In his book Who is this Jesus the theologian Michael Green makes the observation that "the heart of our problems is the problem of our hearts." He goes on to say that "from the dawn of time we humans have chosen to go our own way. We have been rebels, hostile, ungrateful and self-centered, experiencing all the human misery to which that self-centeredness leads." Isaiah says that all of us like sheep have gone astray, each following his own way.

The Hebrew Bible records how the problem of our wayward hearts became the problem of God's broken heart. In Genesis we read: "When The Lord saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was anything but evil, God regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved" (6:5). We see from this passage that the Hebrew scriptures do not present to us an impassible God like that of the Greek philosophers, but one who is whole heartedly involved with us his creation. Listen to the drama of God's heart in this divine soliloquy found in Hosea: "How could I give you up, O Ephraim, or deliver you up, O Israel? My heart is overwhelmed, my pity stirred. I will not give vent to my blazing anger. For I am God and not man, the Holy One present among you; I will not let the flames consume you" (11:8). God, we see from this, will constantly seek to reveal to us the saving mystery of His heart of love for us his sons and daughters whose hearts stray from him.

Our first reading is from the book of the prophet Ezechiel. This book gives expression to a theological development in Israel from a "tri-bal notion of sin" to one of "individual responsibility and personal turn-ing away from sin", says James Allison (James Alison, The Joy of Being Wrong: Original Sin Through Easter Eyes. New York: Crossroad Pub. Co, 1998, 136-137). Allison points out that in Ezechiel and other texts of its time there is a "theological discovery" of the human heart—not merely the discovery of the heart as the seat of emo-tions or passions, but the "properly theological discovery of the relation-ship of the heart as the seat of human attitudinal patterns and God." The theological development found in the prophets culminates, says Allison, "in the awareness that, for Israel to be able to live the covenant, it will actually be necessary for God to give the people," individually and collectively "a new heart": "I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts" (Ez 36:26).

We may not like the idea, but it does seem that it is our soul's suf-fering—indeed the suffering we bring on ourselves by our sins—which is one of the things that has the greatest chance of awakening us to the love of God which, as St. Paul says to us today, "has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us", poured out into the hearts of us sinners. "For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. God proves his love of us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved from the wrath" (Rom 5:5-6,8-9).

There is a poem I like about the relationship of our soul's suffering to the awakening of the heart to God's love. It is by Ron Block and was made famous in the 90's as a Bluegrass Gospel song done by Allison Krauss and her band, Union Station. It is called "There is a Reason":

I’ve seen hard times and I’ve been told
There isn’t any wonder that I fall.
Why do we suffer, crossing off the years?
There must be a reason for it all.

I’ve trusted in You, Jesus, to save me from my sin.
Heaven is the place I call my home.
But I keep on getting caught up in this world I’m living in
And Your voice, it sometimes fades before I know.

We are all aware of St. Paul's theology of Christ as the head of his body, the Church. In today's feast we celebrate Christ as the HEART of his body, the Church. If, as Michael Green says so poignantly, the heart of our problems is the problem of our hearts, then the solution to our problems is the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the new heart of all humanity. The Lord in Ezechiel this morning seems to me to be saying: 'I've given up hope that you will seek me. Your hearts ever stray. Therefore, you who are lost, I will seek out. You who have strayed, I will bring back. You who have been injured by this world, I will bind up. You who have been made sick by it all, I will heal. I will give you a new heart. Do not be like those sleek and strong individuals who feel no need of me—it is to their own destruction.' In Gospel terms, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who have no need of repentance.

Hurtin’ brings my heart to You, crying in my need,
Depending on Your love to carry me.
The love that shed His blood for all the world to see—
This must be the reason for it all.

Hurtin’ brings my heart to You, a fortress in the storm
When what I wrap my heart around is gone.
I give my heart so easily to the ruler of this world
When the one who loves me most will give me all.

In all the things that cause me pain You give me eyes to see.
I do believe but help my unbelief.
I’ve seen hard times and I’ve been told                   

There is a reason for it all.

When the Roman soldier opened the side of Jesus with his lance he was the instrument of God’s revelation of the perfect symbol of His infinite love, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced and pouring forth like a fountain the saving blood and water upon the soldier and upon all people. In the Precious Blood of Christ is the power of Divine Love to transform our stony hearts into new hearts filled with the Spirit of God. Let us now drink from the fountain of salvation, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, bringing joy to our hearts and to the Heart of God.

Homily for the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

June 11, 2010

by Fr. Luke Truhan, OCSO