THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

(Ez 34:11-16; Rom 5:5b-11; Lk 15:3-7)

The heart has long been considered the center of love.  On Valentine’s Day and in love letters, we use the symbol of the heart to indicate the depth of emotion we feel for someone.  Neuroscience tells us that emotion is more properly attributed to brain activity.  But when we limit the experience of love to emotion, we miss the essence of love.  To appreciate the rich symbolism of the heart, we must remember in Judaism that the word heart represented the core of the person.  While recognized as the principle life organ, the heart was also considered the center of all spiritual activity.

Consider the couple who had two children.  Their family experience was quite normal at first, with the parents showering their children with loving care, making the necessary sacrifices to ensure the children had all they needed and then some.  As the children came of age the discipline of family life was formed; responsibilities, chores, school activities, and parish life became the norm.  As the children advanced to their later teenage years, they became increasingly distant and desired to be free of their parent’s control and each one in turn left home.  One returned after a few months to share with their parents how they now understood the reason for the family norms and disciplines.  The other disappeared for years.  The parents suffered great sorrow as they wondered where and how their child was.  Their hearts longed to hear their child’s voice and to welcome them back.

So, it is with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Scripture uses the imagery of the shepherd in the first reading to reveal the depths the shepherd, and God, will go to rightly tend his sheep.  “The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal.” (Ez 34:16) “What man … would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it … to set it on his shoulder with great joy … rejoicing he has found his lost sheep.”

This is the love of a parent and the love of our God, a love that is truly more than the activity of the brain.  It is a sacred emotion that encompasses our entire human and spiritual being, generating a longing to be united with the wayward sons and daughters.  In this Eucharistic meal that we share is where “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”  This is his sorrow for his lost sheep, his calling and desire for their return, and His great joy for every one of his lost sheep found.

Let us with joyful hearts embrace this great love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and nourished by is body and blood, go forth rejoicing to share this great love with all his children.

EYES FIXED ON HEAVEN AND FEET FIRM ON THE EARTH

Trivia question for the weekend: Who was the first human in space? Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin when his capsule Vostok 1 completed one orbit of Earth on April 12, 1961. Yuri returned to earth a hero and a reception was thrown in his honor. As his close friend and cosmonaut colleague Alexei Leonov recounts, then-premier Nikita Khrushchev cornered Gagarin and asked, “So tell me, Yuri, did you see God up there?” After a moment's pause. Gagarin answered, "Yes sir, I did." Khrushchev an atheist frowned and told him, “Don't tell anyone.” A few minutes later the head of the Russian Orthodox Church took Gagarin aside. “So, tell me my child, did you see God up there?” Gagarin hesitated and replied, “No sir, I did not.” and after a slight pause he added, “Don't tell anyone.”

Today’s feast invites us to look up. To have our eyes fixed on heaven. For 6 weeks now we have been reading how Jesus was preparing the disciples for this moment, when he would return to his Father. His appearances were lessons in peace, believing, reconciliation, listening, obedience, love, and hope. All characteristics of one who would be a disciple of Jesus. Today the disciples receive their final instructions. After opening their mind to the Scriptures, Jesus summarizes the core proclamation about him: his suffering, death, and Resurrection that had been foretold in their ancient writings. With these few words, he provides a new way of interpreting the Scriptures in light of Jesus’ passing from death to life.

Throughout the whole period between the resurrection and ascension, God’s providence was at work to instill this one lesson into the hearts of the disciples, to set this one truth before their eyes, that our Lord Jesus Christ, who was truly born, truly suffered and truly died, should be recognized as truly risen from the dead. The disciples are witnesses of these things and this is the message they are to take to all the nations, while living in word and deed, the characteristics Jesus has taught while he was with them. As a parting gift, “I am sending the promise of my Father upon you” telling them to “stay in the city until you are clothed with the power from on high.”

