The Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is primarily associated with reparation. Pope Pius XI stated in his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor: "the spirit of expiation or reparation has always had the first and foremost place in the worship given to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus"

It is also, as Father Marin pointed out at yesterday's meditation, a memorial of the humanness of our God. He is God Almighty and yet He is not distant from us. During His life on earth, He felt the emotions that we all feel. He was sorrowful; He wept; He was excited and joyful; He was angry; He felt fear; He was tired, thirsty, hungry. He loved. He wasn't an all-serene, impassable figure - His was not perfect meditation but perfect suffering on the Cross.

And He said to His disciples, and to us: "I have called you friends" (Jn 15:15). Father Marin insisted yesterday that there is nothing on earth more interesting that cultivating a friendship with Christ. How wonderful it is to meet someone who shares your tastes, who gets excited at the same things you get excited about, who "clicks" with you. No one can be a closer friend than Jesus, Who understands you perfectly - far better than even the best of friends.

Jesus is your Friend - the friend - with a human heart, like yours, with most loving eyes that wept for Lazarus. As much as He loved Lazarus, He loves you. 

 - St Josemaria Escriva

"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (Jn 15:13). Such is His love that He went to the Cross for us. And after having suffered and died for us, gave us a further sign of the love His Heart bears for us:

"When they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.He who saw it has borne witness -- his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth -- that you also may believe." (Jn 19.33-35)

 Christ on the Cross between the Two Thieves (Pierced with a Lance)  

Peter Paul Reubens, 1619-20

 

"Behold this Heart which has loved men so much, and yet men do not want to love Me in return." 

- Our Lord to St Margaret Mary Alacoque

On this Feast, let us resolve to cultivate our friendship with Jesus. It feels bad doesn't it, when a friend doesn't seem to care, when he/she seems ungrateful? But isn't this what we do when we neglect our friendship with Our Lord - a friendship which cost Him his blood?