Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. This feast and today’s readings ask us to focus on the love and mercy of God. St. Paul speaks in today’s second reading of the “inscrutable riches of Christ.” In the previous chapter Paul has already defined these riches as the mercy and grace of God:
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:4-8)
Paul brings out again and again that this love and mercy is a gift from God, “for by grace you have been saved…this is not from you; it is the gift of God.”
God reveals his great love for us, “his heart,” in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the beginning of John’s Gospel, he tells us that God the Father sent his “heart” into the world to be with us, to teach us, and to save us:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17).
The Sacred Heart of Jesus, the mercy and love of God is a gift, not something we earn. It is pure grace, a true gift. All we can do is accept this gift in faith and trust and give glory and praise to God. Let us join with Paul as his prays in today’s reading:
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may
dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Image: “Sacred Heart and The Eucharist” by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.