Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:02 Behold this heart that has so loved men and which receives from them only in gratitude. These are our Lord's words to st. Margaret Mary has so loved men. What did he mean by that? How much has he loved us? Well, at the time that he said this, he was showing to her, his heart on fire with love, like a glow in furnace. She says it was so hot with his ardent passion. This love for our souls. Do you have any idea how hot a furnace has to get before it'll glow and that hard that he showed her? It has a hole in it, a hole from where land pierced it 2000 years ago, as he hung upon a cross on a Hill outside of Jerusalem, that hole was put there to make sure that he was dead and he died because it was his own will that he do so.
Speaker 0 00:01:09 And he chose to do this to show how much he loves us behold, this heart. It has so loved men, how much to burn with passion for us, even to suffer and to die for us, to save us from our sins. This is what love does to love is to will, what is best for the other person? Love also desires to be United to the other person, but too often in today's world, the word love is used to describe something that we derive a lot of pleasure from or something that makes us happy. I love those avocado and is at El Chico. Well, what that really means you like those a whole lot. Someone might even have a great design higher to have those Angelenos, but still it's for the delight that they give you.
Speaker 0 00:02:10 When the word love is used to refer to how we feel about another person too often, it is like that someone quote, unquote, loves another person. If he has a great desire to be with, if his passions draw him strongly to that person, to be very close to them. But why does he desire to be close, close to them? Because that is what's good for them. Does he truly desire and is willing to work for the good of the other person? Perhaps he desires their pleasure. That's not a bad thing, but that alone is a very dangerous thing and it is not love. Or does he desire to be with that person? Because it himself pleasure. Is that what he means by love? That's like loving the Angelakis. I feel good when I'm with you or you give me pleasure. That means I love you.
Speaker 0 00:03:16 Christ's heart burns with love because he has made an act of the will to love us. It would be blast for me to say that he loves us simply because his heart burns with passion. See, in the first case, he actually loves us. In the second case, we would only have that feeling that sometimes results from love. One is love. One is not. And too often, that feeling is what people call love. And they let it govern their actions. But passion alone is not love, but beyond just the feeling, which is not really love. Anyway, there is another degree of love whereby we want to be with someone and do really desire their good. And if that love is true, love, we desire them. They're good. So much that we would sacrifice our own pleasure. And to some extent, to a large extent, most of our own good.
Speaker 0 00:04:26 This is the true test of love. How much will we give of ourselves for the one we love Christ gave all not counting the cost, not thinking how hard or miserable it was never dwelling on. I really wish this were enjoyable for me, never saying, what about me? This is love. And this is what we celebrate today. How much Christ has loved us. And we also learn how much we ought to love. One. Another love loves so much even to forgetfulness of self. And the interesting thing is that if we love that way, if we love as we should, that is even to the forgetfulness of ourselves, then others will certainly be drawn to love us. And they will strive for our happiness. They will then give us what we cannot give ourselves. They will give us selfless love, and then we will be happy because that's what we're made for.
Speaker 0 00:05:46 In other words, if we live for others, even to forgetfulness of self, others will live not for our good only, but also for our happiness. People who live with no thought for themselves are attractive. They live a life of giving. They're not selfish and don't come across as being selfish. This is something that we all look for is he selfish. People will not do what it takes to make us safe, secure, to protect us, or even to give a thought for our hearts and our souls yet. That's what we look for. Selfish. People put themselves first, even though they disguise their self centeredness has real interest in others even fooling themselves sometimes. But that means that everyone else is second. Everyone else is there to make them happy. They love those people. Not because they are people and they are lovable, but because those people serve them somehow, they make them happy. They give them pleasure. I love her should mean I will suffer anything for her holiness and her happiness. Not just, I can't wait to be with that person. She makes me feel good. She makes me happy.
Speaker 0 00:07:18 If they recognize that you will deny yourself that you will put them first, then they will do all that they can to give themselves to you. As much as they're able, given the laws of God and of man, that is why the ability to love is the truest test of virtue for virtue is not determined by how many others we can conquer or how well we can do at something, but by whether or not we can conquer ourselves can control ourselves, not control our environment, whether or not we can give of ourselves. Those were not willing to suffer, to be without, to die, to surrender, to choose other over self. These people want love, but struggle against themselves and their own fears of letting go of not providing for themselves and of letting others provide for them. What they need a true lover will even be without love.
Speaker 0 00:08:28 If he has to, in order to do what is best for the one, he loves. See the example of our Lord on the cross behold, this heart that has so loved men and which receives from them only in gratitude, knowing how he would be treated. He gave his life for our salvation. Anyway, there's no self-interest, but make no mistake. So it's a person who will give all for love of neighbor is eminently lovable and will in fact be loved because he has first loved. We cannot give that kind of selfless love to ourselves. And so we must stop trying and let others do it for us. Yes, Jim Elliot, the Protestant missionary has a great quote. He is no fool who gives what? He cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Speaker 0 00:09:40 Stop trying so hard for our own happiness for, we cannot give ourselves selfless love. And that is what we long for love of others, as you wish to be loved, and you will be loved beyond what you can now imagine. What does all this have to do with today's feast? Why do we celebrate this feast today? What are we celebrating? There's nothing less than the love God has for us. Most especially manifested by the second person of the blessed Trinity in his human heart. We see a great example of that love when we hear st. Paul admonish, husbands love your wives as Christ has loved the church. And as you've guessed by now, I'm not really talking a lot today about the sacred heart, but rather about love and the lessons we learned from the sacred heart about love. So what about that? Heart Christ chose the littleness of Bethlehem so that we might see how much he is not interested in serving himself.
