June 22nd: Look in the Mirror
June 22, 2020
June 23rd: Enter through the narrow gate’
June 23, 2020
Can you say your heart is meek and humble in your family, Church community and workplace?
“If in your family, you can say ‘my heart is gentle and humble’, there will be no problems…within our Church community, where I am in my place of work, I can say ‘my heart is like the heart of Jesus’…I can tell you we shall have no problems”.
Apostolic Nuncio Fortunatus Nwachukwu asked for reflection while giving the homily at Sacred Heart RC Port of Spain last Sunday for the church’s feast day the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The feast was Friday June 19. He said the importance of the Heart of Jesus reminds also of the importance of the faithful’s own hearts.
Discussing what Jesus taught about His Heart, he cited Matt 11:28-29. Jesus invites the weary and burdened to come to Him and He will give them rest. Archbishop Nwachukw noted that Jesus went further in saying “shoulder my yoke and learn from me because I am gentle and humble of heart”.
He said for the heart to become meek and humble like Jesus people must be willing to shoulder the yoke. “Yokes are what is used in directing the oxen as they plough the field so it is like the steering for the car, Jesus is saying remove your own steering and put my steering.” Persons are no longer going according to their own direction but according to the direction of Jesus. Archbishop Nwachukw said in John 21:15-17 Jesus helps Peter “heal his life” by confessing his love for Him three times after denying three times. In verse 18, He told Peter when he was young, he went wherever he wanted but when he got old, “you will stretch out your hands and another person will lead you”. Archbishop Nwachukwu added, “that other person is God, Jesus Himself will lead you sometimes even to the place you do not wish to go”. He stressed, “You cannot say you are an adult Christian if you are doing what you want…The adult Christian is the person who puts on the yoke of Jesus Christ.”
In celebrating the feast of the Sacred Heart Catholics remember the heart that was pieced on the Cross, the heart of God that became a human heart. Archbishop Nwachukw said the heart is the centre of the life of the person and Jesus said this a number of times. He referred to various scripture including, Matthew 15:18 when Jesus states “what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and that is what makes a person unclea”’ stating: “Jesus was telling them from the heart all good things come all the bad things.”
It is in the heart of Jesus that the love of God is seen; while people were still sinners Jesus took on flesh and died (Rom 5:8). He urged the congregation, “if you want to be like God we have to work in our heart.”
Archbishop Nwachukwu asked the congregation to close their eyes and ask Jesus to embrace and draw them closer so their hearts are close to Him. The Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, June 20 came a day after the feast of the Most Sacred Heart. The Archbishop said the flesh that formed Jesus’ heart and the blood that flowed in His veins came from Mary, “as we celebrate the Sacred Heart of Jesus let us remember the Immaculate Heart of Mary”.
