Fire or Fire
Volume XXIV, Number 14 – June 25, 2020
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
No quotations or jokes or multiple items today. Just one item with a prayer for tens of thousands of us. During these disturbing times, I promised I would remain in closer contact with you.
Rather than provide commentary on the present moment, I was prompted to take a different approach. Yes, we are in a kind of end times, and not according to me, but according to the perfectly trustworthy words of the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God.
Some NuggetsOn Thursday of last week I made a private pilgrimage to the University of Notre Dame and its Basilica of the Sacred Heart to deliver your intentions on an encrypted flash drive on the eve of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (I had already personally arranged for a Mass to be offered for these intentions on the feast day.)
Success! While praying a rosary, and after touching the flash drive to an actual stone from Lourdes at the Lourdes Grotto, I walked to the basilica and managed to place your intentions (including all the intentions you have ever submitted to us since my trip to Fatima in 2015) very, very close to Our Eucharistic Lord in the Tabernacle; I doubt it will ever be discovered.
In preparation for this CatholiCity Message, I read a few articles on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, including reflections by Pope Benedict XVI, hoping find some nuggets to share with you today.
Your HeartIn our present culture we constantly refer to "the heart." In song and movies. In everyday conversation. It has deep romantic overtones.
In the Gospels, Jesus taught about the heart. For example, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be." The concept of the "heart" is a difficult one to define. Saint Paul asserted our hearts have "eyes," that is, spiritual sight. In 1673 in France, Jesus himself revealed He possesses a "holy" heart that is burning with love for us to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque; Catholics know it as the Sacred Heart.
As elusive as the concept of "heart" is, you likely possess a firm notion of what your own "heart" means. We are body and soul, and our heart is the deepest part of our soul, of our truest self. Our heart is where we "find" what we love most. You can "look into" your heart (into your human self) and find there what you cherish, hopefully: God, the truth, your family and friends.
Let us not be delusional; our fallen hearts may contain dark realities. We can also find those things we despise, are repulsed by, fear, or hate. Because we are fallen and are sinners, we know that evil can "reside" in our hearts.
We also know there are people in this world who have "given over" their whole hearts to evil.
The heart is also tied up with emotions, as you know from experience. You "feel" there. This is in contrast to what you think or believe; rationality is also seated in your soul. For example, you may not at this moment be "feeling" what I am writing about, but your ability to reason allows you to follow along, to "nod" interiorly, when you agree.
We are sharing our minds. We are sharing truths.
The theologians have always made the connection between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the fully human nature of Jesus. When he came to Saint Margaret Mary, He came as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity to reveal something about His human body, which is still fully resurrected.
His actual heart is beating, right now, pumping to circulate blood throughout his vascular system into his organs, brain, and to the extremities of his fingertips. If one were to cut his forearm or thigh with a knife, his real human blood would flow.
And his blood cells contain the DNA of his mother, Mary.
In the article by Benedict XVI, he referred to the tip of the spear physically piercing the heart of Christ because the soldier had been given the grisly task of making certain Jesus was dead.
What was I seeking while I read those articles and made that childlike trip to bring your intentions to Notre Dame? It occurred to me that I was looking for a way for all of us to comprehend and enter into the heart of Jesus Christ. After all, we Catholics hear the same phrases repeatedly, to the point that the meaning may escape us: "state of grace," and "Holy Communion" and "Immaculate Conception" and "Sacred Heart."
I believe I found a simple "way in." Perhaps, Jesus was showing all of us that He has a human heart like we have a human heart.
You have a body with a beating heart, yet you also know what is in the spirit of your soul, which songwriters and construction workers and nurses and even theologians all intuitively know as the "heart."
You know what you cherish. That is your heart. You know what (or who) you despise. That is your heart. You know what you are willing to die for. That is your heart. You know the evils you desire and indulge. That is your heart.
So, my brother or sister, look into your heart. What do you find inside the truest "you" of your soul?
