I grew up in a parish with an old,
beautiful church. I have early memories
of looking at different paintings, windows, and statues during Mass. There was all manner of fascinating pictures:
animals, people, angels, etc., enough to capture my imagination for the whole
hour. There was one image, at the center
of the church, though, that I found very curious: it was a statue of Jesus with his heart on
the outside, his hands stretched in invitation.
I later
learned that this was the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the patron of our
parish. I still didn’t understand what
it meant. Why was Jesus’ heart visible?
Why was it crowned with thorns, wounded, and aflame?
By God’s
providence, I entered the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George. Our community is one devoted to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus. While popular devotions
come and go in history, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus transcends
times, cultures, and places, for it is a devotion to the person of Jesus Christ. In
the directory to our Constitutions it states:
“Adoration of the ‘Heart of Jesus,’ therefore, means
the whole divine-human Christ at his ‘personal’ center. This adoration reaches to the Lord himself
precisely as He pours Himself forth in the full paschal mystery (His giving
Himself on the cross and His resurrection), which we share daily in the
Eucharist and in our quotidian life—especially in our serving love.” (directory
to 105)
Jesus, the Divine Word of the
Father, became man so that sinners might become sons. His heart, wounded by sin, burning with love
for sinners, makes visible what was once invisible: that the Father wills that all might be
saved, so that we might become co-heirs with his Son in the Spirit. Ultimately, the Heart of Christ shows the
world that God is love, and this love cannot be destroyed by sin and death;
rather, it is the love that saves, sanctifies, renews, and transforms us into
the children of God. So, on this
Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us look “on the one whom they have
pierced” (Zec 12:10; Jn 19:37; Constitutions 105); let us meet Jesus Christ,
who gave all so that we might live!
- Sister M. Mediatrix, FSGM
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