Sacred Heart of Jesus

On June 7, we celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is a special occasion to reflect on a foundational element of our Christian faith: the love of God.

In the Holy Scriptures, we find multiple mentions of God's love for humanity. From the beginning of revelation, we are told of this love, which is an inexhaustible love, one that never ends (Lam 3:22-23), that is capable of renewing us (Zeph 3:17). In this love, our hearts rejoice (Ps 33:20-22). In Jesus, the Eternal Son, this love of God is revealed to us in all its fullness. We are told in 1 John that God loved us first, Jesus gave his life for our salvation, and in the words of Jesus himself: "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13). Saint Paul adds that God loved us so much that he died for us while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8). With that love that God loves us, we are invited to love God and our fellow human beings.

Through the centuries, the Lord continues to act in the world and through our brothers and sisters who have believed, maintained, and transmitted the faith. Today, we too can experience that love in our lives. This experience of God's love moves us to seek to spread that message of love to all human beings.

Just as in the time of the prophets of the Old Testament, the time of Jesus, and the early Christians, our society today still thirsts for love, for true love. In this regard, Pope Francis tells us that today love is on everyone's lips, in the mouths of many influencers, and in the lyrics of many songs, but what love, he asks. He points out that Christians are capable of all the loves of the world, but there is a greater love, the one that comes from God and is directed toward Him. That love allows us to love our neighbor as God loves us, and that love pushes us where we would not humanly go. *

Finally, we can only ask the Sacred Heart of Jesus to give us a heart similar to His.

*Taken from Pope Francis's catechesis on the third theological virtue: Charity