Happy Thirteenth Sunday! This upcoming week brings to a close the month of June, which the Catholic Church dedicates to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Popular devotion to our Lord’s Sacred Heart is especially tied to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French Visitation nun who lived during the latter half of the 1600s. Beginning in 1673 and continuing for about 18 months, Jesus appeared to Sister Margaret Mary in supernatural visions and taught her to spread devotion to his Sacred Heart, which appeared to her outside his chest, on fire and wrapped in a crown of thorns.
We have absolute riches in the lives of the saints! In obedience to her spiritual director, (now Saint) Fr. Claude de la Colombière, Sister Margaret Mary wrote the contents of her visions in a journal, which has since been translated and published as her autobiography. Fr. Claude also documented the visions himself and helped spread the devotion revealed through them. This devotion to the Sacred Heart eventually became an official feast day for the country of France in 1765, and then for the universal Church in 1856. It is always celebrated on the Friday after Corpus Christi and therefore nearly always falls in the month of June. Thus, we have the month of the Sacred Heart.
In his first revelation, Jesus said to Sister Margaret Mary, “My Divine Heart so intensely loves mankind that it can no longer contain within itself the flames of its ardent charity. It must pour itself out by this means and manifest itself to them to enrich them with its precious treasures, which contain all the graces they need to be saved from perdition.” Jesus would go on to reveal twelve divine promises for those who practiced devoted veneration to the Sacred Heart, including peace within families, blessings in earthly endeavors, and the grace of final perseverance.
I, for one, am among those pilgrims who would very much love the grace of final perseverance, because making it home to heaven is, no lie, my greatest goal. But I am so often aware of my own shortcomings, which makes me think: how much more aware must Jesus be of my poor soul? Our Lord’s Sacred Heart is a promised refuge for us. Pray for your priests and pray that God would increase our number. We pray daily for you. The flames of divine love will keep us safe in this life to the very last breath.
As it is, my last breath is not yet, nor am I planning on it for some time. Which means I have more work to do. This upcoming week marks two full years since my arrival in Genesee County. Being a pastor has been one long learning curve, and I feel like I’m still curving. But as the vision for the future unfolds, I’m anxious to keep pressing forward for fear of falling behind. This much I know: I need to grow and get stronger. I’m cognizant that much of where we need to be five, ten, fifteen, and twenty years from now depends on the decisions and habits we choose today. Lord, help us be healthy, help us grow young, and increase in us the fire of your love.
Fr. Brian