Thought of the Day June 19, 2020 Love response
Pope Pius XII in his encyclical on the Sacred Heart spoke
of the threefold love of the heart of Jesus. Yesterday we reflected on the first two. Today, we look at the third.
“And finally – and
this in a more natural and direct way – it is the symbol also of sensible love,
since the body of Jesus Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the
Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so
than any other human body.
“Since, therefore, Sacred Scripture and the official
teaching of the Catholic faith instruct us that all things find their complete
harmony and order in the most holy soul of Jesus Christ and that He has
manifestly directed His threefold love for the securing of our redemption, it
unquestionably follows that we can contemplate and honor the Heart of the
divine Redeemer as a symbolic image of His love and a witness of our redemption
and, at the same time, as a sort of mystical ladder by which we mount to the
embrace of “God our Savior.”
Jesus in his
humanity is our pattern of true, unconditional, other-focus love. As we seek to
love in the same way in our humanity, we not only draw closer to him but through
him also to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Our heart becomes united to Jesus’
heart and his divine life sustains us on our journey to the God’s eternal
presence. We can never equate Jesus' love for us. We can only respond to it with love. Thus, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus invites us to love Jesus and in loving him becoming a sign of love to others.
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