Sunday Within the Octave of the Sacred Heart and
3rd Sunday after Pentecost – June 17, 2012
(Luke 15: 1-10)
Last Friday was the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and today’s Mass commemorates that feast. When we hear the word “heart” we think of the physical heart beating in our chest. But we also use the word “heart” symbolically in connection with our moral and emotional lives. In this way we use expressions like, “Have a heart,” or “The boxer has great heart.” Even in today’s Office there is a short prayer: “My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.” The Church teaches that devotion to the Heart of Jesus is entirely directed to this symbolism and recalls the love of Jesus, and His emotional and moral life.
When our Lord appeared on earth mankind had forgotten how to love because he had forgotten what true beauty is. Human hearts were caught up in a false love of earthly possessions. Into this world the Holy Ghost brought the Heart of Jesus, which is like a ladder between man and God. His human heart could not love His Church without His Divine Heart being moved to mercy, and here we have the doctrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The devotion is as old as the Church because it rests on the truth that Christ is the Spouse and the Church is his bride.
The Gospel reading for the Feast tell how a soldier opened Jesus’ side with a spear, not that he wounded Him or stabbed Him, but opened His side. This was prefigured by the door that Noah was commanded to make in the side of the Ark. Into this door of life went every living creature that was not to be destroyed by the flood. Christ’s side is also the door of life. Out of His side poured the Sacraments and the Church. The Sacraments give grace and lead, not to destruction, but to life. This opening of Christ’s side was prophesied by Zacharias 500 years before Christ: “And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced . . .” (Zacharias 12: 10)
In today’s Epistle the Prophet Isaias says to Israel, “You shall draw waters [meaning grace], with joy out of the Savior’s fountains. (Isaias 12: 3) These fountains are the Sacraments. But God says later in Jeremias, “For my people have done two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves . . . cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jeremias 12: 13) How does God respond to this sin of His children? He overlooks it. He is touched at seeing them trying to quench their burning thirst for eternity by idolizing beauty and wealth – things that are like a mirage in the desert. They are there, then poof! They are gone. God sent His Son to straighten them out. Jew and Gentile alike, you have met Jesus, the Christ. He is your companion on the way through life. He is God and He has become Flesh, that for the good of your soul He might draw you to Him with the cords of Adam (Osee 11:4), that is, by the love of His Heart of Flesh He may lead you to what you were created for – eternity with Him in His Kingdom.
The thirst continues for those who are bound with the cords of God’s love but, as Jesus once taught in the temple, “If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink. He that believeth in me . . . out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7: 37, 38)
The wound in Christ’s side is the doorway to His Church. Eve was taken from the side of Adam to be his wife, in a prefigurement of a future mystery. The fulfillment of that mystery is the opening of Christ’s side so that His Bride, the Church, might come forth. Although no trace of the wound that produced Eve exists today, Christ’s Church will continue forever. We can look to the wound in His side to be reminded that we only have to go to His Sacred Heart where we will find everything we need for our happiness and salvation. ***
In today’s Gospel reading for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost, the publicans and sinners drew near to Jesus to hear Him. These people knew they were sinners and they worried about their eternal salvation. The Pharisees and scribes were unrepentant sinners. They murmured against Christ, saying he receives sinners and eats with them. This shows us that Jesus Christ, Who is True Justice, feels compassion, but the false justice of the scribes and Pharisees shows only scorn. Why do the scribes and Pharisees represent false justice? Because they perverted the Law of Moses and the Commandments, twisting them to enrich themselves with the possessions of earth.
The scribes and Pharisees were so sick with sin that they didn’t even know they were ill, but Jesus in His kindness as the Heavenly Physician treats them with a soothing ointment in the form of the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. The number 100 in the parable represents all the rational creatures subject to God. The one that was lost is mankind; the 99 left behind are all the choirs of angels. They are not in need of repentance and salvation, but mankind is.
When the Shepherd finds the lost sheep, He doesn’t punish it; He places it on His shoulders, as Christ placed the burden of our sins upon His shoulders when He took up His Cross. Upon returning home, which is to Heaven, He calls together His friends and neighbors, meaning all the choirs of Heaven, to, “Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost.” Today’s foolish people might change that to read: “Rejoice with the sheep that has been found,” but this creates a false religion that makes mankind into a false God. The sheep are subject to the shepherd, just as we are subject to God. But when the sheep starts thinking he is the Shepherd, he is truly lost. And we see this in the second parable. A woman lost a coin on which an image was impressed. God tells us in the Book of Genesis that we are made in the image and likeness of God, hence the coin represents mankind. But in the Garden of Eden our first parents fall for the temptation of the devil. Adam and Eve, who are the sheep, start thinking they are the Shepherd. This original sin closed the Garden of Eden to them and closed the Gates of Heaven to all men until in the fullness of time the promised Messiah came.
The woman in the second parable is the Church, whose task it is to search out those who are lost and when found, to place them on her shoulders and bring them Home. The Church through the Sacraments shows us the way back home to Paradise. The road to Paradise, however, is narrow, and when we sin, we fall into the ditch on the side of the road. If we are blessed with humility, we repent of our sins, and through the Sacraments find our way back onto the road again. When this happens Jesus tells us that “there shall be joy among the Angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.” (Luke 15: 10) +++
We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass
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