Sacred Heart of Jesus
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Because Sunday was the Feast of the Holy Family I was not able to focus the fact that December 27 is the anniversary of when Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673, revealing the love of His Sacred Heart for mankind. In her autobiography she writes:
While I was praying before the Eucharist, Jesus presented Himself to me, all resplendent with glory, His Five Wounds shining like so many suns. Flames issued from every part of His Sacred Humanity, especially from His chest, which resembled an open furnace and disclosed to me His most loving Heart, which was the living source of these flames. It was then that He made known to me the indescribable and excessive love he has for all people, most from whom He receives only ingratitude and contempt.
In the Eucharist, Jesus offers us His Sacred Heart, which is a burning furnace of love to transform us as fire transforms whatever it touches.
And the Mass is an exchange of hearts. At Mass the Priest will invite you to “Lift up your heart” to which we should respond by offering our heart to Jesus saying “We lift them up to the Lord”
Then Jesus gives His Sacred Heart to us in Communion
· See – the Mass is an exchange of Hearts
The Eucharist Really is the Sacred Heart of Jesus
But people reject His Sacred Heart, they go to communion and receive the Eucharist as if they are receiving a useless piece of bread, or they don’t go at all.
Jesus revealed to Margaret Mary that one of the greatest ways we can love Him in return is simply by going to Mass as often as we can, daily if possible, to offer Jesus our own heart and to receive His Sacred Heart in the Eucharist with gratitude and love.
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CCC 478 teaches us about the Heart of Jesus
It says “Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us: "The Son of God. . . loved me and gave himself for me" writes St. Paul.
Jesus knew each and all. He knew each person. He knew you. Jesus did not suffer and die for an anonymous mass of people, some of whom he hoped would believe in him and be saved. No. At every moment of his life Jesus knew you, He thought of you, and loved you – especially during his agony and his death.
He knew you by face, by name, and by your whole life story. He knew all that is good and bad about you. How often do we think of Jesus and love him in return?
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Because Jesus is God, He is an eternal Person. Eternal means there is no past and no future, for Jesus there is only the present moment. That means the events of His life of do not pass away. All other historical events happen once, and then they slip away, swallowed up in the past. The suffering death and resurrection of Christ, by contrast, remain present in all times.
Jesus remains present in each of the moments of his suffering and death: Jesus is still in the Garden of Gethsemane in mortal anguish sweating blood, he is still in the act of being betrayed by Judas and Peter, He is still on trial before Ciaphas the High Priest, Jesus is still in pit used for his prison where all night long he waited his trial before Pilate, Jesus is still being scourged, mocked, crowned with thorns, carrying the Cross, crucified and being lain in the Tomb. At each of these events, Jesus is there, now… because for him there is only now, and He is thinking of you. Let your eyes meet his. Fix your gaze upon him. Jesus I am thinking of you. And in return hear Jesus say: I am thinking of you.
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CCC 478 He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, "is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings" without exception.
If the events of the suffering and death of Jesus remain always in the present, then we can still console the Sacred Heart of Jesus while he is suffering. Jesus remains in those events. This means we can go to Him there and be with Him. When faced with a person for whom we cannot change their suffering, there is one thing we can do for them, we can be with them - and it is a great act of friendship and consolation to remain with them. In your mind and heart, go to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane where his friends had abandoned him. Go right up to Jesus and sit down next to Him, be with him during his agony. Go to Jesus in the Prison where he waited, totally alone all night, don’t leave him alone. Go to him on Calvary, as he hangs from the cross. Stand next to his Mother Mary, put your arm around her, console the Hearts of Jesus and Mary right now as you pray this decade.
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However, because most of the world has rejected the Sacred Heart of Jesus, God is offering the world one last refuge and hope, the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Jesus is saying to the world: I offered you my heart as the way to salvation and you spurned it; now I am offering the world the Heart of My Mother; maybe the world will not reject the Heart of a Mother.
In the approved apparition San Nicolas Argentina, On November 19, 1987 Jesus said to the visionary: Today I warn the world, for the world is not aware: souls are in danger. Many are lost. Few will find salvation unless they accept me as their Savior. My Mother must be accepted. My Mother must be heard in the totality of her messages. The world must discover the richness which she brings to Christians. The children of sin will grow up in sin if their unbelief increases. I want a renewal of the spirit, a detachment from death, and an attachment to life. I have chosen the heart of my mother, so that what I ask will be achieved. Souls will come to me through the means of her Immaculate Heart.
If you are looking for a refuge in 2021, I suggest you make the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary your refuge. Look to them and they will take care of you. Buried deep within their united Hearts you are safe.
Those who pray the Rosary every day will know what to do in 2021. They will find peace and they will be safe.