Texts taken from the Missal “On Your Word” May-June 2024

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (solemnity) (B) 
proper

FIRST READING

From the Book of the Prophet Hosea (Hos 11:1, 3-4, 8c-9)
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; but they did not know that I cared for them. I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I was like one who lifts an infant to his cheek, and I bent down to feed him. My heart is overwhelmed within me, my compassion is stirred. I will not give vent to the burning of my anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a human being, the Holy One among you, and I will not come in wrath. - The Word of the Lord. 

Commentary on the first reading

Hosea's words show us a God full of emotion and compassion despite the betrayal of his people. God's charity is manifested most fully precisely in the face of our stubbornness, and it is first revealed to Israel, which is able to see, in this historical story of denial and resistance, who God is for humanity: pity and mercy. We must put ourselves in the place of this circumstance in Israel's history. For God could have rejected his people, could have reckoned with the infidelity of his chosen people and abandoned them to their fate, like the rest of humanity. God's charity is a mystery that always precedes us and is, for all of us, the only starting point for beginning again. “But they did not know that I cared for them”: God accepts and forgives all our pettiness, all our forgetfulness, our sin and our betrayal, and this must not be taken for granted. It is called divine mercy, and it is precisely in the face of this resistance to the truth that exists in each of us, and that wages one of its most paradigmatic battles in the history of Israel, that it is revealed.

SECOND READING

From the Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians (Eph 3:8-12, 14-19)
Brothers and sisters, to me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given: to proclaim to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the Principalities and Authorities in the heavens, according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness of speech and confidence of access through faith in him. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner self, and that Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts, so that, rooted and grounded in love, you may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. - The Word of the Lord.

Commentary on the second reading

Saint Paul kneels and prays that Christians may be able to understand the breadth and length and height and depth of God's love. We are confronted with a love that can scarcely be understood, since it surpasses all knowledge: so great is God's love in itself and for us! To understand it, we must allow ourselves to be captivated by the breadth and depth of the mystery of God revealed to us in Christ. “That Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts”: this refers to a permanent dwelling, not merely an occasional visit. If Christ truly dwells in a person, then that person's thoughts, actions, and every individual expression will be influenced by him. When Jesus dwells in a person's heart, the sign of his presence can be seen! In biblical language, the heart is the operational center of our actions; it represents the seat of decisions and actions. Many who call themselves believers, however, live out a purely intellectual adherence, remaining in fact strangers to the life of God. Christ must live in the heart if we want our entire life to be transformed.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John (Jn 19:31-37)
Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies to remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day was a solemn one, so they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may believe. This happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled: “Not a bone of it will be broken.” And again another passage says: “They will look upon him whom they have pierced.” - The Gospel of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel of the day

How many times have we repeated: “By his wounds we have been healed.” What are Christ's wounds? Christ's wounds are us sinners who inflict them on him. The paradox is that the evil I do to God becomes good for me: I condemn him, and through this he absolves me; I despise him, and through this he honors me; I kill him, and through his death he gives me eternal life. The final seal of this paradox is the lance thrust into Jesus' side: “One of the soldiers thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.” Immediately the wound becomes a source of life; the evil suffered becomes good for evildoers. This contrast highlights the victory of love and goodness. Nothing highlights the victory of goodness more than forgiveness and mercy. Humanity could never have imagined that God would save it by suffering and dying for it! But it happened! Let us pray with the words taught by Jesus himself to Saint Faustina: “O blood and water, which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fountain of mercy for us, I trust in you!” May devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus make us sensitive to God's will and strengthen us in our desire to participate in his work of salvation, becoming instruments of it.