While the Gospel of Luke tells us that after the parting of Jesus, his disciples “went back to Jerusalem full of joy” (Lk 24:52). The same account in the Acts of the Apostles is quite different. The Acts account has the disciples seemingly dazed and confused as they looked intently at the sky. Until two men suddenly appear and disturb their skyward gaze. “Why are you Galileans standing here looking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way as you have seen him go to heaven” (Acts 1:11).

Looking up to heaven is not to be an escapism from life. If the disciples kept standing there just gazing at the sky, they can’t possibly be “witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to earth’s remotest end” (Acts 1:8). The disciples’ belief in the Risen Lord, the power of the Spirit, and their hope in the second coming have to be expressed in their commitment to transforming the world. For this they will need to have their feet firm on the earth.

Disciples of Jesus are charged, within the context of our daily lives, to witness and testify to Jesus in word and deed. It is essential that each one of us, whether rich or poor, young or old, male or female, in all our glorious diversity of gifts to boldly live our faith in the world. To continually call upon the Father’s gift of the Spirit to enliven and encourage us to share our faith story. For it was the presence of God and the power of the Holy Spirit that turned eleven ordinary men of the world, who were intimidated by the catastrophe of the cross, into hearts-on-fire missionaries. 

It is the same presence of God and the power of the Holy Spirit that helps us integrate our faith experience into our daily grind. As Christians, we are not to get lost in the narrow confines of this world, nor at the same time, get lost with our heads in the clouds, or looking for God from the window of a space ship. We are called to maintain a sense of an upward and forward-looking hope.

Genuine holiness consists in the meaningful integration of the spiritual and mundane aspects of our daily life. So, look up, setting your heart’s desire on the unperishable treasures from above, while keeping your feet firm on the earth with a forward-looking hope! For by the Holy Spirit we are united to the Risen Christ, who is the head of the Church of which we are the body. We are now the witnesses charged to give testimony to the risen Lord to the world, as we are sent from each Mass in peace, to glorify the Lord, by our lives.

MIRROR MIRROR

(Rom 12:9-16; Lk 1:39-56)

So, I’m going to make some assumptions this morning on how you began this day.  Some assumptions are very obvious, others based on what I perceive to be basic human routines.  First assumption, you woke up and got out of bed.  Go ahead, some of you may need to pinch yourself to make sure.  The rest of my assumptions are common and not necessarily in order: you had at least one cup of coffee, went to the  bathroom, bathed, brushed your teeth, had breakfast, and by observation I notice some were even motivated to either had done or are going to workout, but at some point during your morning routine, you looked at yourself in the mirror. 

This is where it gets interesting.  Often, we stop to take a close look, which produces certain spontaneous response like: Vanity, “Wow, I’m looking really good!” or Depression; “Damn, I’m looking old.” or Thanksgiving; “Thank you Lord for another day.”  Our response often sets the mood for our day.   This is what others will see no matter how good we feel we are at masking it.

Yesterday we celebrated the Ascension of the Lord, we’re commissioned to “go into the world and proclaim the good news to all creation.”  Today, we celebrate the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Is it a coincidental flow of events that these two great feasts are next to each other?  Reflecting on its significance helped me realize that the Visitation is a gesture of manifesting the Spirit and the Ascension message: to proclaim the good news.  We are celebrating life in many ways in our feast today.  It’s a celebration of life among us, a celebration of love.  Mary is carrying the good news in her womb.  We carry the good news in our being.

In the first reading, we heard Paul saying, “Let love be genuine” (Rom 12:9) … “Love one another with mutual affection”; “outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom 12:10) … “Rejoice with those who rejoice” (Rom 12:15).  This all needs to begin with the person you met in the mirror this morning.

Sharing the love of God is not limited to words, even more it is manifested in actions and loving service, seeing Jesus truly present in ourselves and others.

Does our:

• heart leap for joy in greeting the person in the mirror or at greeting of another? 
•  soul spontaneously proclaim the greatness of the Lord? 
•  spirit rejoice in God’s gift of another day?

Looking to Mary to be our model, our guide, and inspiration let us celebrate life.  Let us in humble service, sing with her, our own praises to God, who will always lift up the his lowly servant in the mirror.