June 9, 2026 • 32 mins
In preparation for the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the Sacred Heart as an infinite treasure of love and mercy through which we come to know how much we are loved by God. We are invited to bring the truths of the Sacred Heart into our daily life for it is through this devotion which we can find the strength to withstand temptation and bear our cross, find hope amid discouragement, and find courage to evangelize no matter the circumstances.
As we participate in the treasures of Jesus’ heart, we are able to draw upon the grace of Christ and in turn become transmitters of the love of Christ to those hearts that are empty of meaning, of hope, and of consolation.
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SPEAKER_00 (00:10):
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, amen.
My Lord and my God, I firmlybelieve that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me.
I adore you with profoundreverence.
I ask your pardon for my sinsand the grace to make this time
(00:33):
of prayer fruitful.
My Immaculate Mother SaintJoseph, my father and Lord, my
guardian angel intercede for me.
Well, today we celebrate thebeautiful solemnity of the
(00:54):
sacred heart of Jesus, thetreasure of the Church, our
consolation.
And we can begin our meditationon this beautiful mystery of
faith that gives all thefaithful Christians such
consolation.
(01:16):
Using the option number two ofthe collect of the Mass of the
Sacred Heart, we read and pray,O God, who in the heart of your
Son, wounded by our sins, bestowon us in mercy the boundless
(01:41):
treasures of your love.
Grant, we pray that in payinghomage, paying him homage of our
salvation, we may also offerworthy reparation.
(02:02):
The practical takeaway of thisfeast is that we draw from these
infinite treasures of love.
This treasure of love, offorgiveness, of consolation, of
(02:25):
peace and joy.
In short, sanctity is for thetaking, and we can never exhaust
it.
We draw from his heart whatJesus revealed to the repentant
(02:46):
Samaritan woman that from theheart of Jesus we draw from the
heart of Jesus this livingwater.
Why is water an image?
It's an image of the HolySpirit.
It's an image of thislife-giving water, this special
(03:09):
water, if you will, from thesacred heart that gives us total
fulfillment and happiness thatis perfected in the next life.
And if we draw enough water, weourselves will be transmitters
(03:30):
of this water to those manyhearts that are empty of
meaning, empty of hope, empty ofconsolation.
And so we ourselves,participating in the treasures
of Jesus' heart, we alsodistribute that water.
(03:52):
We're not the source, but wedraw from Jesus, and in turn we
give to others.
We can use a meditation on thesacred heart, or small part of a
meditation on the sacred heartgiven by Saint Jose Maria, can
be found in Christ's Passing by,titled Finding Peace in the
(04:17):
Heart of Christ.
Saint Jose Maria says thefollowing, similar to what we
prayed at the beginning of ourmeditation.
God, our Father, has seen fit togrant us in the heart of his Son
infinite treasures of love,mercy, and affection.
(04:41):
If we want to find evidence thatGod loves us, that he not only
listens to our prayers butanticipates them, we need only
follow the same line of thoughtas Saint Paul.
He who did not spare his ownson, but gave him up for us all.
(05:02):
Will he not also give us thingsin him?
All things in him.
I am fortunate to drive alongthe Kennedy, it's the main
(05:22):
highway in the city of Chicago,and as you drive south towards
the downtown area, you will seeon your right, make sure you
keep your eyes on the road, butyou'll see on your right a very
big banner that everybody cansee.
(05:43):
There's a church along thathighway, St.
Stannis Las Casca.
And in front of that church, inthe parking lot or courtyard,
there is a banner of the divinemercy.
And generous people havefinanced that beautiful big
(06:04):
banner.
And I'm sure I could speak formost of the people involved with
daily rush hour traffic.
What a source of consolation isthat banner, that image of
divine mercy with that wonderfulhope-giving aspiration, Jesus, I
(06:27):
trust in you.
And it's almost as if we don'tneed an apparition.
In fact, that painting, thatimage, comes from an apparition
or a vision or a locution givento Saint Sister Faustina in
Poland in the 30s, when she washaving frequent visions, if not
(06:52):
daily visions, of the divinemercy.
And it's almost as if the Lordis saying, Reach out to me, come
to me, I want you to trust me,seek me, and you will be
abundantly satisfied.
