The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his … treasured possession.

Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, where we contemplate the love of God, and we are asked to pray with and for that love.  In the Gospel of Matthew we read that “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” And today we read that “since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.” As we learn to love, let us treasure God’s first love of us.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once wrote that: “in the Heart of Jesus, the center of Christianity is set before us. This heart calls to our heart. It invites us to step forth out of the futile attempt of self-preservation and, by joining in the task of love, by handing ourselves over to him and with him, to discover the fullness of love which alone is eternity and which alone sustains the world.” (Behold the Pierced One, Ignatius Press, 1986, p.69.)

In this time of COVID-19 we are called to love beyond ourselves. The Sacred Heart devotion is meant to transform us through conversation with God, to empower us to become a new creation in the Mystical Body of Christ. Our ultimate goal is to be drawn into Christ’s redemptive work for the world. Through uniting ourselves to the Heart of Christ, we enter into Christ’s prayer for the world. Consequently, by being one with the Heart of Christ, we are transformed and become the place of intercession for others. Entering into the Heart of Jesus and His prayer for the world ought to encompass the whole experience of our lives.

We are able to see the form of Christ in the devotion to the Sacred Heart only when we know ourselves to be loved by Christ and decide to respond with love.