Today we come to one of the most beautiful feasts of the entire year.
The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
And if we understand this feast properly,
it changes everything.
Because the Sacred Heart is not really about an organ.
It is about the love of God.
The astonishing,
unfathomable,
relentless love of God for sinners.
The great question hidden in every human heart is this:
What is God really like?
Many people imagine God as distant.
Watching from afar.
Interested in rules,
but not interested in them.
Others imagine Him as permanently disappointed.
Always angry.
Always waiting for failure.
But then Christ comes.
And suddenly we see the face of God.
And what do we discover?
A Heart.
A Heart that loves.
Listen to the first reading.
Moses reminds Israel:
“It was not because you were the most numerous of peoples that the Lord set His heart on you and chose you.”
God did not choose Israel because they were powerful.
Or impressive.
Or successful.
He chose them because He loved them.
That is extraordinary.
And it remains true today.
God does not love us because we are worthy.
God’s love is what makes us worthy.
Most human love begins with something attractive.
Beauty.
Kindness.
Friendship.
Virtue.
We love because we see something lovable.
But God loves differently.
God’s love creates goodness where there was none.
God loves sinners.
God loves the unlovely.
God loves those who have wandered far away.
That is why the Sacred Heart is such a powerful image.
The Heart of Christ burns with love,
even when that love is rejected.
The Heart of Christ continues loving,
even when it is wounded.
The Heart of Christ remains open,
even when humanity nails Him to a Cross.
And nowhere do we see this more clearly than Calvary.
Look at the crucifix.
What do we see?
A Heart that refuses to stop loving.
Betrayed.
Mocked.
Scourged.
Crowned with thorns.
Nailed to wood.
And still He says:
“Father, forgive them.”
That is the Sacred Heart.
The world understands power.
The world understands success.
The world understands revenge.
But the world does not understand this kind of love.
A love willing to suffer for enemies.
A love willing to die for sinners.
A love that keeps giving itself away.
Then St John gives perhaps the most important sentence in all of Scripture:
“God is love.”
Not merely that God loves.
God is love.
Love is not something God occasionally does.
Love is what God is.
Everything He does flows from that love.
Creation.
Redemption.
The sacraments.
The Church.
Everything.
And yet this feast is not merely comforting.
It is challenging.
Because if God loves us like this,
then we must respond.
Love demands an answer.
No one can remain neutral before the Sacred Heart.
That is why today’s Gospel is so beautiful.
Jesus does not say: “Come to me, all you who are successful.”
Or: “Come to me, all you who have everything sorted out.”
He says: “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.”
Not distraction.
Rest.
Not escape.
Rest.
The kind of rest that only God can give.
And perhaps that is why so many people are exhausted today.
Not simply physically.
Spiritually.
People carry guilt.
Fear.
Regret.
Anxiety.
People carry wounds from years ago.
People carry burdens nobody else sees.
And often they try to carry them alone.
But the Sacred Heart says: Come to Me.
Not: Fix yourself first. Not: Become perfect first. Come to Me.
The Heart of Christ is open. Still.
Open to sinners.
Open to the wounded.
Open to the weary.
Open to us.
And perhaps that is the greatest tragedy.
Not that God has stopped loving humanity.
But that humanity so often refuses His love.
People spend their lives searching everywhere for happiness.
Money. Pleasure. Success. Recognition. And still remain restless.
Because the human heart was made for God.
And it will never find peace until it rests in Him.
The saints understood this.
That is why they stayed close to the Sacred Heart.
Not because their lives were easy.
Many suffered greatly.
But they had discovered something.
The love of Christ is stronger than sin.
Stronger than suffering.
Stronger than death.
And so today the Church invites us to do something very simple.
To stop for a moment.
To look at the Heart of Christ.
And to realise: I am loved.
Not because I am perfect.
Not because I have earned it.
Not because I deserve it.
But because God is love.
And if that truth truly enters a human soul, everything changes.
Fear begins to lose its power.
Despair begins to lose its power.
Sin begins to lose its power.
Because the soul finally understands what the Sacred Heart reveals:
The God who created us.
The God who redeemed us.
The God who will judge us.
Is also the God who loves us beyond anything we can imagine.
And His Heart remains open still.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 