I have been introducing Benedictus and Abs to the TV show “The Office” during their time here this summer. The show tracks the misadventures of the staff at a small paper company named Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Maybe some of you are familiar with this old sit-com. It is one of my favorite comedy shows. One of the toughest characters to love in the show is the manager of the office, Michael Scott. He is narcissistic, rude, thoughtless and generally unlikable. My mom can’t watch the show because of him. But Michael certainly has his moments. Beneath the layers of bad things about him, he often shows how much he actually loves the people he works with.
In one episode, Pam, the receptionist at the office, has entered her paintings into an art show and invites her co-workers to come to the event. You see her standing there with her watercolor paintings as people walk by, none of whom are from Dunder Mifflin. Pam is obviously crushed that nobody has taken the time to appreciate her art. And then Michael shows up. Not only does he show up, but he takes an active interest in her pieces and ends up buying a picture that she had painted of the Dunder Mifflin office building. That picture ends up hanging in a prominent place in the office for basically the rest of the show.
Pam gets pretty emotional when Michael shows up. She is so happy that someone has taken the time to show love and interest in her. It’s a really sweet moment.
I bring up this moment because the feast we celebrate today encourages us to return love to the Sacred Heart that has loved us so much. Let’s listen once again to the beautiful words of the opening prayer for today’s Solemnity:
O God, who in the Heart of your Son,
wounded by our sins,
bestow on us in mercy
the boundless treasures of your love,
grant, we pray,
that, in paying him the homage of our devotion,
we may also offer worthy reparation.
The church invites us to give Jesus our devotion in order to make reparation to His heart. This idea of making reparation is an important one. Reparation involves making amends after an injury. If we honestly think of our own lives and hearts, how often have we done injury to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through our own apathy, neglect, and sin? This should spur us to make amends by leaning into the grace that Jesus pours out so freely. As Christians, we also have the opportunity to make reparation to Jesus’ Heart on behalf of others. When we look out at the world, we can see so many ways in which many people mock Jesus, reject Him and His Church, and fail to love the Heart which burns with infinite love for them. With His help, we can choose to be the ones who burn with love and intentionally live in His love so that we can console His Sacred Heart, which was wounded for their sake and ours.
The idea of consoling and making amends to Jesus’ Heart may seem hard to fathom. How could we, small and weak as we are, do anything to console Jesus’ Heart, which is so burdened by our sins and those of the whole world? This is where the beauty of our devotion to the Sacred Heart shines forth.
We take for granted the image of Jesus’ Sacred Heart because we see it so often. But let’s take a moment to ponder how Jesus chose to reveal His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Look at this beautiful stained glass which depicts the encounter that she had with Jesus and his Sacred Heart. First, there are flames coming from His Heart and it is crowned with the Cross. Also, there are wounds in His heart and His body, but from those wounds comes light–shining light coming out towards her and all of us.
The wounds that Jesus freely accepted in His heart, which we heard about in today’s Gospel, remind us of the Savior’s willingness to be vulnerable. Jesus became human in order to offer Himself for our sake. He took on a body capable of suffering and opened Himself to us. This woundedness of the Sacred Heart is God allowing us to comfort Him in His suffering. He has poured out Divine Love and Mercy on the whole world, yet so many reject that love. Does He pull back? No. His Heart remains open to each of us and invites us to console Him.
Just as in His Passion, Jesus was able to foresee all of our sins and more than make up for them by the outpouring of the love of His heart, so Jesus was also able to foresee all of the ways in which we would respond to and live in His love, thus comforting Him in His sorrow. What an awesome reality!
The burning of the Sacred Heart and the light flowing from His wounds reminds us of the great power of His love and mercy flowing from His Heart. It is this love which allows us to truly make reparation to Jesus. Even in our weakness and smallness, Jesus allows us to share in the burning love of His heart and to be set aflame ourselves. As Michael was able to console Pam by showing her the love her heart so desired, we can make reparation to the Heart of Jesus by living in the love He delights in sharing with our Hearts. So by His Sacred Heart’s very act of accepting so much suffering for our sake and enduring so much rejection, Jesus gives us the opportunity to console Him by allowing the burning love and light of His Heart to fill and transform our hearts. When we allow our hearts to catch that flame of His heart, it not only consoles Him, but lights up and warms a cold and sinful world.
There are so many who need to feel the burning love of Jesus shown forth through our hearts! And just think! By helping others to experience the burning love of Jesus’ Sacred Heart, we give them the opportunity to also learn to console His Heart by returning love to Him.
I encourage you to pray about how the Sacred Heart is inviting you to make reparation. Is Jesus’ Heart calling you to participate in Mass more often, maybe even daily, to offer up your Communion with Him in reparation for those who receive His Body and Blood without faith? Is His Heart calling you to put up with difficulties and disappointments with patience and love in order to console His Heart, which suffered so much difficulty for your sake and the sake of all? Is His Heart calling your Heart to spend more time in prayer, making amends for the many who go through life without speaking to the One Who loves them infinitely? There are so many ways we can choose to do things as reparation, offering up our love in response to and in communion with the love of the Sacred Heart. What an awesome privilege we have! Let us respond to His heart today and always!
+ Heavenly Father, thank you for the overflowing love pouring from the Heart of your Son upon us and the whole world. Jesus, we repent for those ways in which we have failed to return love to You, Who have loved us so well. Help us make reparation by your grace. Holy Spirit, inspire deeper devotion to the Sacred Heart in our lives so that everything we do might show forth Its love and light. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +