"COME TO ME, ALL YOU WHO LABOR AND
ARE BURDENED, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST."
ARE BURDENED, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST."
I invite you to contemplate on the Image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the main altar of the National Shrine of the Sacred Heart. You will see an Image of His Heart held by His left hand. The right hand pointing to His Heart. The Heart has a crown of thorns around it. On the top of the Heart is a flame, burning as a torch with a Cross. Blood drips from the Heart where the thorns pierce it. The face of Jesus shows no agony. You sense a peace and calm in it.
The CROWN OF THORNS shows how we pierce His heart with our terrible sins and betrayal. Our sins make His Heart bleed as each sin drives the thorns deeper. Yet His Love burns for us. The BURNING FLAME of His True Love for us is never extinguished. It burns brightly. His Sacred Heart reveals the true faithfulness of His Love, a Love without end. The CROSS symbolizes His death and resurrection, showing us that Jesus is with us in our suffering and pain; that He reaches out to give us the hope and love we need to survive life's trials and cruelties. This Paschal Mystery embedded in His Sacred heart is the ultimate proof of His Great Love for us. It is an invitation to our own "resurrection". It is what drives us to give and feel love the same way.
His Heart is never drained of blood and the flame of love never dies. Just as you can tie the Image of the Sacred heart to His Crucifixion, so too can you tie it to the Holy Eucharist. He gives us Himself, whole and entire in the Eucharist: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. His True Presence is never diminished nor divided, It is given the same, whole and entire, to each one who receives Him.
His Heart symbolizes the deepest core of God's Love reflected in Christ's words and actions in all of Scripture. His outstretched Hand INVITES us to go to His wounded Heart to ask for forgiveness for our sins and start anew.
We, as followers of Christ, are called to love as He loves us. We do not love perfectly as He loves us, but we strive for perfection. We fall short of loving Him and one another many times in our life. We turn our back on Him and one another. We break love and block relationships for love to build on. Married couples stop working at love and let it fail and end in separation. Girlfriends and boyfriends fall in and out of love turning relationships on and off so easily. For many people, love is seen as a convenience and not sacrificial as True Love found in Christ. The Love of Jesus knows no limits. He never turns His Love on or off like the flip of a switch but keeps it burning brightly no matter how many times we turn Him off.
If we are called to love one another with the love of Christ, then we first have to accept Christ's love for us, allowing our hearts to be set aflame with His Love. Then the love we share from Him will never fade.
As we celebrate a meaningful SOLEMNITY OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS, may our great devotion, as devotees, makes is lovers of Jesus Christ and one another; FROM DEVOTEES TO LOVERS. We cannot enter heaven as a devotee; only as a LOVER of Jesus and one another. Let us strive to make our hearts like His, burning with passion and compassion for each other, and "supplied by" God's Love, nurture an ability to give love that fills all the emptiness in the world.
A JOYFUL FEAST OF HIS LOVE TO ONE AND ALL!
Rev. Fr. Victor Y. Apacible
Rector/Parish Priest
NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE SACRED HEART