The waters of financial success,of professional prestige, of
(07:21):
achievement, of good health, ofattractive appearance, of power,
of popularity, are a water thatnever satisfies, leaves one
thirsty.
The water of that sacred heart,called the grace of God, called
the life of Christ, called anenergy of love, fulfills and
(07:50):
prompts the human heart to seekfor more, at the same time
fulfilling it.
We want to bring this beautifultruth, the sacred heart of
Jesus, to our daily life.
We want to reflect on it andbring about some concrete
(08:15):
practices that will allow us tobenefit more from this too good
to be true reality.
In a way, you can summarize theentire gospel, if not the whole
New Testament, with thecelebrated traditional image of
(08:43):
the sacred heart of Jesus, withJesus pointing to his heart that
is crowned with thorns.
That is the icon, the image thatcontains the entire gospel
message.
Everything Jesus does,everything he says, his entire
(09:08):
demeanor in the Gospel unpackthis meaning of the Sacred
Heart.
To give it a bit of contemporaryhistory, if we have time, I will
read some of the contents of St.
(09:30):
Margaret Allacock's vision ofthe Sacred Heart that gave a
serious push to this devotion.
But I want to touch on a morecontemporary private revelation
that is meant for publicconsumption as we celebrate
Mercy Sunday, as we honor SisterFaustina, who is now Saint
(09:56):
Faustina, heavily endorsed bythe great saint, the great
evangelizer, the great pope,Saint John Paul.
She's having these visions ofthe divine mercy, and the Lord
is heavily emphasizing more thanever, at least to my knowledge,
(10:18):
and I think I'm probablycorrect, throughout the history
of the church, we've alwaysappreciated the sacred heart.
This is a standard devotion, butit's gained momentum in the
World War II years in Poland,and the popes have cultivated
(10:45):
this devotion, especially JohnPaul and Pope Francis.
The immediate origin to thedevotion of the Divine Mercy,
which is an offshoot of thesacred heart, was the
devastations of this virulentevil that resulted in a
(11:13):
staggering toll in human death,in human tragedy, human grief.
And it was caused by a colossalrejection of the sacred heart.
Not only was Jesus Christ andhis teachings circumvented, he
(11:38):
was hated and his teachings werehated by two regimes.
This hatred of Christ waspoliticized and turned into a
regime called Nazi Germany andcommunist Soviet Union, and also
by extension communist China.
(12:03):
Systems that are directlypredicated, explicitly
predicated, on a hatred of God,a hatred of natural law that
ultimately leads to Christ,leads to the heart of Christ.
These two regimes are theradical antithesis of the
(12:30):
meaning of the sacred heart.
In our modern times, I would saythere is a soft, implicit
rejection of the sacred heart.
The sacred heart is irrelevant.
And by legislation and byactions, though we don't judge
(12:54):
the human heart, we try to givepeople the benefit of the doubt,
at least an objective sense,with these severe, flagrant
violations of fundamentalprinciples of morality, it comes
across as a blasphemy towardsthe sacred heart.
(13:17):
But let's look at the originprayerfully.
You have this saintly nun,sickly, racked with pain, will
die a young death.
She is illuminated by visions ofthe divine mercy and messages
from Jesus, that we need togravitate more than ever on the
(13:46):
most salient perfection of God,made visible by the humanity of
Jesus, who is the Son of Godmade man, made human, made
visible, made communicative.
That's why it's called word,made flesh.
And these are times where weneed to enter into that heart of
(14:11):
Jesus to find mercy.
We're in desperate need ofmercy.
And the devastations of thisculture of death that
intensified in a frightening wayduring the Second World War,
where one fifth, at leastaccording to my sources, of the
(14:33):
Polish population perished, onethird of the clergy perished
because of the concentrationcamps and martyrdoms.
In Germany there were almostwell over two thousand priests
in Dachau alone.
(14:56):
And then from the otherdirection, from the Soviet
Union, Poland also sufferedterrible persecutions that would
continue after, well after theSecond World War.
And hence, under those horribleconditions, Jesus intervenes in
(15:24):
a special way that everyChristian, even in these
frightening and tragiccircumstances, will find
strength and energy andconsolation in the divine mercy,
that it is the will of God thatwe focus especially on that part
(15:46):
of the gospel.
Pope Benedict, his frequentconsideration, his frequent
prayer, is to find recourse inthe pierced heart of Christ.
