Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – Sister Terry Davis, SNDdeN
June 11, 2021
Matthew 11: 28-30
The Feast of the Sacred Heart highlights the core of the Christian message, which is love and the call to love above all else. It has been symbolized down through the ages by the shape of the human heart. We probably remember framed prints of the Sacred Heart with emanating rays hanging in churches and often in our homes. The same symbol was used in statuary. We keep trying to understand the depth of love that created and sustains us thorough these symbols.
While the Gospel chosen for this feast day in the modern lectionary describes the very end of the crucifixion, I decided to reflect on the Gospel used previously, which might well be one of the most beloved of all our sacred texts.
This passage makes it very clear who is invited into the divine presence and what the demands are in approaching. It is not the perfect, the righteous or the law-abiding. It is not the powerful nor the learned. To our amazement, it is the burdened and the broken. We are called to come to this God who is most present to us when we are troubled. So much of our experience schools us to believe that we are accepted and worthy when are put together, perhaps when we are repentant, but certainly not when we are lost and covered with shame.
This wonderful feast reminds us that our effort does not somehow makes us worthy of God’s love and grace. It is God’s nature to love, forgive and welcome. We, as Christians, are called to act as Jesus did, to welcome those who are burdened, to care for those who are broken and to offer tender love to those who stumble across our path as they struggle.
Matthew 11: 28-30
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”