The month of June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus. The reason June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart is primarily
because during this month we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart on the Friday
after Corpus Christi. This year that will be June 16. Is it a coincidence that
June is also the middle of the calendar year, or the heart of the calendar
year.
But during this month with seek to deepen our devotion to
the Sacred Heart—the heart of intense love for us.
During this month we seek to understand and be grateful for
and encounter more deeply and spread for easily the human and divine love of
Jesus for the world. And so this devotion gets to the heart of our Faith, the
heart of Christianity. God loves us, and commands that we love each other. Love
is the Lord’s first and greatest commandment. God asks for our love because He
wishes to be the God and Master of our hearts through love. Our Lord has loved
us with an infinite love, even unto death, and still loves us without limit. He
wants to be loved by us. He appeals to our hearts and bids us love Him in
return.
St. Margaret Mary to whom the Lord revealed the devotion to his
Heart writes, “He made me see that it was the great desire He had of being
loved by men, and of withdrawing them from the road of perdition, that induced
Him to conceive this plan of making His Heart known to men, with all the treasures
of love, of mercy, of grace, of sanctification, and of salvation, in order that
those who wish to render and procure Him all the honor, glory, and love of
which they are capable, might be abundantly and profusely enriched with the
treasures of the Heart of God.”
Some amazing things in that one statement. First, Jesus
revealed to St. Margaret Mary that he desires to be loved by us. God wants our
love. God wants signs of our love. God wants us to spend time with him. He
wants to hear our words of adoration and receive the silent gaze of adoration.
In the Eucharist, he has certainly given us this
opportunity. For when we kneel in Eucharistic Adoration we are able to express
our love for God through words and in silence, in simple loving attention. In
fixing our hearts on his, present in the Eucharist, our hearts can be set
ablaze like his.
And that’s the other thing from that passage from St.
Margaret Mary: we are abundantly and profusely enriched with treasure from the
heart of God when seek to love God as we can. This gets to the very heart of
who God is. God is love. And he enriches us as we seek to love Him. We become
better and richer when we love, because by doing so we become like Him.
To know and love Jesus Christ is our highest gain both for
time and eternity. No sacrifice could be too great to attain it. And yet, we
have this simple blessed hour, which is more like a gift than a sacrifice, to know
His love and to seek to love Him more. May this time be blessed, for the glory
of God and salvation of souls.
No comments:
Post a Comment