Saint Josemaria would findconsolation in Jesus' open side.
He would enter into the openside, he would enter into one of
(16:08):
his wounds.
In a I say a metaphorical way,but not totally metaphorical.
I mean, those wounds, that openside, is the culmination of
God's revelation of how muchwe're worth to him.
(16:30):
What kind of sentiments should Ihave?
Jesus says in the gospel, Cometo me, all you who are burdened
and heavy laden, and you willfind rest for your soul.
(16:55):
Come to me.
Matthew's the only one whorecords those words of Jesus.
Obviously, Jesus' disciplesheard those beautiful words, but
(17:16):
if I'm not mistaken, onlyMatthew records this.
He's the only one who recordsabout Jesus' teaching on feeding
the hungry, giving water to thethirsty, visiting the prisoner,
visiting the sick.
(17:37):
Paraphrasing, if you did it forthe lease, you've done it for
me.
And obviously I'm not anythingnear a scripture scholar, but
Matthew, who had a verychequered past, a tax collector
(17:58):
was vis-a-vis the Jewish people,was a despicable character.
He was seen very much as atraitor.
He was explicitly sinful, didn'tgo to the synagogue, extorted
money, became impure because hehung around the Romans.
(18:22):
The Romans were the oppressors,the enemy, and he worked for
them, collected taxes for them,and he would extort money for
himself.
If they didn't pay up, he wouldhand them over to the Roman
authorities.
So not exactly the most popularman on the block.
He hung around other sinners,sinful, fraudulent, dishonest
(18:50):
men, loose women, as was seen athis conversion party, where the
Pharisees were very muchscandalized by Jesus showing up
among such a motley crew ofpeople, eating and drinking with
sinners.
And Jesus shows his human heartand his sacred heart.
(19:13):
It is not the sick who need a itis not the healthy who need a
physician, but the sick.
Learn from these words, Jesussays, I want mercy and not
sacrifice.
And the gospel, as I said, thosegossip the gospels can be
summarized with the image of thesacred heart.
(19:35):
But we take Jesus literally,come to me.
It's a gentle word, come.
It's not get over here, you mustcome, or else, if you know
what's good for you, do what Isay.
No, it's come to me.
And when you pray, unburdenyourself.
(19:58):
For whatever it's worth.
There's many churches in the inChicago and the metropolitan
area that have Eucharisticadoration, either at certain
(20:18):
times or at all times.
And I uh give spiritualdirection downtown Chicago, very
close to a church where peoplewho work downtown frequent for
(20:41):
Mass, for confession, forprayer.
And at least on one of theafternoons, at least on Friday
afternoon, there's Eucharisticadoration.
And if I have a little bit of abreak in the action and the work
I'm doing, my confessions andspiritual direction, I'll make a
(21:01):
visit or spend some time inadoration myself.
And I just notice people walkingin.
There's a bit of anxiety writtenon their faces.
You realize if they're going togo in there and do some serious
praying and adoring.
(21:23):
And it's to give glory to God,but many times people have
burdens.
And they're turning to God indesperation.
And you can tell that there'sissues weighing on them.
And then if I stay there longenough, I'll see people get up
(21:44):
and leave.
And as they leave, they're morerefreshed, they're more
lighthearted, they seem lessanxious.
Maybe my audience is saying,Well, are you looking at the
blessed sacrament or observingthe people coming in and out?
(22:08):
And maybe I can answer.
Well, kind of both.
And there's all sorts ofwonderful anecdotes of drawing
consolation from that sacredheart.
And going back to that historythat I digressed of Sister
(22:33):
Faustina, John Paul was verymuch taken with the divine mercy
being in the thick of thingsduring World War II, losing his
father.
Not in the war, but he diedduring the war.
(22:53):
His members of his faculty wereexecuted.
They closed his school.
He worked in a quarry.
And they started to destroy hiscountry.
Twenty miles away was Auschwitz,that famous hell of a
concentration camp where peoplewould enter but never come out.
(23:20):
And he saw very clearly that theresponse of the evils of this
world is to have recourse to themerciful heart of Jesus.
That love, and he liked to quotethe song of songs, love is more
powerful than death.
And those words, for especiallysomeone who experienced the
(23:44):
culture of death at such closerange, was packed with meaning.
