Do we have a heart for the poor?…Do we have a heart for the lost?……”What you did for the least - You did to ME”

Today the Universal Church commemorates the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus…A heart that burns with love for the world….How many people never experienced love?……Walk the streets of any city in America and look around….That person begging on the street - That person is someone’s child!….That man with no shirt on talking to himself - That man is someone’s child!….I can only speak for myself…Once I had my own children, my view of the world changed a lot….To think how I would feel if “that person” on the street was MY CHILD! - How my heart would bleed….Now think of how Jesus feels……”I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the foreign lands; I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel in the land's ravines and all its inhabited places”…..Do we have a heart for the poor? - Do we have a heart for the lost? - Do we have a heart for the abandoned?…While we may not be able to “fix” their problems…Do we even care?…..Mother Teresa once said…”If you cannot feed one hundred people - Feed one”…We can all do something…….But sadly before that happens our eyes must open…..The pontificate of Pope Francis at times was controversial, while many may not agree with how he reached out to people and the clarity that was often lacking in his pastoral approach…One can not dispute that his heart was always concerned for the lost…..He was willing to “leave the 99 in search for the one”….Are we willing to do the same?……What prevents you from doing so?……A father loves all his children…Not just the ones who get “straight As” and get “good jobs”….”I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance."

“I am the good shepherd, says the Lord, I know my sheep, and mine know me”

Do we have a heart for the lost?…That is the question for us to ponder today….Years ago I had access to an unlimited amount free Rosary beads…..And as I walked the streets of New York, I would give them out to the homeless…Only once did I get a negative reaction but that was on the streets of San Francisco - A story for another day…But overwhelmingly, the poor would always take the Rosary beads from me and thank me….A small token but it came from my heart…One time I was in Lower Manhattan entering the subway…As I was walking down the stairs I saw a homeless man sleeping, so I placed a set of Rosary beads at his feet and kept walking….All of a sudden as I was walking minding my on business, I felt my arm being grasped from behind….It was the homeless man…He ran after me to tell me with the Rosary beads in his hand…..”Thank you so much he said - My Rosary beads broken this morning - Thank you for these, I needed a new pair!”….A small reminder that God “looks after” all his children even the most forgotten……I was told of another story, this one from there streets of Kolkata, India….There was a child who had a rare disease who lived on the streets…The child was in need of medicine and Mother Teresa’s sisters did not have it…So that child was most likely going to die….Just as people had given up hope, a shipment of supplies comes into the convent and right on top of the box, was the exact medicine that abandoned child needed…..Speaking personally, that story makes me think long and hard - That child was forgotten and abandoned by the world - In many ways was completely “invisible” to “polite society” - But not to God - This is how God’s love works…God saw the need of that child and God addressed it with his own hand….The Sacred Heart of Jesus was pierced by a sword - His Sacred Heart bleeds to this day for the world……While we ourselves can not “fix” the world's problems - We can do “our part”…In the end, this is how we will be judged - Jesus himself says so…..”For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me”….People - Listen up! - That’s on the “final exam”

“Take my yoke upon you, says the Lord, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart”

Today we are told about how the Sacred Heart of Jesus burns with love for a lost world….I work in New York City and I walk roughly about one mile back and forth to my office once I get off the bus from New Jersey…As I walk and see the “wasteland” of lost souls on the streets, some so very young, I think of the words of Christ often as I pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet…..”As he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation”……Do we have a heart for the poor?…Do we have a heart for the lost?……”What you did for the least - You did to ME”