Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Luke 15, 3-7

So he told them this parable:

'Which one of you with a hundred sheep, if he lost one, would fail to leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the missing one till he found it?

And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders

and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep that was lost."

In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner repenting than over ninety-nine upright people who have no need of repentance.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Despite being a fairly recent liturgical memorial, it has its roots in the very heart of Christianity. The preface of the Liturgy, wishing to show its deep meaning, invites us to contemplate the mystery of Jesus’ love: “Raised up on the Cross, in his boundless love he gave his life for us, and from the wound in his side poured out blood and water, symbol of the sacraments of the Church, so that all men and women, drawn to the heart of the Saviour, may draw with joy from the wellspring of salvation.” The liturgy sings of the heart of Jesus as the fount of salvation. Yes, from that heart of flesh which spared itself in nothing, which gave all of itself to the last drop of blood to pull us out from the slavery of the evil one, from that heart continues uninterruptedly, along the centuries, to gush love. This liturgical memory is an invitation made to all of us so that we may turn our attention to the mystery of that heart: a heart of flesh, not of stone as so many times are ours. From the compassion and emotion of that heart, Jesus’ public life takes its beginning. Matthew writes (9:36) that Jesus, going through the towns and the villages of Galilee, was moved by the crowds who flocked to him because they were tired and exhausted like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to gather and cure them. With Jesus there finally had come the good shepherd of whom the prophet Ezekiel speaks: “For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land” (34:11-13). The evangelist Luke, in the passage which has been announced to us, as if to continue the words of the prophet, shows us how far the love of this good shepherd has reached, a shepherd who loves his sheep to the point of being willing to give his very life for them. He loves them one by one, not en masse. In fact, of each one he knows their voice, their name, their history, their needs. And on each has placed all his love and all his hope. In a mass society like ours, where it is easy to be forgotten and to disappear into anonymity, truly it is good news to know that each of us is known by name by the Lord and is never forgotten by him. Rather, we are the ones to go away from him or to flee far from his affection risking being lost in the sad meanderings of this world. Well, this good shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep in the fold to come looking for us. “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed” – already writes the prophet Ezekiel, prefiguring the good shepherd – “I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak” (34:16). Jesus abandons none of his sheep to their own fate. Always he gathers them together and cares for them. And probably not just once but many times, he had to leave the other ninety-nine sheep to run after us, to gather us, to put us on his shoulders and to lead us back to the fold. So many times – we could sing with the ancient hymn of the Dies irae – “quaerens me, sedisti lassus? How often, Lord, you sat down tired, from the fatigue of chasing me?” Jesus’ heart, his love for us does not know any limits, even to being absolutely incomprehensible to human logic. The apostle Paul expresses well the limitlessness of this love: “Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:7-8). This is the heart that this day’s liturgy shows us. It is the heart of Jesus which does not cease to beat for us and for all humanity. And we could say that not only does he carry us on his shoulders, he even pours into our hearts his love or, if we want, he gives us his own heart, as the apostle Paul writes, “The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5).