I have a tremendous devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Maybe it’s because I’ve experienced the love of Jesus in a very real and tangible way. There are so many things to reflect upon when considering this beautiful devotion: the promises made to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the nine First Fridays, enthroning an image of the Sacred Heart in one’s home, the connection between the Most Sacred Heart and the Holy Eucharist, the morning offering, the act of consecration, or all of the graces God in His generous love pours out upon us through this devotion. It is the reparation that our Lord asks of us, though, that I want to focus my reflection on today. Jesus asks of each one of us to repair in some way the wounds that our sins and our lack of love cause Him. As we grow closer to Him, we begin to feel in ourselves some of the anguish of His Sacred Heart. We start to love Him so much that we feel very bad when we see others reject Him, mock Him, act irreverently towards Him, neglect Him, forget Him, or wound Him in a multitude of other ways. Our Lord asked St. Margaret Mary to make a Holy Hour of reparation, “and so appease the divine anger by imploring mercy for sinners. Thus shall you assuage in some sort the bitterness I felt at that time because of the abandonment by My Apostles…for not having been able to watch with Me for the space of one hour.”
Judging by the emptiness of our adoration chapels world-wide, we are still unable to wait with Him for an hour. Or if we do go and see Him, all of a sudden we have to go to the bathroom or make a call or ask a question or stretch our legs or daydream about 101 useless things…anything to prevent us from spending a solid hour with Him whose sole focus is upon us alone. I don’t understand how we can make so many excuses as to why we are too busy to make a holy hour every day, yet we will stand in all sorts of inclement weather for hours upon end to obtain concert or sporting tickets or to get the latest gadget or to find the best sale. Our priorities seem to be all messed up and even those of us who want to follow Him will fill time with our own agendas of what we think will please Him. We will join bible studies, pro-life groups, fellowship nights, evangelization meetings and so forth. All of these things are good…very good, but unless we have spent time alone with the Lord discerning what He wants of us…unless He is at the center of us completely…can we be sure we are pleasing Him? Will we bear fruits that will last? Will they ripen at all without Him at the helm? Nothing hurts so much as to see a whole room full of people laughing and having a good time while in the next room our Lord sits virtually alone exposed upon the Altar. I see His sadness sometimes and feel in my own heart the pain it causes Him…the pain of choosing creature over creator. He so longs for us. For us! Why do so few of us long for Him? If that burning, aching, longing feeling for Him is not in us then we need to go and ask Him to give it to us. He will give it to the extent we want to have it, but He will never force Himself on us. He is like a patient bridegroom with a nervous bride on their wedding night. He waits with such love and tenderness until she realizes that what He’s offering is very good and that she can trust Him completely. He wants that from us so He can fill us with Himself and when He sees by our perseverance and our choices that we really mean it this time when we say we are going to love Him with our ALL, then He will fill us with such longing that nothing will keep us away from Him. He will transform us completely and the only thing we will be wondering about is why there aren’t mile-long lines at every Catholic Church in the world with people coming to see God, Himself, and give Him the praise, thanksgiving, adoration and love He deserves. One hour won’t seem too much anymore as we will want to give Him all twenty-four. The hours spent out of His physical presence will seem the long ones now as we begin to yearn to be near Him more and more.
There are many ways to make reparation to His Most Sacred Heart; all of our little acts of love done with the intention of consoling Him are pleasing to Him. Every little love-thought of Him brings Him pleasure. He notices all of the little niceties and wants our attention in small, loving ways. He also notices our lack of attention to the small ways as He did when He had dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee when He was denied the common courtesy of hospitality (see Luke 36:44). On this, the first Friday of the month, let us not be the ones who forget to show Him the kindness of our hearts; this will repair some of the pain of His.
Oh, beautiful Jesus, what love you show us! Remaining hidden under the veil of bread where it is so easy to abuse you and take you for granted and to forget about you. When your heart hurts because of our ingratitude, I will console you, O Lord. When people fail to genuflect with love in your presence or do it out of habit, I will console you, O Lord. When people talk endlessly before and after Mass and fail to think of you at all, I will console you, O Lord. When people make thoughtless or sacrilegious Holy Communions or are irreverent in any way towards your presence in the Sacred Host, I will console you, O Lord. When people arrive late and leave Mass early or come to the Holy Sacrifice without sufficient preparation or only out of a sense of duty, I will console you, O Lord. When your own Church is mocked and persecuted, I will console you, O Lord. When people aren’t devoted to your Blessed Mother who is everything to you, I will console you, O Lord. When you are left alone with nobody to show you any love, I will console you, O Lord. And if I fail to love you with the whole of my being or if I think negatively about my neighbor for not loving you or if I do anything that offends and hurts your Most Holy and Sacred Heart or if I put anything in my life ahead of you, I will run to the fountain of your mercy and make a good confession. I will pour out my heart with sorrow for having hurt you and let you heal me and do penance with such love that I know it will console you, O Lord. You are Mercy itself and I am so thankful for you. I love you, Jesus. I always want to love you and to be loved by you. May everyone come to love you and want you as I do…even more than I do so you can really be loved! Amen.
Recommended Reading:
- The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: How to Practice the Sacred Heart Devotion by Rev. John Croiset
- Christ in His Mysteries by Blessed Columba Marmion
