1st Homily: The Heart of Christ (Mt. 11)

14th Sunday of Ordinary Time (July 5, 2014)

 APA Citation:

Purificacion, Dennis.  "First Homily-- The Heart of Christ: Meek & Humble" (Vallejo: St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, July 5, 2014) from www.marysdeacon.blogspot.com blogged on July 19, 2014.

Deacon Dennis’ Homily: 14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Heart of Christ: Meek & Humble (Mt. 11)

I was a Religion teacher at St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School for four years.  There, I had a student named Marrianne.  In fact, I remember her in my Communion line (over there) receiving the Body of Christ at this parish.  It was the last time I saw her alive.  You see, a year after graduating, she was stabbed in the heart and died instantly.  At the funeral eulogy, I wanted to say something but chickened out.  The story, however, does not end in tragedy.  Her being pierced in the heart was what happened to Jesus.  His meek and tender heart was pierced.  It also happens to you and me in our daily lives.

Yes, it was pierced physically at Mt. Calvary, but it was also pierced psychologically and even spiritually, esp. at the Garden of Gethsemane.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus said, 

 “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart…”

This same meek and humble heart was the same heart that John the Beloved Disciple placed his head on at the Last Supper.

Jesus’ heart experienced his painful agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Do you know what the greatest cause of Jesus’ suffering in the Garden, a suffering that caused Him to sweat blood?  According to many stigmatists and visionary saints canonized by the Church, the great cause of his suffering was the cold rejection and indifference of people to Jesus’ passion and death.

Many of us know what it is like to receive a cold shoulder and an indifferent look from someone after making SO many sacrifices for someone.  Many of us feel what it’s like when a child or friend or someone we love is indifferent and doesn’t care about our painful sacrifices.  Our heart is broken when rejected.  If this is true for us who are sinful human beings, then how much MORE was this true for the heart of the Son of God who was without sin!  He gives his love to us and we cast a cold response to Him.  And I’m not just talking about the unbaptized and that those who do not follow Him, but it was the baptized, you the Elect, whom He has called to follow Him.  In the Garden, he saw how we become indifferent to the Eucharist and Sunday Mass.

But like my former student, this story does not end in tragedy.  Because in that same vision that the canonized stigmatists and mystics saw, Jesus had a vision of those who would give their hearts to Him.  He saw you and me responding to Him in love.  And it gave His sacred humanity strength in a most touching manner!  This meek and humble Heart can be lived out today in two beautiful devotions: The Sacred Heart of Jesus & the Divine Mercy.

In the Divine Mercy painting, two rays – red and white – emanate from His tender Heart.  Jesus I trust in You.  They represent mercy and love.  Think of all your sins in a drop of water.  And then toss that drop of water into the Pacific Ocean.  Then think of the Pacific Ocean as just a drop of God’s mercy— a mercy that we experience in the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession.  In this Sacrament, we find the ocean of God’s heart.  This is where our hearts that are labored by sin and burden by the tears of life will become light.  It is here where you can experience the sweet yoke of Jesus’ mercy through the priest who acts in persona Christi.  I mean, I’ve heard people say after going to Confession, “Gee, I feel so much lighter.  I feel like a weight’s been lifted off my shoulders.”

My former student’s Mom invited my wife and me to her house and room where Marrianne lived.  In the eerie silence, I noticed the biology book on her desk, the stuffed animals on her cabinet, but one thing caught my eye.  It was a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that I had given her when I taught her in 9^th grade.  Like Marrianne, I encourage you to have a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in our homes and/or to have a picture of Jesus the Divine Mercy.  One way to practice this devotion is through the First Friday devotions.  Here at St. Catherine’s, we have the Blessed Sacrament exposed at 6pm for an hour, followed by Mass.  If you every want to attend Mass outside of the Sunday Mass, try the First Friday Masses nine consecutive times in honor of the Heart of Jesus.  One of his promises is to console those who have devotion to His Sacred Heart in all their troubles.  To find out more about how can practice a spirituality of devotion to the Sacred Heart, there are pamphlet in the narthex or entrance of the church that you can take home. 

And in my last story, brothers and sisters in Christ, there is a movie called “World Trade Center” from 9/11.  In it, two Port Authority police officers are trapped at the bottom of Ground Zero.  One officer, Will Jimeno, fades in and out of consciousness.  He reported after being one of 19 who survived the collapse that he had a vision of Jesus who gave him water bottles.  The movie shows a living beating heart.

This living beating heart is the Flesh of Jesus Christ that you and I receive Sunday after Sunday.  We come to Sunday Mass out of love.  Let us not reject the Heart of Christ.  Like Marrianne whose death will not be in vain, let us not let Jesus’s death be in vain by our cold love in response to His Heart.

If there is anger or hatred in our hearts, one good thing is to unite it in the Heart of Jesus.  Picture you placing your broken heart in His Heart, and say to Him, “Jesus, I give this hurt in my Heart to you.  I trust in You.”  Being meek and humble of heart means that we not take revenge.  This is the meaning of being meek.  (Of course, it doesn’t mean to be treated like a door mat.  It doesn’t mean that what the other person did to you was right.  It just means that you will let go of the hardened heart so that it can be tender like Jesus’s Heart.)  As we saw in the First Reading, your king shall come to you.  A just savior is he.  He is a meek savior -- not riding on the top of the world in pride -- but riding on a donkey.  When we serve others, esp. at our parish or families or in our places of work and school, we too serve in meekness and tenderness.

If there is a Cross that we are carrying, let us look to the Passion of Jesus and unite our Crosses to His Cross.  Bring it to Mass, unite your suffering there, and be strengthened.  This will give great consolation in your moment of agony (esp at death).  Give it all to Him.  It will lighten your load when you tell Him and ask Him to help you.  

Jesus says to you and me today, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”