Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Today's Mass Readings

In today's second reading from the First Letter of St. John, we read the following often quoted verse: "God is love" (4:16). This verse inspired the theme for Pope Benedict XVI's first papal encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, God Is Love. And in a way, this phrase summarizes all of the readings for today. This verse is not meant to trivialize our relationship with God, however. Rather, it should cause us comfort, but also help us to recognize our own great responsibility. The entire passage for today from St. John's First Letter exhorts us to live in love. "God is love," St. John tells us, "and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him" (1 John 4:16). Moreover, today is the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Today we celebrate the great feast of love, of Jesus' sacred heart. We find echoes of this theme in today's responsorial psalm which tells us that "the Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear him" (Psalm 103:17). We likewise find echoes of God's love in the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, where God recounts how He gave His heart to His people, the people of Israel. He called this people not because they were the greatest of nations, but to use them to call back the nations into the one family of God. In this first reading God recounts how He rescued His people from slavery in Egypt. This exodus set the paradigm for how God saves His people, and indeed, Jesus in the New Testament is depicted as undertaking a new exodus to save us through His death and resurrection.

Finally, in today's reading from the Gospel of Matthew, we find Jesus' call to follow Him, to bear His yoke. It is in Christ that we will find rest. Jesus' love, His outpoured heart, does not exempt us from suffering, nor from carrying a yoke, but it transforms our suffering, it makes our yoke bearable.

Let us then spend today in thanksgiving, responding to God's love by our own love. Let us especially take to heart St. John's admonition: "if God so loved us, we also must love one another" (1 John 4:11). Going further in this passage from St. John's First Letter, beyond what we have in today's reading, we find: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20). The best way for us to love God is to love one another. Let us then live in love, serving those around us as best as we can.

Jeff Morrow