First, I have to find mystrength in the sacred heart of
Jesus, to withstand the evils ofthe times, to bear my cross, to
(24:05):
not give in to discouragement,to evangelize no matter what the
circumstances are.
I need to draw from that specialwater that wells up to eternal
life in that well of mercycalled the Sacred Heart.
(24:25):
In John Paul, before he died,there was a book published.
I think these are addresses hegave, remarks he gave over the
years, called Memory andIdentity, where he does a lot of
reflecting of his youth duringthe Second World War and his
(24:46):
time living in Poland underCommunist Soviet Union, and
under no uncertain terms, hesays it's going to be the mercy
of Christ that is going totriumph.
And we could say with CharlesDickens in his celebrated book,
(25:12):
Tale of True Cities, these arethe worst of times.
These are the best of times.
Why are they the best of times?
If they're the worst of times,because these are times that
call for an intense spirit ofadoration, an intense recourse
to the sacred heart.
So Jesus is inviting us to praya certain way.
(25:37):
Let's follow the directions.
These words will be intensifiedand become more poignant in the
agony of the garden that Matthewnarrates in detail.
Come to me, all who labor andare heavy laden, and I will give
(25:57):
you rest.
Under no uncertain terms, cometo me, unburden yourself to me.
Complain to me.
Tell me that you're weak.
Tell me that I need strength.
Tell me that temptations are toomuch right now.
Tell me that you're afraid ofthe cross.
(26:20):
Be very personal.
Come to me.
I want you to pray a certainway.
I want you to open up to me.
Take my yoke upon you and learnfrom me.
And what are we supposed tolearn?
(26:42):
Well, number one, how much weare loved by God.
We can't know the love of Goddirectly without the effects of
his love.
One creation gives us a glimmerof God's love.
(27:04):
But the revelation of his loveis off the charts, if you will,
with the humanity of Christ.
Christ's humanity is theabsolute perfect human
manifestation of God's love forus.
(27:26):
John's first epistle defines Godas agape, infinite self-giving
love.
That's God.
He doesn't love, he is love.
Notice he's not defined bybeauty or goodness, he's all
(27:47):
those things, or power, letalone the convoluted but valid
proofs of the existence of Godby the ancient pagan thinkers,
Aristotle, Plato, an uncausedcause, or the one, or the good,
(28:10):
but that simple one word, theydidn't even come close.
We don't fault them, they didpretty well without divine
revelation.
God is agape, and the perfecthuman translation of that
transcendent love is the fourgospels.
(28:35):
Jesus' persona, Jesus' actions,Jesus' teachings.
What happens when we haverecourse to the sacred heart?
Allow me to read from theprivate revelation of Saint
(28:56):
Margaret of Alcock, theseventeenth century French
mystic.
She says the following.
The first is the stream of mercyfor sinners.
(29:17):
It pours into their heartssentiments of contrition and
repentance.
When we have the misfortune ofsin, we will experience these
sentiments of contrition andrepentance.
That's what happened to thegospel characters.
(29:39):
The living water of Jesus' heartwould flow into them, the Mary
Magdalene's, the Zacchaeus's,the Peters, the James, the
John's, the St.
Paul's, the Saint Augustine's.
The second is the stream ofcharity, which helps all in
(30:01):
need, and especially aids thoseseeking perfection to find the
means of surmounting theirdifficulties.
And hence Jesus says here, Takemy yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I'm gentle and lowly inheart, and you will find rest
(30:21):
for your souls, for my yoke iseasy and my burden is light.
That the sacred heart of Jesushelps us carry the cross, does
most of the carrying, so much sothat my yoke is easy and my
burden is light.
(30:43):
From the third stream flow loveand light for the benefit of his
friends who have attainedperfection.
These he wishes to unite tohimself, so that they may share
his knowledge and commandments,and in their individual ways
devote themselves wholly toadvancing his glory.
(31:07):
Well, we bring our prayer to aconclusion, and we go to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, whichis the feminine version of the
sacred heart.
She's perfectly Christ-like, infeminine form.
(31:27):
And we want to reach the sacredheart of Jesus, the shortcut,
according to Saint Jose Mariaand virtually all the saints, is
the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We go to Mary and ask her tobring us into the depths of her
son's sacred heart.
