13th Sunday
Blessing of Sacred Heart Icon
Sacred Heart Parish, Glyndon
June 30, 2024
Warmest Thanks
I’m delighted to return to Sacred Heart Parish and to bless the beautiful image of apparition of the Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitandine nun of the 17th century. This is also a moment for all of us to thank Fr. Jerry Francik for his energetic, effective, and devoted leadership of Sacred Heart Parish! And it is a moment for me to thank all of you for your faithfulness, generosity, and dedication to the mission of this parish. So also I want to thank Fr. Zach Crowley for his service here at Sacred Heart, and ask for him God’s blessings in his new ministry. With you, I welcome Fr. Angel Acuña whom I ordained to the priesthood just over a week ago. May God bless him as he begins his priestly ministry.
Focusing Our Eyes
Let us now focus our eyes on the Gospel so that they might focus more clearly on the image we are about to bless. In the Gospel, we met two deeply troubled people. One was a synagogue official named Jairus. Given his leadership position, Jairus knew some would criticize him for reaching out to Jesus – but he was desperate. His beloved daughter was dying. “Please, come and lay your hands on her, and she will recover,” he said. Jesus did come to his house and his daughter did recover, much to the astonishment of the mourners and naysayers.
A second person we meet in this morning’s Gospel is an unnamed woman suffering from hemorrhages for twelve long years. She had tried everything; visited every doctor; and had run out of money. In her desperation, she thought that if she could only touch Jesus’ garments, without even encountering him, she would be cured. But Jesus wanted to encounter her. “Who touched me?” he asked amid a crowd hemming him on every side. Looking at this woman with the eyes of mercy, he imparted healing and new life to her, and she recovered.
Relating to Jairus and the Unnamed Woman
I think most of us can identify with Jairus and the unnamed woman. There isn’t a person in this church this morning who hasn’t been consumed with worry for a loved one. Maybe it’s a son or a daughter or a spouse or a parent. Maybe they’re seriously ill or going through a bout of depression, or fighting addiction, or struggling to find their way through life. Of course, we try to provide the best professional care that we can, but even the best such care doesn’t fully heal the human spirit, doesn’t fully restore hope and wholeness . . . What heals the heart is love.
And what of the woman who wished to remain anonymous? Are we like her in our struggles? When faced with an illness that is draining us of life and hope, we may at first seek help, but when that proves inadequate, we blend in with the crowd, anonymously looking for help, maybe by searching for advice and assistance on-line. Even when we turn to God for help, we try to remain anonymous, reluctant as we often are to open our hearts fully to him. If, in our reluctance to encounter God, we only knew how the loving heart of God wishes to encounter us! Yes, we can relate to Jairus and we can relate to this woman whose name we know not.
“Come to Me . . .”
But let us not merely relate to them; let us also imitate them. In their need, they turned to Jesus. They went to Jesus with a firm and resolute faith, confident that he could help them, confident that he would love them. Maybe they heard him say, “Come to me, all you who are labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Perhaps they heard him say, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Every time you enter this church and gaze upon this beautiful image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, think of the many people in the Gospels who went to Jesus in their need. Hear Jesus’ invitation, “come to me in your labors, burdens, and worries”! For what St. Margaret Mary Alacoque helps us understand so clearly is this: that our Savior Jesus loves us with a heart of flesh, a heart like ours, a heart that beats with love for us, an infinite self-giving love, a love that is never exhausted by our weaknesses, our sins, our problems, a love that heals, a love that restores, a love that ennobles. For the faith we profess is not merely an ideal or a philosophy. At the heart of our faith is the Person of Christ, the Son of God made man, who loves us with an infinite love corresponding to our infinite dignity. From his heart there flowed that blood and water which are the foundation and source of the Church and her sacramental life. This is the Lord whom we receive – Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity – in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
So on this day of rejoicing and blessing, let us entrust our cares and worries & weaknesses to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, confident that he knows us and loves us more deeply than we could ever know and love ourselves, confident that he bears our burdens and heals our infirmities and that he lead us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Father of mercies. May God bless us and keep us always in his love!