Ahh! My apologies for the lack of reflections over the last few weeks - been busy putting together our virtual welcome escape room (The Great FX Escape - which is something awesome for you to look forward to if you haven't had a chance to play it yet).
Here's what we missed this month: Mother's day! Don't forget to celebrate your mom year round - mothers are incredible and deserve to know how much we love them. Pentecost! The "birthday" of the church, the first Confirmation, and the solemnity that marks the end of the season of Easter (so if you missed it - have some cake!). And, this weekend we celebrated Trinity Sunday - a wonderful reminder that God truly is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that we are called to emulate this love that is our triune God.
Ok! On to this week's reflection! As we head into the month of June, our attention shifts from Mother Mary (traditionally the focus during the month of May), to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (June's focus). This year, Cardinal Collins has invited us to focus in a special way on this devotion (the Sacred Heart), especially in light of the pandemic. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a beautiful devotion that centers on the human heart of Jesus - on His love and mercy. As this weekend's solemnity reminds us, Jesus isn't merely God's Son, He is God Himself - the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. As such, He is not prone to death, or human frailty... However, He chooses in the incarnation to take on our human nature (finicky theological point here - He remains a Divine Person - simply with 2 natures: fully God and fully human). So, what this means for us, is that Jesus enters into our suffering. He isn't a God who remains aloof and disconnected from our hardships, but rather, permits Himself to suffer with us. One of my favourite Bible facts is that the shortest verse in all of scripture is just two words: Jesus wept (John 11:35). Jesus cries at the loss of His friend Lazarus. He feels that loss just as much as you and I feel a deep sadness when we lose a loved one. On the way to Calvary, His suffering wasn't superficial - He really truly suffered and really truly loved us to the end. Jesus who is God (and God is love [1John 4:8]), is close to us - closer than we can possibly imagine - even (especially) when we are in the midst of a storm (check out the footprints poem for a cool visual of this). He knows what it is to suffer, and never abandons us in our hour of need. So, here is a little reminder (via the Sacred Heart) that Jesus loves us, and is always with us, especially when things seem to be at their lowest.
Before I wrap this up, here is a cool resource for this month of June:
Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (June 2-11 [including prep day]) - https://carfleo.com/2021/05/12/novena-to-the-sacred-heart-of-jesus/
I encourage you to pray these prayers together with our whole province (and the rest of the world!) during this month.
Ok, so I forget if we've done this in an earlier post already, but let's take a look at Peter walking on water. Peter is in a boat (as he often is), when a storm arises, and he becomes afraid. As the wind is blowing, and the seas are tossing his boat around, He sees Jesus walking towards the boat... on top of the water. At first Peter is afraid, but Jesus reassures him, and he gains enough confidence to get out of the boat and miraculously walk (on top of the water, in the midst of the storm) toward Jesus. There is this beautiful moment where Peter is faithfully trusting in Jesus, keeping his eyes fixed on Him, and defying both the laws of physics and the raging storm around him, as he strides confidently toward His Lord and Saviour. However, the moment fades, and He takes his eyes off Christ, sees the storm around him, becomes overwhelmed and afraid, and begins to sink. Jesus, of course, does His thing and saves him, asking him why he doubted. So often when we are in the midst of a storm, we allow the tempest to overwhelm us, rather than keeping our eyes fixed on Christ. We forget that He is with us - that He's always got our backs. So, as we focus on the beautiful devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, particularly in this pandemic, may we have the grace to not be afraid of the storm raging around us, and just keep our eyes fixed on the heart of Jesus.
Sacred Heart of Jesus,
Have mercy on us.
