June is for the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
I love a simple sentence, and I love a simple concept even more.
But the human heart is anything but simple.
Yet the heart is at the center of all things – our thoughts, emotions, words, and motivations. Scripture refers to the heart as the source of prayer more than a thousand times. CCC 2562
God sent his only begotten son into the world, fully human and fully divine, possessing a fully human heart with valves and ventricles just like yours and mine. This heart, created by God, has written on it a deep desire to be in communion with Him. That’s the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Jesus was like us in all things but sin.
My heart, created by God, has written on it that same deep desire to be in communion with Him. So does yours.
But our hearts are broken.
The human heart tends to be fickle, often sidetracked by the lures of worldly things – a problem that has existed since the beginning of time because of our fallen nature.
The Church calls this problem, or rather tendency, Concupiscence. Concupiscence can refer to any intense form of human desire. The apostle St. Paul explains it as a rebellion of the flesh against the spirit. CCC 2515
“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt. 26:41).
Often, the temptation toward material goods that satisfy our appetite for things like comfort, pleasure, or recognition overshadows a deeper desire hidden inside every human heart – the desire to be known and loved by God.
While comfort, pleasure, and recognition aren’t intrinsically bad, a heart left unchecked can lead us to selfishly pursue the things that bring instant gratification. When we start focusing on self-satisfaction, it tends to complicate our lives, adding chaos and stress, and many times leading to sin, and always leaving us feeling unsatisfied in the end.
If you’re checking yourself right now, like I am, maybe you can relate.
If comfort, pleasure, and recognition become the goal, then we’re not living like the disciples we’re called to be. We’re not living the way Jesus showed us.
Our greatest accomplishment, at the end of our lives, won’t be the size of our homes, the vacations we took (although both are wonderful things!), or the number of followers we have on our social media accounts.
Our greatest accomplishment will be whether we loved like Jesus.
“and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength … you must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12: 30-31).
The image of the Sacred Heart is his fully human heart, wrapped in a crown of thorns, burning with flames of love for all of humanity, beneath the cross he bore, pierced by our sins.
It’s the love of Jesus in a single image – A heart filled with love so strong it moved him to suffer and die for you and for me. A heart burning with love. A sacrificial love. A love that would go to the ends of the Earth for another.
Fully human, therefore having a fully human heart, and yet fully divine, he came down from Heaven to walk with us in all our messiness and brokenness.
This is what we recognize as the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The human heart is not simple, but the Sacred Heart of Jesus is. When we consecrate our hearts to His Sacred Heart, the result is a heart that loves more like Jesus.
And that’s what we celebrate as Catholics in June.
A simple concept, yes, but not easy. When it feels hard to love like Jesus, try saying this prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:
O Sacred Heart of Jesus,
filled with Infinite Love;
broken by our ingratitude
and pierced by our sins;
yet loving us still; accept the
consecration we make to You of all
that we are and all that we have.
Take every faculty of our souls and
bodies, only day by day draw us
nearer and nearer to Your Sacred Heart;
and there as we shall hear the lesson, teach us Your Holy Way.