(31:48):
I thank you, my God, for thegood resolutions, affections,
and inspirations you'vecommunicated to me in this
meditation.
I ask your help in putting theminto effect.
My Immaculate Mother SaintJoseph, my father and Lord, my
guardian angel, to see beforeme.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, amen.
My Lord and my God, I firmlybelieve that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me.
I adore you with profoundreverence.
I ask your pardon for my sinsand the grace to make this time
(00:33):
of prayer fruitful.
My Immaculate Mother SaintJoseph, my father and Lord, my
guardian angel intercede for me.
Well, today we celebrate thebeautiful solemnity of the
(00:54):
sacred heart of Jesus, thetreasure of the Church, our
consolation.
And we can begin our meditationon this beautiful mystery of
faith that gives all thefaithful Christians such
consolation.
(01:16):
Using the option number two ofthe collect of the Mass of the
Sacred Heart, we read and pray,O God, who in the heart of your
Son, wounded by our sins, bestowon us in mercy the boundless
(01:41):
treasures of your love.
Grant, we pray that in payinghomage, paying him homage of our
salvation, we may also offerworthy reparation.
(02:02):
The practical takeaway of thisfeast is that we draw from these
infinite treasures of love.
This treasure of love, offorgiveness, of consolation, of
(02:25):
peace and joy.
In short, sanctity is for thetaking, and we can never exhaust
it.
We draw from his heart whatJesus revealed to the repentant
(02:46):
Samaritan woman that from theheart of Jesus we draw from the
heart of Jesus this livingwater.
Why is water an image?
It's an image of the HolySpirit.
It's an image of thislife-giving water, this special
(03:09):
water, if you will, from thesacred heart that gives us total
fulfillment and happiness thatis perfected in the next life.
And if we draw enough water, weourselves will be transmitters
(03:30):
of this water to those manyhearts that are empty of
meaning, empty of hope, empty ofconsolation.
And so we ourselves,participating in the treasures
of Jesus' heart, we alsodistribute that water.
(03:52):
We're not the source, but wedraw from Jesus, and in turn we
give to others.
We can use a meditation on thesacred heart, or small part of a
meditation on the sacred heartgiven by Saint Jose Maria, can
be found in Christ's Passing by,titled Finding Peace in the
(04:17):
Heart of Christ.
Saint Jose Maria says thefollowing, similar to what we
prayed at the beginning of ourmeditation.
God, our Father, has seen fit togrant us in the heart of his Son
infinite treasures of love,mercy, and affection.
(04:41):
If we want to find evidence thatGod loves us, that he not only
listens to our prayers butanticipates them, we need only
follow the same line of thoughtas Saint Paul.
He who did not spare his ownson, but gave him up for us all.
(05:02):
Will he not also give us thingsin him?
All things in him.
I am fortunate to drive alongthe Kennedy, it's the main
(05:22):
highway in the city of Chicago,and as you drive south towards
the downtown area, you will seeon your right, make sure you
keep your eyes on the road, butyou'll see on your right a very
big banner that everybody cansee.
(05:43):
There's a church along thathighway, St.
Stannis Las Casca.
And in front of that church, inthe parking lot or courtyard,
there is a banner of the divinemercy.
And generous people havefinanced that beautiful big
(06:04):
banner.
And I'm sure I could speak formost of the people involved with
daily rush hour traffic.
What a source of consolation isthat banner, that image of
divine mercy with that wonderfulhope-giving aspiration, Jesus, I
(06:27):
trust in you.
And it's almost as if we don'tneed an apparition.
In fact, that painting, thatimage, comes from an apparition
or a vision or a locution givento Saint Sister Faustina in
Poland in the 30s, when she washaving frequent visions, if not
(06:52):
daily visions, of the divinemercy.
And it's almost as if the Lordis saying, Reach out to me, come
to me, I want you to trust me,seek me, and you will be
abundantly satisfied.
The waters of financial success,of professional prestige, of
(07:21):
achievement, of good health, ofattractive appearance, of power,
of popularity, are a water thatnever satisfies, leaves one
thirsty.
The water of that sacred heart,called the grace of God, called
the life of Christ, called anenergy of love, fulfills and
(07:50):
prompts the human heart to seekfor more, at the same time
fulfilling it.
