Homily For Friday Tenth Week in Ordinary Time Year A, 16th June, 2023. The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (The World Day of Prayer for the Sanctity of Priestly Life)

Reading: Deut.7:6-11; Ps. 103; 1 John 4:7-16; Matt. 11:25:30

Rev.  Fr. Emmanuel Emenike  Onyia

 

CELEBRATING THE MOST SECRED HEART OF LOVE WOUNDED BY OUR DAILY SINS AND WICKEDNESS

 

Biologically, the heart is the main organ in the circulatory system, the structure primarily responsible for delivering and circulation of blood and transportation of nutrients in all parts of the body. This continuous task uplifts the role of the heart as a vital organ whose normal operation is constantly required. In biblical language, “heart” indicates the centre of the person where his sentiments and intentions dwell. So the Church understanding the role the heart plays in the salvific history of humanity, invites us to contemplate on the sacred heart of Jesus.

 

Little wonder every Friday after the Sunday of the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the Church celebrate the great Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. An event that invites us to contemplate and celebrate the love of God pouring forth from the Most Loving Heart of Jesus pierced for the salvation of humanity. A great act of love which God revealed through his influences on mystic saints such as St. Gertrude the Great which was made more obvious through St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the revelation she had around 17th century.

 

In this revelation the Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and showed her his heart and the anguish and sorrow which he had for the sins and disobedience of humanity, despite the incomprehensible act of love, compassion and mercy that he has lavished upon us. Then the Lord said to her: “Behold the Heart that has loved so many men, and yet, instead of gratitude, all I received were ingratitude…” and asking in particular that the Friday after the week in which the Solemnity of Corpus Christi is celebrated should be dedicated to him as the Feast of reparation to his Most Sacred Heart. The Lord also promised St. Margaret Mary that all those who devoted themselves to His Most Sacred Heart with faith will be protected and receive the graces of God.

 

So, the long development of this revelations led to the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus as we have it today. Though it was Pope Pius IX that extended and placed this great Feast and Solemnity in its current form and honour. This great feast also mark the occasion of the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctity of Priestly Life, keeping in mind that the priesthood is the product of Christ sacrificial heart of love for humanity.

 

Hence, we remember all those who have been called to model themselves after the life of Christ’s love by giving themselves to the ministerial priesthood, that we may truly model ourselves and our hearts after that of the Most Sacred Heart of Christ. Let us be filled with love for all humanity while recognizing that the priestly life is a very difficult undertaking especially in our world today. Let us be supported by all, knowing that priests, though humans just like everyone, have their flaws and imperfections, but we are at the same time held up to a much higher expectation to care and guide the people of God.

 

Meanwhile, in the midst of all our difficulties, challenges, daily temptations and pressures of life, we are called to abide in the loving heart of Jesus for he who abides in love, abides in God and God abides in him as St. John tells us in our second reading today by making us to know that God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him. So, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love.

Thus, in this solemn feast our devotion is rooted in the mystery of God’s love; for it is precisely through the Sacred Heart of Jesus that the Love of God for humanity is manifested in all its effect and power especially for souls thirsting for God’s mercy. For in it we find the inexhaustible source from which we draw the water of life that refresh and revives the thirsty souls of sinful humanity and make us new and alive again. Hence we are called today to abide in this love of Christ.

 

And to abide in his love entails constantly striving for holiness and a life of sacrifice, though it is not easy, but Jesus invites us in our Gospel passage today, to come to him, all who labour and are overburdened, and he will give us rest. He says: “Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light”. For these grace have been hidden from the learned and the clever, but have been revealed to mere children. More so, in our first reading we are told that we are a people consecrated to the Lord our God; for the Lord our God has chosen us to be his very own people out of all the peoples on the earth because of his love for us.

 

Dear friends, every Christian is called to embrace the love of God which he poured out from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so as to become a wellspring which gives life of love to others. For we ought to be offering life-giving water to a parched and thirsty world. We are called to embrace that love which propelled Jesus to lay down his life for his friends and also forgives his enemies, for that is what this solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus represents. We are called to contemplate the mystery of love in the heart of a God who full of compassion, bestows his love upon humanity through his Son.

 

Though humanity has rejected his love, but God does not lose heart in the face of ingratitude or rejection by the people he loved and chosen; rather, with infinite mercy he sends his only-begotten Son into the world to take upon himself the fate of a shattered love, so that by defeating the power of evil and death he could restore humanity once again from our slavery of sin and death back into a life of grace and open up his Sacred Heart of love once again for all who wishes to embrace it.

 

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, grant that we, who glory in the loving Heart of your beloved Son and recall the wonders of his love for us, may be made worthy to receive an overflowing measure of grace from that fount of heavenly gift of love which he offers to humanity. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do pray for me and for the sanctity of all the Priests.