A Sunday Thought About the Sacred Heart
We began June yesterday, the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with St Justin’s feast - a martyr from the second century. Refusing to sacrifice to the gods, he was scourged and beheaded, as ordered by the prefect Rusticus.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart was once part of the lifeblood of Catholics. That was when Catholics proudly and publicly stood apart from the world, unafraid to be different. Now too many of us have "assimilated" as if we were immigrants from a foreign land wanting to "fit in" to the local culture. But martyrs like St Justin remind us that we do not "fit in," born to be part of this world; we were born to know, love, and serve God, with the realization that our ultimate destination, our true home, is Heaven, not this earth.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. We have turned away from You. Rather than develop our interior lives in the light of the supernatural, we wallow in materialism, embracing the "gods" of this world. Grant us Your grace, that we may once again live in, yet apart from this world, as real, authentic Catholics. Grant us the faith of martyrs like St Justin, who, when his persecutor asked if he believed he would ascend into heaven upon being scourged and beheaded, responded:
Devotion to the Sacred Heart was once part of the lifeblood of Catholics. That was when Catholics proudly and publicly stood apart from the world, unafraid to be different. Now too many of us have "assimilated" as if we were immigrants from a foreign land wanting to "fit in" to the local culture. But martyrs like St Justin remind us that we do not "fit in," born to be part of this world; we were born to know, love, and serve God, with the realization that our ultimate destination, our true home, is Heaven, not this earth.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. We have turned away from You. Rather than develop our interior lives in the light of the supernatural, we wallow in materialism, embracing the "gods" of this world. Grant us Your grace, that we may once again live in, yet apart from this world, as real, authentic Catholics. Grant us the faith of martyrs like St Justin, who, when his persecutor asked if he believed he would ascend into heaven upon being scourged and beheaded, responded:
I hope that, if I endure these things, I shall have His gifts. For I know that, to all who have thus lived, there abides the divine favour until the completion of the whole world...I know and am fully persuaded of it...Through prayer we can be saved on account of our Lord Jesus Christ, even when we have been punished, because this shall become to us salvation and confidence at the more fearful and universal judgment-seat of our Lord and Saviour.Today, I pray for the grace to know the Faith, and the confidence to live it proudly and publicly.
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