Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Again I turn to Pope John Paul II who, Carl J. Moell, S.J. wrote in Holy Father, Sacred Heart, "among his many achievements, merits the title 'Pope of the Sacred Heart'". Pope John Paul II wrote and spoke more on the Heart of Jesus than any other pope in history. Fr. Moell's book Holy Father, Sacred Heart: The Wisdom of John Paul II on the Greatest Catholic Devotion, is a wonderful compilation of and excellent commentary on his complete writings on the Sacred Heart. This book belongs in the home of every Catholic devoted to the Sacred Heart!

Today I quote from the homily that Pope John Paul II gave during Sacred Heart Devotions in Elbag, Poland on June 6, 1999. He begins by stating that "Everything that God wanted to tell us about himself and about his love he placed in the Heart of Jesus, and by means of that Heart he has told us everything. We find ourselves before an inscrutable mystery. In Jesus’ Heart we read the eternal divine plan of the world’s salvation. It is a plan of love."

This inscrutable mystery, this eternal divine plan of love, deserves our constant attention. It is Jesus Himself whom we praise and worship, before whom we, "adoring, bend the knee." And our love for Him does not end there in our adoration of Him, it has only begun. As Pope John Paul II continues in his homily, "meditating on God’s love, revealed in the Heart of his Son, requires a consistent response on our part. We have not been called only to contemplate the mystery of Christ’s love, but take part in it. Christ says: 'If you love me, you will keep my commandments' (Jn 14:15). He thus places before us a great calling and at the same time a condition: if you want to love me, keep my commandments, keep God’s holy law, walk in the way that I have shown you."

True devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus thus involves the whole person. I am to love the Lord our God with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength, and all my mind (Lk 10:27, Mk 12:30, Mt 22:37). This is the inscrutable mystery and the eternal divine plan of love that God reveals to us in the Sacred Heart. Especially today, let us pray for each other to more fully live in and from the Heart of our Beloved Lord.

Heart in which the whole world becomes Thy people:

We consecrate ourselves to Thy love.

Overflowing Heart, overflaming Heart, overstorming Heart:

Be loved, Love, everlasting Love, be everlastingly loved.

That Thy Dawn may break with kindling light,

We consecrate ourselves to Thy love.

That Thy day may bring fire to our hearts,

We consecrate ourselves to Thy love.

That Thy day may burn all our hearts into Thine,

We consecrate ourselves to Thy love,

Mighty Heart, ineluctable Heart, all-consuming Heart.

Gertrude von le Fort