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The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart is about the powerful love of Jesus for each one of us.
Blood and Water
This is the Feast of the Sacred Heart and the first reading gives us a little glimpse into the heart of God. Ephraim was the northern kingdom. The northern kingdom of the two kingdoms, the northern and the southern, the northern kingdom was the most problematic. It was always forsaking God.
And the things they did to forsake God were significant indeed. Among the worst was child sacrifice. So God is speaking through the prophet Hosea who preached at a time where he was trying to gently welcome back the people of God, the people of Ephraim, to follow the way of God because that would lead to their salvation and their healing. God says he will not destroy Ephraim.
And he doesn’t. They destroy themselves. They don’t listen to God. They continue to do these abominable actions. They’re captured by other countries and ultimately they ceased to exist. Now the southern kingdom had its own problems. It was sent into exile, for example. But they ultimately returned to God and they returned to Judah, the southern kingdom, and they were faithful. There is in this first reading a lesson for us that when we go astray, the one who can heal is not simply ourselves. It is God himself.
And we have in the gospel reading a powerful recognition of what it is that God can do for those he loves. There is no more loving action of God than Jesus being crucified, dying for our sins, and then ultimately being raised from the dead. And this blood and water flowing out has traditionally been understood as a symbol of baptism and the Eucharist.
That the water that flows forth from the side of Christ is baptism that gives birth to the church and makes disciples of Jesus. The blood that flows from the side of Jesus is the Eucharist, which wipes away, washes away our sins and gives us new life. This is in fact why the church has long had a tradition of adoration. To sit in the presence of Jesus, to be reminded of how powerful is his love for us, and to be healed of our sin and brokenness.
The Feast of the Sacred Heart arose at a time when Jansenism was a big problem in Europe. Now Jansenism is not all that much unlike Albigensianism, which led to the founding of the Dominican Order. It is namely the belief that flesh is really evil. That there is no way we can please God because we are simply too weak, we simply cannot do anything to really improve our situation at all.
This feast was a reminder of what God’s love can do in our lives. What the grace of God can do for us. That the grace of God is more powerful than our sinfulness. That the love of God can forgive even the hardest of sins and can open even the hardest of hearts. As we celebrate this Feast of the Sacred Heart, let us ask the Lord today for a special awareness of his powerful love for each one of us.
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