HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS YEAR C

HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS YEAR C

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

If you were to ask someone to draw a picture of “love,” chances are they would draw a heart. It’s the universal symbol for love, for life, for emotion. We see it on Valentine’s cards, in text messages, on advertisements. It’s a symbol of affection, and often, a symbol of a clean, neat, and tidy love.

But the heart we celebrate today, the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, is not neat and tidy. Look at the image we know so well. It is not a simple cartoon heart. It is a heart crowned with thorns. It is a heart pierced and wounded. It is a heart on fire, with a cross planted at its very top. This is not the symbol of a comfortable, sentimental love. This is the symbol of a love that is fierce, a love that has suffered, and a love that is victorious.

“When Sacred Scripture refers to the heart, it does not refer to some fleeting sentiment of joy or tears. By heart it means the whole person who, as we see in Jesus himself, directs both soul and body to what is seen as good: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (St. Josemaria, Christ Is Passing By, no. 164).

And today’s readings for this great solemnity tell us the story of this heart. They tell us not what it looks like, but what it does.

In our Gospel from St. Luke, Jesus gives us the parable of the lost sheep. It’s a story we know so well, perhaps too well.

• A shepherd has one hundred sheep, and one wanders off. What does he do? Now, any sensible businessman, any practical rancher, would do a quick cost-benefit analysis. “I have 99% of my assets secure. It’s not worth risking the 99 to go after the 1%. I’ll cut my losses.” That is the logic of the world.

But that is not the logic of the Heart of God.

• The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine in the desert and goes after the one. This is not a business decision; it is a heart decision. The shepherd’s heart aches for the one who is lost, the one who is vulnerable, the one who is alone. His focus is not on his assets, but on the single, beloved sheep who is in danger. And when he finds it, notice what he does. He doesn’t scold the sheep. He doesn’t punish it for being foolish. No. The Gospel says, “he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.” And his joy is so great, he has to throw a party. He calls his friends and neighbors and says, “Rejoice with me!”
• “The Heart of the Good Shepherd tells us that his love is limitless; it is never exhausted and it never gives up . . . The Heart of the Good Shepherd reaches out to us, above all to those who are most distant. There the needle of his compass inevitably points, there we see a particular ‘weakness’ of his love, which desires to embrace all and lose none.” Francis, Homily, 3 June 2016.

This, my friends, is the heart of our God. This is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is the heart of a Shepherd who is on a divine search party for each and every one of us.

• The prophet Ezekiel told us this would happen. Centuries before Christ, God spoke through Ezekiel, saying, “I myself will search for my sheep… I will rescue them… I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak.” God promised that He wouldn’t delegate this task. He would do it Himself. And in Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, this promise is fulfilled. The Sacred Heart is the heart of God-made-man, who personally comes to find us, to bind our wounds, and to carry us home.
• And who are these lost sheep? Who are these injured and weak that He comes to find? St. Paul, in our second reading, gives us the shocking and beautiful answer. He says, “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
• “We are not the haphazard and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.” Benedict XVI, Homily, 24 April 2005.

He didn’t wait for us to be perfect. He didn’t wait for us to have it all figured out. He didn’t wait for us to find our own way back to the flock. No, He came for us while we were lost. He came for us while we were weak. He came for us in our sin. His love is not a reward for our goodness; it is a remedy for our brokenness. The fire of His heart is a love that seeks us out in the darkest places. The wound in His heart is the price He was willing to pay to bring us home.

Today, on this great feast, the Church invites us to do three things.

1. First, we are invited to simply let ourselves be found. Maybe you feel like that lost sheep today. Maybe you feel far from God, isolated, or weighed down by your sins and your weaknesses. Maybe you feel unworthy of His love. The message of the Sacred Heart is this: stop running. Stop hiding. Just be still and listen for the voice of the Shepherd who is calling your name. Let Him find you. Let Him lift you onto His shoulders. Let Him do the work. Your job is not to earn His love, but simply to receive it. Rest in the peace of being found. As the psalmist sings, “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.”
2. And second, we are called to adore and console His heart. The thorns around His heart represent our indifference, our coldness, the times we take His love for granted. We console His heart not through grand gestures, but through small acts of love offered in return. We console His heart when we come to Him in the Eucharist, not out of habit, but with real gratitude.
3. And third, we respond by imitating it. If God’s love is poured into our hearts, then we are called to pour it out onto others. We console His heart when we show mercy to others, becoming for them a small reflection of the Good Shepherd. We console His heart when we forgive those who have wounded us. Just as the Good Shepherd seeks the lost, we are called to reach out to those on the margins, to show compassion to the suffering and to love our neighbors as Christ has loved us.

Dear brethren in Christ, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not just a beautiful image or a private devotion. It is the very engine of our salvation. It is the Shepherd’s heart that searches for you, the Savior’s heart that bled for you, and the Lord’s heart that rejoices over you. Through the image of his Sacred Heart, the love of Christ “moves us to return love for love” Pope Francis, Dilexit nos, 165 citing Pope Leo XIII, Annum sacrum, 649).

“Saint Charles de Foucauld sought to imitate Jesus by living and acting as he did, in a constant effort to do what Jesus would have done in his place. Only by being conformed to the sentiments of the heart of Christ could he fully achieve this goal. Here too we find the idea of ‘love for love’ ” Pope Francis, Dilexit nos, 179. 

Let us come forward today to receive Him in the Eucharist, the gift that flows from that very heart. And as we receive Him, let us pray: “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Thine. Let us rest on your shoulders, and rejoice in the simple, breathtaking truth that we are found, we are healed, and we are loved.” Amen.

A Blessed Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!

Fr. Rolly Arjonillo

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Thanks and God bless you and your loved ones! Fr. Rolly Arjonillo.