A week ago Friday and Saturday, we celebrated in the Church the two most perfect hearts ever planted inside the body of a person. A week ago Friday was the celebration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This Solemnity is celebrated on the Friday after the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost. This may sound a bit confusing, but it really isn’t. And then, the following day, the Saturday after the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Church celebrates each year the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I need not express how appropriate and proper it is that these feasts in the Church are celebrated on two consecutive days. It seems like Mother Church says, “Let’s not only celebrate the heart of our Lord and Savior, but let’s also rejoice in the heart of the one who carried him for 9 months, gave birth to him, and, along with her husband Joseph, watched him grow in his human nature in the small village of Nazareth where much good comes from.”
I’m sure you’ve noticed we recognize and highlight other parts of the holy body of Jesus in various parts of the Scriptures, for better or for worse, in some cases what others imposed upon Jesus. Such as when the Lord was struggling physically through his Passion, a crown of thorns was thrust upon his head by soldiers who considered it to be a funny joke. “Hey, he calls himself a king. Let’s make a crown for him.” And this they did. As we know the story, the soldiers, in their good humor that was really bad, sick humor, formed and shaped a crown of prickly thorns, likely slicing their own hands as they put it together, twisting and turning it into a circular shape, just large enough for the holy head of Jesus, and, when in his weak moment sometime after his scourging, slammed the crown of thorns on his head. If only they knew they placed a crown on the head of the God who created them. It would be accurate to say we abide in a culture that continues to crown the Lord in mockery.
And speaking of scourging, what they did to the holy body of the Lord in this matter was to whip his body beyond all recognition. The whip, we know, was not only cloth hitting the body of Jesus hard and fast, but the whips had metal balls attached to them, so that when the Lord was scourged, the metal balls ripped open his skin. After 40 or so lashes of such cruel treatment, something the Romans excelled at in the first century, the body of Jesus was beyond recognition. I suspect today we still get quite imaginative when it comes to the physical punishment of a person, especially during times of war. The Lord’s own mother would have had a most difficult time recognizing her Son from the neck down. The scourging and its hard effects remind me of the dramatic scourging scene in Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, which I’m sure many of us have seen (but not to be shown even to a Confirmation class, although they would never forget it). In this movie after the scourging of Jesus, Gibson had Jesus appearing no more than a brute animal covered in blood. I remember our Rector in seminary at the time commenting on how much he did not admire Mel Gibson’s take on the look of Jesus after the Lord’s scourging, while hearing at the same time comments from another seminary teacher say that what Gibson did was fairly accurate. He wasn’t bothered by Gibson’s cinematic display of extreme cruelty to the body of Jesus.
And then we go back to the soldiers again for another example of the body parts of Jesus that receive special attention in the Bible. In this case involving a single soldier. I’m sure you recall the part of the Lord’s crucifixion just after he died, after earthquakes, storms, the curtain in the Temple torn in two, and Joseph of Arimathea asking Pilate for the body of Jesus for burial purposes. Pilate gave permission for the body of Jesus to be taken down and buried after he had died. After some time, the soldiers would break the legs of those crucified so their bodies could fall flat-out from the Cross and die quickly from suffocation. Well, when they arrived at the cross of Jesus, they found that the Lord had already died. And just to make sure, to remove any and all doubt, a Roman soldier thrust his lance into the side/chest of Jesus. When he saw there was no reaction from the Lord, for if he was still alive, he would have screamed to the highest heaven where he originally came from before arriving in the womb of Mary his Mother, the soldier at that point knew for certain this man was dead. Deader than a rusty doornail. The Spirit of Jesus had already gone off to save the many souls of the just who died before his Incarnation. As will happen at the moment of our death, the soul of Jesus separated from his dead body. When the soldier thrust his lance into the side of Christ’s body, we know what happened next: Scripture records that blood and water flowed out from the Lord’s side. Little did this Roman soldier know that his lance that was punched into the side of Jesus became the image of Christ’s Church, signifying the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. I love this because it shows God our Father bringing immediate good from an evil act. From the spear of a soldier flowed the holiness of these greatest sacraments.
