Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus at the General Curia in Rome

Homily

We praise our God who is love and who has gathered us as a family around the Eucharistic table on this Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is a special day for the faithful from many parts of the world and especially for you, members of the Comboni Family. The Heart of Jesus shows our world the true face of God who is love and who alone brings peace. I hesitate to offer reflections on the Heart of Jesus to you, Comboni missionaries, who are experts on the subject (‘Sons of the Heart of Jesus’). May God help me!

I will just offer two brief thoughts.

1) The symbolism of the heart has always been present in cultures and religions, but it is also constantly evolving or changing. Today, romantic and individualistic connotations of the heart abound.

But let us listen to what some biblical texts say about the human heart. At the time of Noah, seeing “how great the wickedness of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their hearts conceived was always nothing but evil”, God made the decision to destroy the earth with the flood (cf. Gen 6:5-6). After the flood, however, God said in his heart: “I will no longer curse the earth because of human being, since the desies of human heart are evil from youth” (cf. Gen 8:21).

Much later, as recorded in the gospel of Mark, Jesus will say: “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly” (Mk 7:21-22).

However, the promise made by God through the prophet Ezekiel is irrevocable: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ez 36:26). This promise was realised in the heart of Jesus, a heart totally filled with the Holy Spirit of love, which therefore beats, feels, decides and acts in complete harmony with God the Father. The heart of Jesus reveals to us the very heart and face of God who is love – true love.

We often think we can control our heart and command it. But perhaps it is truer to say that it is our heart – more precisely, the spirits in our heart – that tend to rule us..

So, we should ask ourselves: What desires, spirits or movements in my heart determine the person I am? Will I allow God to put his Spirit into my heart so that I become a person full of God’s love? Only with the Spirit can our heart be like the heart of Jesus.

2) The second point of my short homily is to recall the fact that Jesus’ pierced heart has been venerated as one of his holy wounds. The Gospel passage from St John that we have just heard tells of this wound inflicted on Jesus’ side with a lance, after the constatation of his death. From that pierced heart «immediately came forth blood and water» (John 19:34b).

Medical experts explain that Jesus’ heart must have suffered hypovolemic shock: having already lost a lot of blood, the increase in heart rate caused a build-up of fluid around the heart and in the thoracic cavity.

But we cannot forget the deep ‘wound’ caused by the rejection and abandonment by the disciples and friends: a wound that recalls the one inflicted on God when Israel forgot and ignored the tender love with which Yahweh had loved him. This is beautifully recounted by the prophet Hosea in the first reading of this Eucharistic celebration.

Jesus also experienced the ‘wound’ of God’s silence during his passion. But above all, Jesus was ‘wounded’ by his boundless love for God and humanity: a love that refuses to say ‘no’ even when it seems to be the most humanly reasonable thing to do.

God mysteriously refrained from giving vent to his wrath against unfaithful Israel for one simple reason: “For I am God and not man ... and I will not come to you in my wrath” (Hos 11:9).

Love is the spear that ripped through Jesus’ heart to continue to give regenerating water and blood to all, whether deserving or not.

The heart of Jesus is an ‘abnormal’ heart by human standards. But it is the heart that can heal the cycle of hatred, injustice, inhumanity, violence and indifference that makes human life miserable.

Let us ask ourselves: do the poor and suffering still manage to break through our hearts to trigger tenderness? Does the beauty of creation still pierce our heart so that we can praise God and share the goods of the earth with others? Is my heart a heart of flesh that can be easily pierced, or is it a heart of stone that breaks any spear?

St Daniel Comboni let his heart be pierced by the suffering people of Africa. From his heart flowed the love of Jesus, and this love continues to flow through the missionary witness and commitment of his religious brothers and sisters. A heart full of the Spirit never tires of loving and serving.

Allow me to recite for you the following prayer of St Paul: «I pray the Father that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith» (Eph 3:16-17). I pray that your hearts and those of all the faithful may be like the sacred heart of Jesus. O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like your heart. Amen.