one with the crush engages in behavior utterly unlike his previous behavior, and looks obsessive and mad to any onlookers.  We would do anything for the object of our affections, even to get a small sign of recognition of our existence or approval.  We would go so far as to completely disgrace ourselves.  And then, slowly but surely, reason returns to her throne and we begin to act ourselves again.  And this is just the way Jesus seems in his love for us.  The words of the Gospel sound so sober as they describe the Lord’s miracles, and yet he performed each cure with immense delight.  He sought out opportunities to cure and to preach in order to give appropriate vent to a love that could not be restrained.  The words of St. Paul in the Letter to the Hebrews helps us to think of his love: “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12, 29).  If we think of forest fires or prairie fires sweeping through at high speed, relentless, burning through all the grass and trees in sight in all directions, this will give us some idea of the ferocity, the wild abandon, of his love.  This is the meaning of the flames we see in certain images of the Sacred Heart.

In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, we see how the Body of Jesus hangs on the Cross after he has died.  It has perhaps hung there for a couple of hours and grown a little stiff,  His suffering is over, but even in his Death the Lord yearned to show every last sign that he would give anything for us to love him back.  And so he allows a guard to shove his lance into his dead Body.  The Blood and the water that flow out show that he holds nothing back from us, nothing at all.