Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Many years ago, when my grandparents were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, I sang the Carey Landry song “Like a Seal on Your Heart” at their anniversary mass. If you’re not familiar with it, the lyrics are based on the Song of Songs (8:6) and the refrain is “Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. Set me like a seal on your heart. How right it is to love you.” The final verse ends with, “for love, if real, has no end.” It was a beautiful tribute to my grandparents’ 50 years of marriage through good times and bad, sickness and health. And I am reminded of it today as I read the readings and am aware of the Church celebrating the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Each of the chosen readings speak of God’s love and, in some cases, God’s heart. The first reading from the book of Deuteronomy tells of the Israelites being chosen by God: “the Lord set his heart on you and chose you...It was because the Lord loved you….”
The second reading (from the First letter of John) tells us that God is love and it is “not that we have loved God, but that he loved us….” God has acted first in loving us.
The gospel passage (Matthew 11:25-30) is also based on God’s love and teaches us of the rest we can find in Jesus who is “meek and humble of heart.” We are invited, “take my yoke upon you and learn from me...and you will find rest for yourselves.”
So, what does all of this say to us today? What I am hearing is that God, specifically through Jesus, is offering us God’s heart. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, God has been offering God’s love and seeking our love in return. This celebration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is another opportunity for us to accept Jesus’ invitation for greater intimacy with and through Him as He continues to open His heart to us.
I am reminded that like my grandparents many years ago, like the lovers in the Song of Songs, Jesus has set each of us like a seal on His heart. We are invited to greater intimacy with God who IS love, “Come, then, my love; come, my beloved.” I pray we can respond to Jesus’ invitation as with the words above, “How right it is to love you.”
~Eileen Miller