Speaker 0 00:10:57 Remember we are to follow his example. Loving is not about us. It's about the beloved. He lived a life of poverty and obscurity so that we might see how little he saw his own greatness and comfort. Remember, we are to follow his example. Love is not about us. It's about the beloved. He died, rejected by his own people and accused of blasphemy hanging between two thieves so that we might see what is the limit to which he would go for. Our good, remember, we are to follow his example. Loving is not about us, but it's about the beloved. And he did all these things because he loves. And do we follow his example? Are we even willing to follow his example? Love is not about us. It's about the beloved.
Speaker 0 00:12:07 We will be fulfilled if we don't strive for fulfillment. If we strive to do and be the best for those, we love even to forgetfulness of self, because that is what we are made for. Christ taught us this. This is the love of the sacred heart. What was in it for him? What did he gain by loving us even onto death? And he tells us to love one another, as he has loved us. What does that mean to give and not count the cost to be concerned with our own sanctity to be, do not be concerned with our own same satisfaction and our own fulfillment, but only the fulfillment, the joy and the happiness. And finally, the beatitude of those. We love so much so that we would, that we would watch.
Speaker 0 00:13:14 How did Christ love his church? Christ did not come to make us feel good. He came to do for us, what was best and nothing got in his way. Happiness is a great thing. It's what we're made for. He desires our happiness in this life and in the next, but God wants us to be happy. Finally, eternally for that will be true and perfect happiness. And we must not prefer the lesser happinesses in favor of that one. And this often is our trouble. That along the way, we seek happiness or try to create it in a way that interferes with our ultimate happiness. We choose one good thing over something else that we should have chosen. We try to make happiness happen here. And now the way we think it should be rather than accepting the limitations of this world and loving others as we are able to here and now and accepting their love as they are able to give it here.
Speaker 0 00:14:27 And now we've heard this before, but it fits well here too. Our misery oftentimes is a result of not accepting what is in wishing and striving for what is not. We all seek love and to find love. We must first truly love, okay. It feels like a dangerous and a scary thing to not achieve or to actively pursue even our own happiness. We are after all made for happiness. And we feel like we have to secure that happiness for ourselves. We're designed to seek happiness, but true happiness, all that we look for all that we could ever want comes from giving, not from taste. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:15:27 And that's all very fine to say, and we can strive to live this way. But the wound of sin is death doing such a violence to ourselves to put others first will not come easily. We will need help. And this is why our Lord has given us this feast day. Not only to be the example and inspiration to us for loving, but also that we might go to him to learn this love, selfless love, which has its every desire fulfilled because it gives, and it does not take to learn this love by dwelling with him. By spending time with him every day, we will become more like him. And so I will close today with a reading from the office of matins for the feast of the sacred heart, a homily by Saint Bonaventure in order that the church might be taken out of the side of Christ in his deep sleep, on the cross.
Speaker 0 00:16:34 And that the scripture might be fulfilled, which says they shall look on him whom they pierced. It was divinely ordained that one of the soldiers should Pierce his sacred side with a spear and openness then forth with their cane flowing out and blood and water, which was the price of our salvation pouring forth from its mountain source in sooth, from the secret places of his heart to give power to the sacraments of the church, to be stowed the life of grace and to be as a saving drink of living waters flowing up to eternal life. For those who are already quickened in Christ arise, then O soul be loved of Christ sees not by vigilance place. There they lips and drink the waters from the fountain themselves because we are an outcome to the sweet heart of Jesus. And because it is good for us to be here, let us not too soon, turn away.
Speaker 0 00:17:36 Oh, how good and joyful of thing it is to dwell in this heart? What a good treasure, what a precious Pearl is. This is this sacred heart, almost excellent Jesus, which we have found in the pit, which has been dug in this field, namely in my body who would cast away such a Pearl ne rather for this same, I would give all my pearls. I will sell all my thoughts and affections. And by the same for myself, turning all my thoughts to the heart of the good Jesus without fail, it will support me, therefore, most sweet Jesus finding this heart that is nine and mine. I will pray to thee my God admit my prayers into the shrine of hearkening and draw me evermore altogether into my heart for, to this end, was I side pierced that an entry might be made open to us to this end, was I heart wounded that any it, we might be able to dwell secure from the alarms from without, and it was wounded nonetheless, on this account that because of the invisible wound, we may perceive the wound of love, which is invisible.
Speaker 0 00:18:53 How could this fire of love better shine forth than for him to permit that not only his body, but that even his heart should be wounded with the sphere who would not love that heart. So wounded who would not in return loved one who is so loving, who would not embrace one. So chaste, wherefore, let us who are in the flesh, love in return as much as we can him who, so loveth embraced our wounded one, those hands, those feet, that side and heart, which have been pierced by the wicked husbandman and let us pray that he may Dane to bind our hearts still hard. And impenitent with a chain of his love and wound them with the dark there of, in the name of the father and of the son of the Holy ghost. And.