Now you can imagine, because Jesus gave Saint Margaret Mary a "way into" His heart, what He finds and desires when He looks into His heart:
You.
He finds and desires you.
Fire or Fire(I want to pause to reflect on that for a few moments.)
The image of His Heart given to Saint Margaret Mary also reveals burning flames.
Also "seated" in your soul is your will, degraded to some degree (along with your reason) by Original Sin so as to maintain an attraction to evil, yet still free and under your control. With grace you are able to choose God and His ways.
I would not be the first Christian writer to point out that we have two ultimate choices: the endless fire of hell or the unquenchable fire of God's love.
Every sin you choose, no matter how small, pierces Christ's heart as surely as did the centurion's spear. If you commit mortal sin, you have separated yourself from Him forever.
So when Our Lord looks into His own heart, He sees us, and, our many sins. Within that mystery of His divine and human natures, He does not cease desiring you even when you separate yourself from Him.
That is a mystery I do not understand. And I will never understand it on this earth, even as I believe it.
Here is what our newly canonized Saint John Henry Newman taught so beautifully about the reality of the sin which Jesus indescribably endures in His Sacred Heart: "the Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die from starvation in the extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul (I will not say, should be lost, but) should commit but one single venial sin, should tell one willful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse."
(Okay, okay, I snuck in a quote! Sue me.) I am just grateful Jesus will always welcome me back if I muster perfect contrition or sincerely seek complete absolution through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
It is not popular nowadays to speak about mortal sin, the need for Confession, or the reality that we can choose eternity in hell. The same types who are silent about these things are also silent, almost universally, about the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is treated as superstitious kitch.
Yet this is the devotion to which Jesus assured Saint Margaret Mary would save sinners from "going to hell during these final centuries" almost three hundred and fifty years ago.
That is because we live in the Age of Lies. This has never been so utterly clear to those who can see with "the eyes of the heart."
And this age will come to an end. False ideology will not save this world. Christ, working through Catholic heroes and martyrs, through the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, will bring this era to an end.
As Benedict XIV says, "Dear friends, may no adversity paralyze you. Be afraid neither of the world, nor of the future, nor of your weakness. The Lord has allowed you to live in this moment of history so that, by your faith, His name will continue to resound throughout the world."
(Yikes! Another quote!)
When Our Lord gazes into His Most Sacred Heart, do whatever you can, today and every day, to make sure He is consoled with your love and faithfulness to His law, not tortured by your sin.
Never despair of this truth: Jesus holds you in His heart (similarly but more faithfully than you hold the people you love in your own heart) no matter how much you sin. Anything else is the evil one's lie and temptation to despair: that you should give up and give in to sin.
Get up. Go to Confession. Receive Holy Communion. Pray. Expel evil desires from your heart. Foster good habits. Remember, as the Old Testament assures us, that you existed in God's heart before you were knit in your mother's womb.
Begin again.
Let Us Pray to the Sacred HeartPlease join me and tens of thousands of your fellow CatholiCity Citizens, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I
do not know what will happen to me today--
I only know that nothing will happen
that was not foreseen by you
and directed to my greater good from all eternity.
I adore Your holy and unfathomable plans
and submit to them with all my heart
for love of you, the Pope,
and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Teach me to give and not count the cost,
to fight and not heed the wounds,
to toil and not seek for rest,
to labor and not ask for reward.
Take all my freedom, my memory,
my understanding, and my will.
All that I have and cherish you have given me.
I surrender it all to be guided by your will.
Your love and you graces are wealth enough for me.
Give me these, Lord, and nothing more.
Amen.
Thank you for reading this. I am curious to find out if this helped you understand the Sacred Heart. Please let me know. (With these more numerous Messages, it may take me longer than usual to get back to you, so thank you for your patience.)
I miss baseball.
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With Our Lady,
Bud Macfarlane
Founder
