The Sacred Heart and the Gift of the Eucharist
Summary of Headings
- The Eucharist as Divine Gift
- Misunderstandings and Jansenism
- Revelations to St. Margaret Mary
- The Symbolism of the Sacred Heart
- Our Response to Divine Love
- Examples of Saintly Love
- Living the Love of God
The Eucharist as Divine Gift
Just about twelve days ago, even less, we celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi, and then on Friday, this past Friday, we celebrated the feast of the Sacred Heart. The feast of the Sacred Heart occurred and there is exactly the octave of Corpus Christi, because the Church obviously wants to link these two events together. The celebration of the Eucharist as the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, given to us in a form that we may consume, so that we may be able to possess him physically within ourselves for a short period of time. Stop and think about that for just a minute.
What an extraordinary gift that is, that we are able to actually receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that Jesus Christ is God made man. He is God. We are actually receiving God. Now it's miraculous enough that we'd be able to receive just as humanity, just as human nature, but we are receiving the Divinity, we are receiving God himself. Infinity, the all -powerful, humbling himself to the level of our flesh, to the level of our food. That's as if a deer surrendered itself to a mountain lion, but on a much lower level, because it's bread, it's wine.
It's even more passive, an even lower form. But God so humbled himself to this degree, why would he do that? Well, the Sacred Heart possesses the answer to that. Because the Blessed Sacrament, the Blessed Eucharist, is the sacrament of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ more than every other sacrament. Yes, baptism is the most essential, but Holy Communion is the one in which all other sacraments find their purpose and reason, not because it gives God, but because it is God. That is what the Eucharist is, too. It is the sacrament of the Holy Communion. But with that kind of a gift, something so excellent, so perfect, so unimaginably great and beautiful, there came, inevitably, a certain misunderstanding about how we are supposed to receive that sacrament.
A certain Gnostic elitism, that only a certain class of Catholics should be able to approach the Blessed Sacrament, and that is the Sacrament of the Holy Communion. Now, this was most clearly explained,
Misunderstandings and Jansenism
or most clearly justified, by the so -called Jansenists, and particularly the French sect, which believed that it was a sacrament for people who had attained a certain level of perfection. So for them, there was the common people who struggled with their everyday vices and who were not able to achieve a higher level of sanctity. Because of those sins, or because of the difficulties they had in abandoning intention of sin. And for them, the Blessed Sacrament was cut off. But for those who were able to leave sin behind, and again, I am oversimplifying, they made it much more complicated.
But for those who were able to leave sin behind, those who were able to overcome the desire to sin, and who were habitually more virtuous, at least externally, they were the ones who were able to go to confession, confess their sins, because they had true regret for their sins. They had true detachment from their sins. And they were the ones who were able to receive communion, albeit infrequently. Now this is not, unfortunately, this is not that far off from the attitude of many people, even within the Church today, who believe that unless you have, unless you check these boxes of all the things that you believe, and of all the things that you believe, and of all the things that you are supposed to know in this crisis of the Church, you are not worthy to draw close to the Mass, or to the Sacraments, or anything else.
Because the fact of the matter is, human nature never changes, and that we are always going to have this certain concept of elitism, which distinguishes us from everybody else. That is pharisaical, it is Manichean, it is Gnostic, I can throw a lot of other epithets at it. The Church condemned this, obviously, but even though the Church condemned Jansenism, and the Jesuits went toe to toe and debated them, and were overcoming them in some ways, the rot of Jansenism continued to spread throughout the Church, again, particularly in France, but it was starting to creep out to other places.
So our Lord Jesus Christ Himself addressed the problem and demonstrated and defeated completely the very essence of what this error is.
Revelations to St. Margaret Mary
He did so by appearing to a nun, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, in the form of the Sacred Heart, literally revealing to us His heart, showing us all the love that He has for us, presenting before us the depth of His love, that there should be no doubt whatsoever that despite the fact that we are sinful creatures, and despite the fact that we still have difficulties in achieving perfection, He still loves us and He is willing to work to save our souls. Saint Margaret Mary protested that she was not worthy, she was too sinful to witness this great beauty of His love for her in the Sacred Heart.
She was contemplating the passion in His heart, and He said, if you were the only sinner on earth, and you had only committed one venial sin, I would have suffered my passion a thousand times to save your soul if that was what was necessary.
