Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Homily)
June 27, 2021 5:30 pm · Sergio Muñoz Fita
This weekend we finish this June series on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We can only paint a few broad brushstrokes, but we have seen how this devotion, which places us before the mystery of the human and divine love of Jesus Christ for each one of us, is rooted in Sacred Scripture and in the prophecies of the Old Testament that reach their fullness in the Lord. Two weeks ago we considered the Heart of Jesus as the place of rest and origin of the virtues in which we too must participate. Last Sunday, we spoke of the Heart of Jesus as the source of the torrent of life that is the Holy Spirit. Today we conclude this triptych by going to the foot of the Cross and contemplating the pierced Heart of the Lord.
Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may [come to] believe. For this happened so that the scripture passage might be fulfilled: “Not a bone of it will be broken.” And again another passage says: “They will look upon him whom they have pierced.” (Jn 19:31-37).
At this moment of the Passion, St. John pauses and places a special emphasis. A great mystery is being realized here: that fountain, which Christ announced last week, was closed until a spear threw it wide open on Calvary.
We have already said that the Heart of Jesus is a symbol of love, and that in Jewish culture, the heart is a symbol of the interior life. In this last text of this weekend, however, St. John gives us a final element: the Heart of Jesus is a heart that we have pierced. It is a Heart that loves and is repaid with ingratitude. We pierce it when we are ungrateful to him, when we wound him. It is a wounded Heart! And we must look at this Heart with sorrow because it is wounded, and because I have wounded it.
Reparation is one of the foundations of devotion to the Heart of Jesus, but sometimes, when we speak of reparation, it seems that we are referring to the sins of others. Reparation is to look at the Heart of Jesus with sorrow not only because it is a pierced heart, but because I have pierced it. Moreover, the wound of the Heart of Jesus is a wound that is always open, for in the glorified body of Christ, his Heart is still alive and wounded. We see this in the apparition to St. Thomas after the Resurrection: "Take your hand and thrust it into my side," says the Lord to his disciple (Jn 20:27). As Pope Benedict said back in 2007: “The Lord took his wounds with him to eternity. He is a wounded God; he let himself be injured through his love for us.”
Because the Heart of Jesus is alive and open, it is sensitive today, now, to my response. I pierce him now with my ingratitude and my sins because he loves me now, because his Heart beats with love for me now. This is not the fruit of a very devout piety that is theologically inaccurate. No, we are at the very core of our faith! Devotion to the Heart of Jesus is based on the three central truths of our faith: the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, which makes us recognize Jesus as the Son of God; the mystery of the Incarnation, which makes us recognize in the Lord a man like us; and the mystery of the resurrection of Christ, which makes us understand that He is alive and that the love and sentiments of His Heart are as real now as they were two thousand years ago.
When I look at Christ crucified, when I contemplate his open Heart, I look and contemplate the One whom I have pierced again and again with my sins. My life matters to Christ! He truly loves me! He loves me with a human heart like mine! Our sins are especially painful for the Lord because he has called us his friends (Jn 15:15), and the sins of a friend do particularly intense harm. It is necessary for me to see my sin in the Heart of Jesus, in order to find life and hope, forgiveness and mercy.
Let us ask for the grace to weep for our sins, which perhaps are not as great as others that we see or hear about, but which make the Heart of Jesus suffer more because they come from those who are His friends and from whom He expected to find affection, love and fidelity. Only after weeping for my sins, will I be able to make reparation and weep for the sins of others, of those who do not weep for their faults.
Here we will end our brief discussion of this mystery, which over these three weeks has led us to consider briefly three passages of the Holy Gospel. I encourage you all to enter into that open Heart in order to find there all the love of God, all the light of heaven, all life and redemption.
May the Lord make our parish a community where the Heart of Jesus, alive in the Eucharist, is more and more welcomed, honored and loved. May Mary, who at the foot of the Cross collected the blood and water that flowed from that fountain, help us to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the remission of our sins, and the divine grace that comes from the Sacred Heart.