We want to bring this beautifultruth, the sacred heart of
Jesus, to our daily life.
We want to reflect on it andbring about some concrete
(08:15):
practices that will allow us tobenefit more from this too good
to be true reality.
In a way, you can summarize theentire gospel, if not the whole
New Testament, with thecelebrated traditional image of
(08:43):
the sacred heart of Jesus, withJesus pointing to his heart that
is crowned with thorns.
That is the icon, the image thatcontains the entire gospel
message.
Everything Jesus does,everything he says, his entire
(09:08):
demeanor in the Gospel unpackthis meaning of the Sacred
Heart.
To give it a bit of contemporaryhistory, if we have time, I will
read some of the contents of St.
(09:30):
Margaret Allacock's vision ofthe Sacred Heart that gave a
serious push to this devotion.
But I want to touch on a morecontemporary private revelation
that is meant for publicconsumption as we celebrate
Mercy Sunday, as we honor SisterFaustina, who is now Saint
(09:56):
Faustina, heavily endorsed bythe great saint, the great
evangelizer, the great pope,Saint John Paul.
She's having these visions ofthe divine mercy, and the Lord
is heavily emphasizing more thanever, at least to my knowledge,
(10:18):
and I think I'm probablycorrect, throughout the history
of the church, we've alwaysappreciated the sacred heart.
This is a standard devotion, butit's gained momentum in the
World War II years in Poland,and the popes have cultivated
(10:45):
this devotion, especially JohnPaul and Pope Francis.
The immediate origin to thedevotion of the Divine Mercy,
which is an offshoot of thesacred heart, was the
devastations of this virulentevil that resulted in a
(11:13):
staggering toll in human death,in human tragedy, human grief.
And it was caused by a colossalrejection of the sacred heart.
Not only was Jesus Christ andhis teachings circumvented, he
(11:38):
was hated and his teachings werehated by two regimes.
This hatred of Christ waspoliticized and turned into a
regime called Nazi Germany andcommunist Soviet Union, and also
by extension communist China.
(12:03):
Systems that are directlypredicated, explicitly
predicated, on a hatred of God,a hatred of natural law that
ultimately leads to Christ,leads to the heart of Christ.
These two regimes are theradical antithesis of the
(12:30):
meaning of the sacred heart.
In our modern times, I would saythere is a soft, implicit
rejection of the sacred heart.
The sacred heart is irrelevant.
And by legislation and byactions, though we don't judge
(12:54):
the human heart, we try to givepeople the benefit of the doubt,
at least an objective sense,with these severe, flagrant
violations of fundamentalprinciples of morality, it comes
across as a blasphemy towardsthe sacred heart.
(13:17):
But let's look at the originprayerfully.
You have this saintly nun,sickly, racked with pain, will
die a young death.
She is illuminated by visions ofthe divine mercy and messages
from Jesus, that we need togravitate more than ever on the
(13:46):
most salient perfection of God,made visible by the humanity of
Jesus, who is the Son of Godmade man, made human, made
visible, made communicative.
That's why it's called word,made flesh.
And these are times where weneed to enter into that heart of
(14:11):
Jesus to find mercy.
We're in desperate need ofmercy.
And the devastations of thisculture of death that
intensified in a frightening wayduring the Second World War,
where one fifth, at leastaccording to my sources, of the
(14:33):
Polish population perished, onethird of the clergy perished
because of the concentrationcamps and martyrdoms.
In Germany there were almostwell over two thousand priests
in Dachau alone.
(14:56):
And then from the otherdirection, from the Soviet
Union, Poland also sufferedterrible persecutions that would
continue after, well after theSecond World War.
And hence, under those horribleconditions, Jesus intervenes in
(15:24):
a special way that everyChristian, even in these
frightening and tragiccircumstances, will find
strength and energy andconsolation in the divine mercy,
that it is the will of God thatwe focus especially on that part
(15:46):
of the gospel.
Pope Benedict, his frequentconsideration, his frequent
prayer, is to find recourse inthe pierced heart of Christ.
Saint Josemaria would findconsolation in Jesus' open side.
He would enter into the openside, he would enter into one of
(16:08):
his wounds.
In a I say a metaphorical way,but not totally metaphorical.