The Symbolism of the Sacred Heart
That is the depth of His love. That is why the heart demonstrates the wounds. It is perfectly symbolic of what love really is. The heart is set aflame, but not aflame like we have here, that consumes and changes, we set something on fire, it destroys the thing. But when God burns, it is to overcome, and to make something greater and larger. His heart does not stop to burn for love for us. Saint Philip Neri, the great apostle of Rome, Rome was a bit of a cesspit, needed to be cleaned up, so God gave us Saint Philip Neri. A man of tremendous wit and intelligence, and someone who also had a tremendous love for everybody.
His heart was so great, he loved people so much, that God actually expanded his heart, to the point that his chest was distended, the ribs were actually distended around his heart. He was so hot that even in the dead of winter, he couldn't bear to have any jacket or coat on him. He was burning with love for people. So the fire on the sacred heart is represented in one of his great saints. He loved so much, our Lord loves so much, that he burns to give himself to us, and he burns for us to be united with him. The cross on top of the heart, because the perfect demonstration of his love, is the sacrificial act that he gave to us on the cross, but that he continues to give to us in the mass.
Sacrifice, gift of self, absolute immolation for us. That is why the heart is opened up also, because when the soldier stabbed him with the spear, when Longinus stabbed him with the spear, all of the blood of Christ poured out. It wasn't simply a question of God gave himself a little bit, he gave everything he had to give, and that is infinite. The crown of thorns, around the heart. Why that? Because it is a symbol of the humiliation that he suffered. He is the king of kings, and the only crown he received here on earth was a crown of mockery, of thorns, of pain. That is the only crown he received from the people who were supposed to proclaim him king.
The scribes and Pharisees, the high priests and the Jews. And the people who wielded his authority, the Romans were the ones who actually used that authority to condemn him to death. The humiliation that he suffered for us is a demonstration of how very much he loves us. He is willing to debase himself to this level, and then again to the level of our food in Holy Communion for us. There can be no doubt of his love. So why is it, we are not saints yet? With all that infinite love, the infinite power of God pouring down upon us, why is it we are not saints yet? Well, because the only thing that holds us back from being inundated and filled with the love of God for every instant of our lives, and generously pouring out that love to others, is because we are the ones closing the gates and holding back from that love.
Our Response to Divine Love
We are the ones rejecting that love, we are the ones putting it off. God will give us his love, but he will not force it upon us. He asks, he invites, he commands, he conjoles, but he also gives us freedom. And that freedom, unfortunately, gives us the power to reject him. Actually, fortunately. Because that also means, that is not why he gave us the freedom. He didn't give us freedom to reject him, he gave us freedom to accept him. All of nature receives his love, but we are the only creatures that have that ability to say yes, and accept it, and to live it. But that is now our job.
We may oftentimes get discouraged or frustrated, preferring other things to the love of God, choosing other things over God. How silly and foolish is that? When we actually stop to think about what it is we are being offered by God. How silly and foolish it is that we would prefer anything, even the greatest wealth and power this world has to offer. All the fame and all the comforts and all the everything. St. Thomas more gently, gently teased his lying supposed friend who had betrayed him. He quoted scripture by saying, A prophet demand nothing to give up his soul, though he earn the whole world, though he take the whole world, but for Wales.
Because the man, of course, had given everything up for a position in Wales. He had betrayed a great saint and a great friend, for something so trivial. But that is what we do every time we sin. We choose, we choose some little pleasure, some little comfort, our own will, whatever it may be, over the infinite love and eternal happiness with God. That is what we surrender. With the sacred heart, our Lord comforts us and says, that despite the fact that we are not perfect, despite the fact that we are sinful, despite the fact that we still are struggling to overcome, our basic weaknesses, and our base errors, He will still love us.
And He still offers His love to us. And He gives us another chance. This is why we have the confessional. To be able to draw close to communion. To be possessed by God. To give ourselves over to His love. There is no better chance for that love to possess us than the moment of receiving Holy Communion. But it is an act of surrender. It is a gift of ourselves to Him. And there is no price we should not be willing to pay to receive that. But it isn't supposed to be easy, or fun, or pleasurable in and of itself. That is why it is important for us to contemplate what we are doing when we draw close to the Blessed Sacrament.
Not to shut ourselves off from it, because we are not putting ourselves off from it. Not to be perfect enough. But rather to humble ourselves to confess our sins and then to come forward and receive Him. That is why we have the confit here before the Holy Communion. So that we can confess our sins at least in that sense. So that we can draw close to the Blessed Sacrament. So that we can receive Him with a cleaner heart and an easier conscience. We have to remember that this is not based upon our merit. It is not because we deserve the Blessed Sacrament or deserve God's love.
