for June 18
Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Many years ago, Pope Pius XII summarized this devotion when he wrote that the Sacred Heart of Jesus “is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that love with which the Redeemer continually loves the Father and all human beings.”

Moses begins the first reading by telling the people they are sacred to their Lord God. They are described as God’s own people peculiarly, a word with mixed connotations in English. So one recent translation says specially and another paraphrases it as treasured possession. What’s important is the divine initiative; God set his heart on the people and chose them. The mention of heart foreshadows the justification for the choice, God’s love of them, the Jewish people in the original context but now all of us also as the people of God. This love was seen back then in getting the people out from slavery in Egypt and then seen later in God’s getting us out from our slavery to sin through, Christ’s death and resurrection. As our response, we are invited to love this faithful and merciful God and keep the commandments, leading to the commandment of love in the second reading.

Our love for one another, we are told, is of God; that is, the love shares in the divine love the first reading affirmed. As those who do love others we are said to know God, not just to know about God but in some sense to encounter God because God is love, not an abstract definition but in some way a reflection of God’s dynamic being. This is reflected in God’s sending the Son into the world as expiation for our sins, the Son who shares with us his divine life. Again, and even more clearly, this is divine initiative. It is not that we have loved God, but that God first loved us; our love of God and especially of one another is our response.

We know that we remain in God and God in us from the gift of the Holy Spirit we have received. Parallel to loving one another, or perhaps better, being a part of that love, we are to bear witness that the Father has sent the Son as savior of the world. We therefore likewise acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God in a unique way, transcending but in no way denying that we too are children of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus and of one another. Once we get in touch with the love God has for us, we can conclude with John: God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in them.

Today’s gospel passage makes several points about revelation. Theologically, the middle part is the most important, dealing with Jesus as revelation and the nature of revelation. It is not only that the Father has revealed everything to Jesus, and not only that then Jesus reveals things to us. What’s important is that Jesus reveals the Father to us, the very nature of God as a God of love as in the first two readings.

It’s the first part, spiritually speaking, that concerns us, as disciples and thus as recipients of revelation for which Jesus praises God. I’m not sure whether the disciples like being called little ones, though it could be understood in the sense of new learners. Indeed, in the last part of the passage Jesus invites us to learn from him how to be meek and humble of heart, what he calls an easy yoke and a light burden. But how are we to be meek and humble? It reminds me of Mary’s prayer when visiting Elizabeth in which she praises the God who lifts up the lowly and puts down the proud and the mighty. While we think of Mary as meek and mild, even in her humility she was a woman of great faith and great strength. Let us pray to imitate her.
—Edward O’Donnell SJ

Today’s readings can be found at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.