FIFTY-SEVENTH LESSON
Devotion to the Sacred Heart.
"Jesus having loved His own, who were in the world, loved them unto the end."—John xiii: i.
We honor the Heart of Jesus because it is the Heart of a God Incarnate, and this God we honor each time that we do homage to His Immaculate Heart. The Heart is the special object of our homage, because the Heart is the symbol of love, and our devotion to the Sacred Heart springs from our consciousness of the immense love with which the Sacred Heart of Jesus was animated for the whole human race. He loved them unto the end, and proved His love by dying the ignominious death of the Cross for the salvation of men.
The Heart of Jesus is free from all stain of sin. Composed of the blood of the Immaculate Mary, it was as pure as the crystal waters of living streams. Besides it was always united hypostatically with the Word and could not sin. "Who shall convince me of sin?" are the words used by our Divine Lord Himself when He challenged His enemies to convince Him of sin, to bring against Him the smallest charge. Pilate himself confessed to His innocence when he declared publicly that he found no cause in Him. Not only was Jesus free from sin, but from all temptation, from all thought of sin. He was free also from all the effects of sin, from concupiscence, and all propensity to evil. He could not sin. Although sinless He was the most humble of the children of men. He sought not His own glory, but that of His heavenly Father. His mother was a poor woman. When He grew up He chose for companions poor fishermen. He lived the life of a poor man, associating with laborers, whom He had chosen to be the ministers of the Gospel. He was also obedient to His Heavenly Father in all things. "Let this chalice pass away, but not My will but Thine be done." He obeyed a poor mechanic, Joseph the carpenter. He obeyed His enemies. When Caiphas asked Him whether He was the Son of God, He declared that He was, and His answer cost Him His life. He was even obedient to His executioners, stretching, at their command, His hands upon the Cross, and allowing them to be pierced through with enormous nails.
The tenderness of the Heart of Jesus is great indeed, He prayed on the Cross for those who placed them thereon. "Come to Me," He says on another occasion, "all ye that are burdened, and I will relieve you." We see Him shed tears at the tomb of Lazarus. Also as He entered Jerusalem, some few days before His Passion, He began to weep as He recalled to mind the fate of that unfortunate city, "Ah! Jerusalem, Jerusalem," exclaimed the Son of God, "how often have I wished to gather your children together, as the hen gathers her little ones, and you would not." He was truly tender-hearted. After having preached the whole day to thousands of His fellow-countrymen, He could not bear the idea of sending them away without providing for their temporal wants. Thus to feed them in the desert where they had spent hours suspended on His lips, He worked a most stupendous miracle, feeding five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes. Let us imitate this Divine Model. Let us love one another, for we are all members of His Mystical Body, we have been all redeemed by the Blood of Christ. He prayed that we should be all one, as He and the Father are one. Do we pray that all men should be united, and embrace the one Church, that Church which Christ founded, and against which the gates of hell shall never prevail? Do we set them a good example? We are not free from sin, but through the divine grace we may become saints, and bring down upon the members of the Church great blessings. We can all of us become saints. We all have at our disposal the means of sanctification, prayer, and the Sacraments of the Church, which are the channels through which the graces of God are communicated to our souls. Our Lord frequently passed whole nights in prayer. He did this to set us an example. Let us, therefore, pray and imitate Our Divine Master in all things, His humility, His patience under trials, His obedience, His charity, His meekness, and great tenderness of heart. Thus we shall honor that Divine Heart that still lives for us and that never ceases to implore the Father of all light to have pity upon us.
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