Every time I hear anyone speak of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or of the Blessed Sacrament I feel an indescribable joy. It is as if a wave of precious memories, sweet affections and joyful hopes swept over my poor person, making me tremble with happiness and filling my soul with tenderness. These are loving appeals from Jesus who wants me wholeheartedly there, at the source of all goodness, his Sacred Heart, throbbing mysteriously behind the Eucharistic veils... I love to repeat today 'Sweet Heart of my Jesus, make me love You more and more.'- Pope John XXIII: (1881 – 1963: was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 to his death in 1963 and was canonized on 27 April 2014)
Gospel text: (JN 19:31-37)
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.
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.
Today’s Feast – that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – places our prayers within a similar, symbolic setting. The Feast celebrates the fact that all through the gospel passages we see Jesus’ ‘heart’ revealed to us in a myriad of ways which one might best interpret not necessarily as theologians, but through the lens of a poet. Jesus feels peoples pain and is moved to reach out to them from his very heart, he constantly interprets the law and life itself through the lens of a compassion that we associated with heart-felt love of others. He is particularly attuned to the situations of women and children, the poor and dispossessed, the outcastes and sinner – all of this awareness flows from a heart full of love. His heart is our safe haven, let us welcome him into our hearts in turn.
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