I mean, those wounds, that openside, is the culmination of
God's revelation of how muchwe're worth to him.
(16:30):
What kind of sentiments should Ihave?
Jesus says in the gospel, Cometo me, all you who are burdened
and heavy laden, and you willfind rest for your soul.
(16:55):
Come to me.
Matthew's the only one whorecords those words of Jesus.
Obviously, Jesus' disciplesheard those beautiful words, but
(17:16):
if I'm not mistaken, onlyMatthew records this.
He's the only one who recordsabout Jesus' teaching on feeding
the hungry, giving water to thethirsty, visiting the prisoner,
visiting the sick.
(17:37):
Paraphrasing, if you did it forthe lease, you've done it for
me.
And obviously I'm not anythingnear a scripture scholar, but
Matthew, who had a verychequered past, a tax collector
(17:58):
was vis-a-vis the Jewish people,was a despicable character.
He was seen very much as atraitor.
He was explicitly sinful, didn'tgo to the synagogue, extorted
money, became impure because hehung around the Romans.
(18:22):
The Romans were the oppressors,the enemy, and he worked for
them, collected taxes for them,and he would extort money for
himself.
If they didn't pay up, he wouldhand them over to the Roman
authorities.
So not exactly the most popularman on the block.
He hung around other sinners,sinful, fraudulent, dishonest
(18:50):
men, loose women, as was seen athis conversion party, where the
Pharisees were very muchscandalized by Jesus showing up
among such a motley crew ofpeople, eating and drinking with
sinners.
And Jesus shows his human heartand his sacred heart.
(19:13):
It is not the sick who need a itis not the healthy who need a
physician, but the sick.
Learn from these words, Jesussays, I want mercy and not
sacrifice.
And the gospel, as I said, thosegossip the gospels can be
summarized with the image of thesacred heart.
(19:35):
But we take Jesus literally,come to me.
It's a gentle word, come.
It's not get over here, you mustcome, or else, if you know
what's good for you, do what Isay.
No, it's come to me.
And when you pray, unburdenyourself.
(19:58):
For whatever it's worth.
There's many churches in the inChicago and the metropolitan
area that have Eucharisticadoration, either at certain
(20:18):
times or at all times.
And I uh give spiritualdirection downtown Chicago, very
close to a church where peoplewho work downtown frequent for
(20:41):
Mass, for confession, forprayer.
And at least on one of theafternoons, at least on Friday
afternoon, there's Eucharisticadoration.
And if I have a little bit of abreak in the action and the work
I'm doing, my confessions andspiritual direction, I'll make a
(21:01):
visit or spend some time inadoration myself.
And I just notice people walkingin.
There's a bit of anxiety writtenon their faces.
You realize if they're going togo in there and do some serious
praying and adoring.
(21:23):
And it's to give glory to God,but many times people have
burdens.
And they're turning to God indesperation.
And you can tell that there'sissues weighing on them.
And then if I stay there longenough, I'll see people get up
(21:44):
and leave.
And as they leave, they're morerefreshed, they're more
lighthearted, they seem lessanxious.
Maybe my audience is saying,Well, are you looking at the
blessed sacrament or observingthe people coming in and out?
(22:08):
And maybe I can answer.
Well, kind of both.
And there's all sorts ofwonderful anecdotes of drawing
consolation from that sacredheart.
And going back to that historythat I digressed of Sister
(22:33):
Faustina, John Paul was verymuch taken with the divine mercy
being in the thick of thingsduring World War II, losing his
father.
Not in the war, but he diedduring the war.
(22:53):
His members of his faculty wereexecuted.
They closed his school.
He worked in a quarry.
And they started to destroy hiscountry.
Twenty miles away was Auschwitz,that famous hell of a
concentration camp where peoplewould enter but never come out.
(23:20):
And he saw very clearly that theresponse of the evils of this
world is to have recourse to themerciful heart of Jesus.
That love, and he liked to quotethe song of songs, love is more
powerful than death.
And those words, for especiallysomeone who experienced the
(23:44):
culture of death at such closerange, was packed with meaning.
First, I have to find mystrength in the sacred heart of
Jesus, to withstand the evils ofthe times, to bear my cross, to
(24:05):
not give in to discouragement,to evangelize no matter what the
circumstances are.
