Today we are celebrating the feasts of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. This is a special celebration for our congregation for we have the title of Franciscan Sisters daughters (and sons) of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Both hearts, Jesus and Mary. We are blessed. This is a devotion that was very popular when M. Clara founded our congregation. How appropriate that we are the sisters of the two hearts, as we are called in Brazil.

Most recently we have been offered Pope Francis’ encyclical, Dilexit Nos on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We have received a very fine reflection from our General council for this our feast day, and if you have been listening carefully to Fr. Tony’s and Fr. Paul’s homilies these past few Sundays, you may have heard words to connect with the Sacred Hearts.

So now, what can I possibly share with you?
What does it mean to have a Sacred Heart?

In its simplest definition, the word sacred means holy (and the opposite of holy is profane).

Anyone can be holy, if they choose. And the first reading from Ezekiel offers us the reminder that: I will give you a new heart, I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

What a reassuring gift from God available to us, not just once, but whenever we need a “change of heart” or to “take heart” or to “soften our hearts” or return to the heart (of the matter). Our bruised and broken hearts can be turned again into sacred hearts.

In order to have sacred hearts we must experience both joys and sorrows, good and bad, highs and lows. We must have a whole, a complete heart. So often all we see is the bleeding heart, so

Do a little experiment with me. . .

First, imagine a sad moment in your life.
Can you feel that feeling again? In your body, in your heart?
Now, imagine a happy moment in your life.
Can you feel that feeling again?
In your body, in your heart?

I can imagine that in both moments we imagined our hearts overflowed, with sadness or with light.
And I challenge us to remember that all the events of our lives have made us who we are, events both the sad and the happy, difficult and easy. These made our hearts sacred, enabled us to feel with compassion another’s pain, to experience another’s joy.

In the second reading today from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he writes:

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend . . .
What is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to the know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge,
So that you may be filled with the fullness of God.

Your sacred heart, holding all the experiences of your life, helps you in this very comprehension of the immensity of God’s love for us and how we are called to live in loving relationship with all.

So, what about us? Our title calls us daughters of the sacred hearts. To be a daughter or a son means to be in relationship. And as Franciscans we do our best to live in right relationship, in the community of creation.

In the Gospel of Matthew we are told:

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
For I am meek and humble of heart;
And you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.

A yoke is not worn alone, by one. It is worn in relationship, by two.

We can do the difficult, we can move beyond ourselves to help others, we can rejoice with others in their good fortunes because we wear the yoke of relationship.

Today not only do we recognize the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary,
we can recognize the sacred heart of each other, look around you . . .
there is the sacred heart of__________,
and the sacred heart of__________, and the sacred heart of _______.
God loves us and sends us into the world to use our sacred hearts.

What a grace filled opportunity we have each day to offer love and be loved in this world. We are called to bring the love of the heart of God into the world, or to be on earth, the heart of God.

June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and I will include the Sacred Heart of Mary. I paraphrase Pope Leo’s intention for this month.

That each one of us might find consolation in a personal relationship with Jesus And with Mary, and from their sacred hearts learn to have compassion on the world.

How have you used your sacred heart today?

Written by Sr. Melanie Paradis FCJM