Entrust Ourselves to Hearts of Christ & His Mother During Social Unrest (Homily #181)

[Homily for 12pm Mass]

[Homily for 5pm Mass]

We All Bleed the Same by Mandisa

Entrust Ourselves to Hearts of Christ & His Mother During Social Unrest (Homily #181)

by Deacon Dennis Purificacion

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 5, 2020
(Mt. 11)

“We all bleed the same. / If we’re gonna shout, let love be the cry. / Let’s stay united.”

 

This song by the Christian singer Mandisa, with Kirk Franklin & TobyMac, reminds us about the dignity of every human person.  On the outside, our differences like skin color, hair and physical appearances, etc. may be different.  But on the inside, the hearts of every human person on the planet bleed the same color red.

Mandisa said she wrote the song because of the current social instability, because in her words “hate cannot chase out hate, only love can do that.”  She wrote. “If we’re gonna shout, let love be the cry.”

Additionally, this song by Mandisa reminds us of a certain Augustus Tolton.  Augustus Tolton was a black slave born in Missouri in the 1850s.  After escaping to Chicago with his family, Augustus still grew up in a culture of discrimination and racism.  Fortunately, the local white parish priest helped Augustus overcome his experience of the color of his skin, by even members of his own parish and diocese.  Augustus continued to serve his parish through many racial injustices.

The point here is that Augustus did not return the spirit of violence of his time with more violence.  Just like the song “We All Bleed the Same,” Augustus did not reply to hate with more hate.  He didn’t return evil for evil or call for more violent anarchy overthrow of government.    He replied with peaceful means for systemic change.

Rather, Augustus took what was evil and replied with goodness.  He was meek.  He took the negative energy, so to speak, and redirected it by becoming eventually, the first known black Catholic priest in the U.S.  He became an agent of healing. 

Being meek like Augustus means returning good for evil.  Turning the other cheek does not mean letting people walk all over you.  Meekness means returning hatred in our hearts with love and righteousness or justice.

While most of us cannot become priests, we can still do what Augustus did.  He fought evil with goodness and meekness.  He replied to any forms of discrimination in the system with his very life.  Like the song, “If we’re gonna shout, let love be the cry.”  Father Augustus is now a candidate for sainthood.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus said, “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”  The meekness of Christ is our model of all the saints and martyrs throughout time.  It is not sufficient to say, “Well, the Gospel of humility and meekness does not apply during times of lawlessness, or COVID-19, or economic uncertainty.”  If anything, the Gospel all the more applies to us in our social anxieties and uncertainty.

Why?  Because of the sacred heart of Christ!  Let this meek heart be our refuge!  In today’s First Reading, it is written in the Book of the Prophet Zachariah, “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!  See your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.”  Jesus does not ride the powerful horses and mighty elephants of pride and hatred, but he rides on the lowly donkey of nonviolence and childlikeness.

We don’t know how long we will social distance like this. But what we do know is that we must keep the Faith alive in our homes.  Even without the Mass, we can still practice popular devotions.  And the great devotion from today’s Gospel is love from the Heart of Jesus.

When Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary and showed her His Sacred Heart, he gave a dozen promises to those who would love His Heart in return.  Here are some examples: 

“I will establish peace in their homes.”  

“I will give them all the graces necessary in their state in life.” 

“I will be their secure refuge during life and above all in death.” 

“I will bless every place in which an image of My Heart is exposed and honored.” 

“Sinners will find in My Heart an infinite ocean of mercy.”  

And finally, “I promise to those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays of 9 consecutive months the grace of final perseverance…they shall not die without the Sacraments; I will be their refuge.”

And when we turn to the Heart of Christ, we also remember the Heart of His Mother.  As the old popular song by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie “Endless Love” says, “Two hearts, two hearts that beat as one.  Our lives have just begun.”  During this unprecedented time in the world and in the Church, I once again call for us to entrust, to give ourselves, to consecrate ourselves, our families & world, especially Russia, to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!

In closing, yes, we all bleed the same.  And yes our shout is love.  We all bleed the same because of Him whose meek and humble heart was pieced, because of Him who was crucified and rose from the dead to win our hearts, because of Him whose sacred heart first bled for us. 

Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Thine.  Amen.