I will ask you a question: Can you see love? We cannot see love and so we use a common symbol to represent it, a heart. When we say someone has a heart of gold, many would say, it means that person is selfless and loving. When we have a heart-to-heart talk with a friend, we are expressing our deepest concern with someone we love. We have other names and descriptions of a heart like: pusongbato, pusongbusilak, pusongmamon and so on.
According to a priest also, the heart can be understood in various ways. Scientifically and medically speaking, it is understood as a vital organ.
Psychologically speaking, the heart is understood as the center of emotions and feelings.
Morally speaking, the heart is the seat of good or evil, because out of the heart flows our words and actions that define us as a moral being.
Today we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. the Sacred Heart of Jesus that we see on pictures is a symbol of the greatest of all, God’s divine love. The Heart of Jesus aflame with love, radiant with love, wounded for love to each one of us. This image of the Heart of Jesus focuses on the self-sacrificing of Jesus Christ for us.
The historical development of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is linked to Jesus’ private revelations to Saint Margaret Mary Alacogue in 1675. However, the root of this devotion is biblical. It is because the Old and New Testament are filled with descriptions of the love of God for His people: fatherly and forgiving love. In his letter to the Romans (5:5-8), St. Paul describes this kind of love. He says: “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us… For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time… Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” The special day that we intended for this devotion is every first Friday of the month. And it’s good also that we enthrone the image of the Sacred Heart in our home.
And so every devotee of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is challenged to work on his/her conversion, to imitate the attitudes of Christ and be willing to do penance for him/her and for others as one priest said.
The book, Saint and Thought for Everyday (1976:165-166) said that we should thank God for the great gifts He gave to us like:
The Gospel in which He revealed His divine mysteries, taught us the way to Him in truth and offered the means of salvation.
The Holy Eucharist through which he dwells in the holy tabernacle, renew His passion in the Mass and Himself as our Food in Holy Communion.
The Church through which he instructs us in the truth, guide us on the way to heaven and communicate supernatural life to us.
The Priesthood to which He entrusts to priests the treasures of His doctrine, of His love, of His grace and souls themselves.
The religious life to which, He has called His favoured children to evangelical perfection. They pray and work in His honor in every apostolate.
Mary, as a Mother to whom He gave a great and immense power to lead us to His Son, Jesus, the Saviour of humankind.
His very life because, He died in order to give us life. His blood, His wounds, the scourges, the thorns and the cross tell us: “No one loves more than He who gives his life for the loved one.” We too, want to spend our lives for Him. May we always repeat: “Your will be done.”