A HEART WOUNDED, BUT STILL IN LOVE.

June 11, 2021
Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus - B.

Readings: Hos 11:1, 3-4, 8c-9; Cant. Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6; Eph 3:8-12, 14-19; Jn 19:31-37.

A Sicilian proverb says, “True love burns within the heart, better than flax and straw.” And a Malawian proverb adds, “You can measure the depth of the sea but what about a man's heart?”

“O God, who in the Heart of your Son, wounded by our sins, bestow on us in mercy the boundless treasures of your love, grant, we pray, that, in paying him the homage of our devotion, we may also offer worthy reparation.” These words of the collect, together with the entrance antiphon, give the deepest meaning of what gathers us for today's celebration. The heart of the Son of God is wounded by human sin but still filled with love for human beings.

With our God, we get to know that the heart is the wellspring of love that never dries up. No matter how much it is pierced, hurt, and suffocated by our failures and inconsistencies, it still loves and has more love to give till the last drop.

Love calls for sacrifice. “The Church is born primarily of Christ's total self-giving for our salvation, anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross. "The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus." "For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the 'wondrous sacrament of the whole Church.'" As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam's side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross.” CCC. 766. As believers, we are born from the suffering and dying heart of our Lord, baptized in the blood and water that flow from his pierced side. We are, therefore, children of his Sacred Heart, children of God’s extremely exaggerated love.

We are given a beautiful lesson today about the heart of our God and that of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a lesson on genuine love. In the first reading, through the Prophet Hosea, the Lord affirms that his heart is overwhelmed, and his pity is stirred. It was this outburst of mercy that led him to reconsider his plan to punish Israel for its faults. Even though Israel, like a harlot, or an unfaithful woman betrayed him often and often by falling into idolatry and sin, the Lord promised that he will not destroy them, he will not let the furnace of his anger consume them. Two reasons mainly for this decision, and they are wordily expressed, "For I am God and not man", and because of His love. The nature and love of God are the reasons for his infinite mercy. God's love is the only remedy and healing for human sin.

St. Paul, in the second reading, exhorts the Christian community of Ephesus to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. In Christ Jesus, we get to know that genuine love has no limits, that the love of God for us is boundless. He has a plan, a mystery hidden from ages past but now made manifest in Christ Jesus. What St. Paul points out here is the mystery of God's love fully revealed in Christ's death on the Cross. The sacrifice of the Cross bears, therefore, the meaning of the completion of love. In Christ's passion and death, we have the fullness of the love God has for us. The sacrifice of Cross sounds the “Consummatum est” of love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16)

The Gospel describes how love was fulfilled at the Cross. Jesus crucified gave all he has in his heart. In a non-stop transfusion, he gave all his blood and the little remaining water flowed from his pierced side. The Evangelist John tells us that, when Jesus was hanging dead on the tree of the Cross, “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water...” From the side of Jesus who gives his life, blood and water flow, a sign of the birth of the new humanity that comes out of his open heart; sign of a love that gives life by losing its own life.

The heart is not only the center of life, it is also the symbolism of love. Thus, people who fail to show a little compassion or sign of love to others when in trouble are called heartless. Jesus our Lord was not heartless, neither disconnected from our needs. He was the perfect expression of God's love and compassion. In Jesus, as says St. Paul, the love of God has attained its climax. In him and through him, God has loved us with everlasting love.

While celebrating today's solemnity, the exhortation and challenge to you and I is that we should learn from the Risen Lord how to truly love, without any artifice and egoistic hidden agenda. The heart of Jesus is the fountain of compassion, peace, and humility. As his followers, let us pray that our hearts be the copies of his Sacred Heart. May we be transplanted with the heart of the Lord, and transfused with his blood, so to love the way we are loved.