Exiit qui seminat - The Heart of our Blessed Mother
This past Friday and Saturday the Church celebrated the back to back feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (June 11) and the Immaculate Heart of Mary (June 12). The devotion to the Sacred heart, championed by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), focuses on the how the plan of salvation was fulfilled through Christ's human nature - his physical suffering for all of us. St. Bernard writes, “This gracious Captain desires that the face and eyes of His devoted soldier should be lifted up to those wounds, that his soul may stand erect and he may draw from the sight strength unshakable. For gazing on those wounds he shall not feel his own….The martyr stands fearless and in triumph…where then is the soul of the martyr? It is safe; it is on the rock; it is in the Heart of Jesus, whose wounds were opened to let it in.”
It is fitting that we also celebrate the Heart of our Blessed Mother. Not only does our Lord receive His humanity from her, but also too, Mary, as the first and greatest disciple mirrors what we all long for in our own hearts - to be in true communion with our Lord and our God. St. John Eudes, a priest in the 1600s writes of that union and communion: "The Heart of Jesus is of course distinct from that of Mary and surpasses it infinitely in excellence and holiness. Yet God has so closely united these two Hearts that there has never been and never will be a closer union. Thus the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the Heart of Mary. These two Hearts are but one Heart ... which was given to us by the Blessed Trinity and by our Blessed Mother, so that we, the children of Jesus and Mary, might have but one heart with our Heavenly Father and our holy Mother and that we might love and glorify God with the same Heart, a Heart worthy of the infinite grandeur of His Divine Majesty."
So the Sacred Heart of Jesus reminds us that Christ knows intimately the depths of our own suffering and by His own Passion on the Cross helps us to look past that suffering to see the victory that He has won for us, while the Immaculate Heart of Mary demonstrates for us that the true purpose and longing of the human heart is to be united with God. Let us continue to offer up our sufferings to God and pray that we can unite our crosses with His cross and may we strive each day to have our hearts filled in faith to beat in unison with hearts of Jesus and Mary. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Fr. Rob Sinatra