I need to draw from that specialwater that wells up to eternal
life in that well of mercycalled the Sacred Heart.
(24:25):
In John Paul, before he died,there was a book published.
I think these are addresses hegave, remarks he gave over the
years, called Memory andIdentity, where he does a lot of
reflecting of his youth duringthe Second World War and his
(24:46):
time living in Poland underCommunist Soviet Union, and
under no uncertain terms, hesays it's going to be the mercy
of Christ that is going totriumph.
And we could say with CharlesDickens in his celebrated book,
(25:12):
Tale of True Cities, these arethe worst of times.
These are the best of times.
Why are they the best of times?
If they're the worst of times,because these are times that
call for an intense spirit ofadoration, an intense recourse
to the sacred heart.
So Jesus is inviting us to praya certain way.
(25:37):
Let's follow the directions.
These words will be intensifiedand become more poignant in the
agony of the garden that Matthewnarrates in detail.
Come to me, all who labor andare heavy laden, and I will give
(25:57):
you rest.
Under no uncertain terms, cometo me, unburden yourself to me.
Complain to me.
Tell me that you're weak.
Tell me that I need strength.
Tell me that temptations are toomuch right now.
Tell me that you're afraid ofthe cross.
(26:20):
Be very personal.
Come to me.
I want you to pray a certainway.
I want you to open up to me.
Take my yoke upon you and learnfrom me.
And what are we supposed tolearn?
(26:42):
Well, number one, how much weare loved by God.
We can't know the love of Goddirectly without the effects of
his love.
One creation gives us a glimmerof God's love.
(27:04):
But the revelation of his loveis off the charts, if you will,
with the humanity of Christ.
Christ's humanity is theabsolute perfect human
manifestation of God's love forus.
(27:26):
John's first epistle defines Godas agape, infinite self-giving
love.
That's God.
He doesn't love, he is love.
Notice he's not defined bybeauty or goodness, he's all
(27:47):
those things, or power, letalone the convoluted but valid
proofs of the existence of Godby the ancient pagan thinkers,
Aristotle, Plato, an uncausedcause, or the one, or the good,
(28:10):
but that simple one word, theydidn't even come close.
We don't fault them, they didpretty well without divine
revelation.
God is agape, and the perfecthuman translation of that
transcendent love is the fourgospels.
(28:35):
Jesus' persona, Jesus' actions,Jesus' teachings.
What happens when we haverecourse to the sacred heart?
Allow me to read from theprivate revelation of Saint
(28:56):
Margaret of Alcock, theseventeenth century French
mystic.
She says the following.
The first is the stream of mercyfor sinners.
(29:17):
It pours into their heartssentiments of contrition and
repentance.
When we have the misfortune ofsin, we will experience these
sentiments of contrition andrepentance.
That's what happened to thegospel characters.
(29:39):
The living water of Jesus' heartwould flow into them, the Mary
Magdalene's, the Zacchaeus's,the Peters, the James, the
John's, the St.
Paul's, the Saint Augustine's.
The second is the stream ofcharity, which helps all in
(30:01):
need, and especially aids thoseseeking perfection to find the
means of surmounting theirdifficulties.
And hence Jesus says here, Takemy yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I'm gentle and lowly inheart, and you will find rest
(30:21):
for your souls, for my yoke iseasy and my burden is light.
That the sacred heart of Jesushelps us carry the cross, does
most of the carrying, so much sothat my yoke is easy and my
burden is light.
(30:43):
From the third stream flow loveand light for the benefit of his
friends who have attainedperfection.
These he wishes to unite tohimself, so that they may share
his knowledge and commandments,and in their individual ways
devote themselves wholly toadvancing his glory.
(31:07):
Well, we bring our prayer to aconclusion, and we go to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, whichis the feminine version of the
sacred heart.
She's perfectly Christ-like, infeminine form.
(31:27):
And we want to reach the sacredheart of Jesus, the shortcut,
according to Saint Jose Mariaand virtually all the saints, is
the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We go to Mary and ask her tobring us into the depths of her
son's sacred heart.
(31:48):
I thank you, my God, for thegood resolutions, affections,
and inspirations you'vecommunicated to me in this
meditation.
I ask your help in putting theminto effect.
My Immaculate Mother SaintJoseph, my father and Lord, my
guardian angel, to see beforeme.
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