Quite the contrary. To quote Shakespeare, and I hope I get this right, from Hamlet, Treat every man according to his station, who shall scape whipping. If we honestly received according to what we deserve, we'd be lost. Each and every one of us, the Blessed Virgin, is the only creature who is perfect. We'd be lost. But God doesn't look at what we deserve. He wants to give despite what we deserve. He wants to give Himself. Not just secondary effects of God, but Himself, His very nature, His very essence, His infinity, His perfection, His omnipotence, everything. That's what He wants to give us.
And that is what He offers to us. When we contemplate it, we should be overwhelmed. Saint John Vianney said that when a priest celebrates Mass, if he truly understood what it is that he did, he would die of happiness. If he understood the mystery of what happens, when he says those powerful words of consecration, he would die of happiness.
Examples of Saintly Love
Blessed Imelda, the tiny child, who understood and appreciated from the time that she was three years old, was begging her father and parish priest and harassing everybody possible to be able to receive her first communion. So much did she desire it, that even though she wasn't old enough, she wasn't considered old enough, and even though she wasn't considered ready, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself demonstrated that she was by leaving the tabernacle of His own accord and floating above her head until the priest could take the host and give it to her. And her first communion, she died of joy.
A little child. She was only eight years old. She was the inspiration above all others for Saint Pius X to open up the doors for younger children to receive Holy Communion. That's how much our Lord wants to be with a soul who desperately wants to be with Him. Saint Catherine of Siena, priests would record, would report, that when they would draw close to her with the Blessed Sacrament to give her communion, the Blessed Sacrament would actually pull their hand toward her. She loved Him so much, and He was able to respond to that love so much. He was able to love her so much because she had shattered all of those barriers that we put up against His love and had surrendered herself so completely to Him that He was able to react in a physical way to that love.
The host, the Blessed Sacrament, was able to do that. Now it's easy for us to say, well that's Saint John Vianney, that's Blessed Imelda, that's Saint Catherine of Siena, I'm not them. That's true, we're not. But the love of God is still the same for each and every one of us. That doesn't change. Each and every one of us could have that same love, that same demonstration of love. Each and every one of us could have that. But we'd have to surrender to it. We'd have to give ourselves up to it. How do we do that? Well, let's start today. Let's go to communion. Let's come to the altar rail.
Let's offer ourselves during the Mass and appreciate and understand that He is sacrificing Himself on this altar at this moment for us. Out of love for us. Let's look at the Sacred Heart and see what that means. All those wounds that He suffered for us, He is doing in a non -bloody fashion
Living the Love of God
yet again on our altar. And then when we come forward to receive the Blessed Sacrament, let's understand, just contemplate for an instant what it is we are receiving. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, God Almighty Himself, coming to us in such a lowly form because He loves us so much. Let's understand that when we receive Him, that is all that we are receiving. And let's not receive it as a mere form. It's not a simple commemoration of the Last Supper. It's not just a formality that we go through because it's Sunday. It's something that turns us into God. It's something that can unite us as perfectly as our nature can possibly be united to the divine nature.
It's something that joins us to Him in an unbelievable fashion. And it's something that can cause us to lose ourselves in the true infinite joy of God. Let's look at the Holy Spirit. Let's contemplate that with our communion today. Let's make a spiritual communion. And let's stay after Mass while we still possess Him in our bodies. Let's stay after Mass to just simply communicate with Him. To rejoice in the knowledge that He is there within us. That He loves us that much. And then let's try to take that love and let it grow. Let's grow within us so that we can go out and actually live the love of God every day of our lives so that we may live in the joy of God regardless of what happens, regardless of everything else around us.
We may live in the love of God and we may be able to live this love so that we may be eternally united to it in Heaven. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Summary
The homily begins by highlighting the recent celebrations of Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart, emphasizing the profound gift of the Eucharist as the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. This divine presence is a testament to God's infinite love, inviting us to partake in His very essence. The preacher addresses the historical context of Jansenism, a movement that restricted access to the Eucharist based on perceived spiritual elitism. Through the revelations to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Christ counters this notion, revealing His Sacred Heart as a symbol of boundless love available to all, regardless of their imperfections. In conclusion, the homily calls us to emulate the saints who lived out this divine love, such as St. Philip Neri and St. Catherine of Siena. By surrendering to God's love and participating in the Eucharist, we are invited to transform our lives and live in the joy and love of God, becoming a reflection of His divine presence in the world.