There are more mentions in Scripture of the Lord’s body doing one thing or another. From walking from one town or village to another in his public ministry, to kneeling in prayer on top of the mountain early in the morning, and his disciples chasing after him saying, “Everyone is looking for you.” Even when Jesus was “lost” in the Temple at age 12, he debated verbally with the religious leaders whom he wowed and impressed with his youthful knowledge, revealing how his lips and voice would be used to bring the Good News to our world 20 years later. And, there’s the time when the Lord’s body was chased to the brow of a hill in Nazareth by his own relatives and friends after he said truths to them in the synagogue they did not like very much, as our world continues to do the same as those townspeople (there’s chasing after God, and then there’s chasing God away). The ending was the Lord walking his holy body through the midst of the angry Nazarenes, shaking the dust off his feet while moving on to the next town or village.
Yet, despite the many heavenly and not-so heavenly events that occurred to Jesus in his body, what we celebrated in the Church a week ago Friday, and that of his Mother a week ago Saturday, is the bodily part of Son and Mother that is the source of our mercy in Christ, and the one who points to it in Mary. Their Sacred Hearts, the Divine and the human, and how their hearts together continue to be moved for the benefit of our own bodies and souls, should be the bullseye of a believer who seeks to be intimately close to our Savior and his Blessed Mother. The Sacred Heart of Christ is the body part of God in the flesh that carries us over the threshold of this broken world, carrying and landing us in the bosom of Abraham, like Lazarus the poor man who sat at the front door of the rich man. It’s the heart of Jesus which brings peace to our world. Where the Lord’s heart is absent or missing, then how can true peace be upon us? With the Sacred Heart of Christ as a central part of our spirituality, all good things are possible.
The virtue most closely connected to the hearts of Jesus and Mary is that of mercy. The Sacred Heart of Christ “bleeds” for us, if you will. The blood that pumps through the Lord’s heart in every moment is no longer spilled over his dead body, but rather races through his Godly veins and valves to secure the lasting joy of our salvation. I hate to think where I would be in my life without the mercy of Jesus. Without his Divine blood which pumps through his resurrected body in heaven, calling us personally to be engulfed with the holy, red liquid that brings us back to God each time we’re touched by his mercy. Our world should be shouting from the roof tops, “Lord, touch us with your Sacred Heart and the abundant mercy that flows from this most precious organ or yours. Bring us back to you. Halt the waywardness, corruption, and violence that has erupted in so many places that have forgotten your name and your gifts. Lead them through your Sacred Heart to the rightful place that is ours; the bosom of your heart.”
And the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the holiest creaturely heart God has created, never to be separated from the Sacred Heart of her Son, is a heart that pleads with her Son on our behalf. Mary’s heart is the perfect image of how the rest of the world can live in the holiness we are called to by her Son. Very likely, Mary was in Nazareth the day her Son was chased out by his own people (and her people too). It’s likely she witnessed and heard the screams of verbal anger tossed his way. Talk about a head-scratcher, Mary having to witness her own people’s anger at her Son who was one of them. But Mary’s perfect human heart, a heart of natural holiness and love filled to the brim, is the heart we seek in our wisdom to intercede on our behalf with Jesus her Son. Hers is a Mother’s heart inviting us to be a loving part of heaven’s family.
These two great feasts in the Church, occurring on a Friday and Saturday during the second week after the second Sunday after Pentecost, give all of us good reason, even in our busy lives, to stay closely tuned to the celebrations held in our Catholic faith on days outside of Sundays. These solemn, “Heart” feasts are two of the many we celebrate on weekdays along with that of many of the great Saints in the Church. They all teach us some important aspect of our Catholic faith. But the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary deserve a place in our hearts at the top of the list of what God gives to us for the benefit of good, holy lives in the present, and lives that will be secured for eternal life in heaven.