DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR JUNE  2010

+A Meditation on The Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ+

Right from the first centuries Christ’s pierced heart has been seen as a symbol of His inner personality, especially of His love. This tradition derives mainly from two passages in St. John’s Gospel. In his seventh chapter St. John tells us what happened on the feast of Tabernacles, a day of thanksgiving for the harvest…the Temple ceremonies that day reminded the Jews of a particularly outstanding event, namely God’s intervention in Sinai, when He enabled Moses to produce water by striking a rock, and so saved His people who were dying of thirst. Our Lord suddenly pointed out to the crowd that all this was about to find its deepest fulfillment in Himself: “If any man is thirsty, let him come to me. For scripture has said this about me: ‘from His heart shall flow the fountains of living water’” St. John adds: “He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believe in Him were to receive.” In other words, from Christ’s heart God’s Spirit will flow like living water from a fountain. There is an obvious connection between the text just quoted and the scene reported by St. John in his nineteenth chapter, where we see Jesus’ heart pierced, and blood and water flowing out. The Jerusalem Bible comments: “The significance of the incident is brought out by two texts of scripture. The blood shows that the Lamb has been truly sacrificed for the salvation of the world; the water, symbol of the Spirit, shows that the sacrifice is a rich source of grace.” And so the preface of the Mass of the Sacred Heart has a  biblical inspiration when it proclaims: “Streams of mercy and grace flowed from the opened Heart.”
(Father C. Sondermeijer in his book ‘Why Devotion to the Sacred Heart’)
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Bishop Anthony writes: Our Lord, watching those Temple ceremonies, did not merely ‘point out’ to the Jewish crowd that He Himself was the fulfillment of their thirst – their longing indeed – He cried out loud that anyone thirsty should come to Him! Christ is the Eternal “Future” and the old Temple rituals will end! Christ is, above all, the Sacrificial Lamb whose death gives us life. As a hymn at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament puts it: “Types and shadows have their ending: newer rites of grace prevail!”
A person’s heart denotes life itself, but it also represents, somehow, what is most personal to ourselves. And in the case of our Lord, Who is true God and true man, His entire “personality” is LOVE! His heart stands for all the virtues of love, mercy and goodness – virtues which we, so imperfect, impure and sinful, cannot ever truly achieve – although we must continue to persevere! The Sacred Heart of our Saviour, with all its unceasing love for the entire human race, speaks of the Sacrifice that Jesus made of Himself on the Cross. His love for us made Him surrender Himself completely to His Father and to die in agony for us – pouring out a stream of blood and water from that heart. Is there anything more poignant than that Jesus’ heart, after his physical death, has nothing left to give since it is now completely drained of blood. We adore Jesus in His Body and Blood – and His Sacred Heart should be the centre of our Eucharistic adoration. For His sake we must strive more and more to love our fellow human beings; for His sake we must try to keep our own hearts a poor imitation of His Sacred Heart!
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Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Who in pouring out the treasures of Thy love for mankind didst found the Sacrament of the Eucharist, grant us, we beseech Thee, ever to adore Thy Sacred Heart, so full of love for us, and to show forth that love in our own lives, that one day we may see Thee face to face in Thy Kingdom and live eternally in the radiance of Thy loving Heart.  Grant it, Saviour!   +Amen+
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And a Passing Thought
In the Eucharist all is love. Jesus comes to us and dwells in us. In so doing, He teaches us how we are to love one another      [Saint Augustine of Canterbury]
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SACRED HEART OF JESUS, HAVE MERCY UPON US!
OUT OF THE ABYSS OF OUR NOTHINGNESS, O SAVIOUR, WE ADORE THEE!
EUCHARISTIC HEART OF JESUS, NOURISH US WITH STREAMS OF LIVING WATER!
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 As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Remain in My love. [St. John. Chapter 15. verse 9]