On Friday we celebrated the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This devotion was entrusted to the Society of Jesus to promote, and it does so primarily through the Apostleship of Prayer, which is now called the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network . It is from the Pope that we get the prayer intention that we prayer every Sunday during our intercessions. Please follow the link to get a lot of both information and inspiration regarding Catholic Spirituality and the Pope. (https://www.popesprayer.va )
Possibly the most characteristic disposition of Jesus’ Heart lies in his attitude of loving offering to the Father. He is totally available to accomplish the Father’s will, his Heart is offered as an oblation of love for the salvation of all humanity. His fundamental attitude is one of generous surrender and gift of self, in love for his Father and brothers. There is no hint of meanness, egoism or self-centredness in him. He is the man for other people, in the service of the mission the Father entrusted him with. A heart which dies to its own desires, a kenotic (=annihilated), humble, obedient, both loving and valiant, heart.
When Paul invites the Philippians to be the same as Christ Jesus in their minds and writes the beautiful Christological hymn (2:5-11) he invites us to this kind of identification with Christ, proposing that we join Jesus in his sentiment of loving surrender. We find the best expression of his gift of self and the utmost image of his surrendered Heart in the image of the Crucified One’s open side, out of which flowed blood and water (Jn19:34).
“The contemplation of the “side pierced by the lance” in which God’s boundless will for salvation shines cannot therefore be considered a passing form of cult or devotion: the adoration of God’s love, which has found its historical-devotional expression in the symbol of the “pierced heart”, continues to be essential to a living relationship with God” (Benedict XVI, letter of May 15th 2006).
Jesus anticipated and expressed this surrender of his Heart in an unexpected way in the gestures and words of the Last Supper. “Take and eat, this is my body, surrendered for you” (…) “This is my blood, the blood of the new and eternal Covenant, poured out for you…”. That night Jesus instituted, as a sign and sacrament, the impulse of his Heart’s permanent love given for us. He accepted, out of love, the painful and unjust death imposed on him. He accepted to give his life for his people, thus proving the greatest of loves.
Jesus invites me to unite my heart to his, taking on as my own his desire and feelings. This is the fundamental inner attitude proposed by living the daily Offering of the Apostleship of Prayer and of the Eucharistic Youth Movement. Surrendering my life for the mission, offering with my whole heart my day and my works in the service of the Kingdom. This is living eucharistic spirituality “for Christ, with him and in him”, Christ offered in the Eucharist and we with him
