Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Spoiler alert: as the Wizard is giving the Tin Man his heart, he says, “Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.” And for those who have had their heart broken, there seems to be some logic in his quip. Anyone who has gone through a break-up finds the cliché phrase, “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” very unsatisfying. At the time of the heartbreak, it seems like it would have been much better to not get into a situation which could cause such pain, pain which cannot be healed by any medicine. Indeed, there can be a sometime-attraction to the character of Spock from “Star Trek,” who, though he has emotions, does not seem to be affected by them, but exhibits a remarkable kind of stoicism.
And yet today’s celebration, transferred from this past Friday, is precisely the celebration of not only a broken heart, but also a pierced heart! A twice-pierced heart, in fact, pierced once by the lack of love from the beloved, and pierced twice by the lance of the soldier, making blood and water flow out. But that broken, pierced, Sacred Heart is the riches of God, and the expression of the breadth, length, height and depth of God’s love for us, the hope and consolation of all the saints.
We often associate a broken heart with one that has been betrayed. Just think of what Michael Corleone in “The Godfather II” says to Fredo, his brother, when Michael finds out Fredo has betrayed him: “You broke my heart, Fredo.” And certainly we have betrayed God. Every time we sin we betray Jesus; we become a Judas. We are supposed to be the friend of God, and yet we do what we know will hurt our Divine Friend. And so the Lord’s Sacred Heart breaks, is pierced. Indeed, with every sin that we commit, we put our hand on the very lance that was thrust into the body of Jesus. We not only look upon Him whom we have pierced, we are the ones who pierce.
But the Sacred Heart is also pierced because, in the end, the love of God cannot help but overflow and burst out, not to call for vengeance, but to shower upon us mercy. Pope St. Gregory the Great writes in his “Moral Reflections on Job,” “The blood of Jesus calls out more eloquently than Abel’s, for the blood of Abel asked for the death of Cain, the fratricide, while the blood of the Lord has asked for, and obtained, life for his persecutors.” Even though we deserve the just punishment for our sins, which, as the Apostle writes, is death, God calls down upon us not death, but life, when His Blood and water flow upon us through the Sacraments of Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist. Christ would certainly prefer that we not betray Him, and yet, as many times as we do, He allows His Sacred Heart to be pierced to forgive us that betrayal and restore us to holiness.
What a love that is so generous! What a love that breaks open because of the expanse of love that cannot be contained! What a love that recreates the beloved from the wound the beloved caused!
It is, in the end, better to have a heart that can break, than to have no heart at all. It may indeed be unpractical that hearts break, but it is better that they do, because only hearts that love can be broken, including the Sacred Heart of our Incarnate Lord. One cannot lose in love, even when a beloved breaks our heart, because God is love, and in God is our victory. Love is not a loss, but a creative force. We do not have to set ourselves up to be betrayed, or to be an emotional punching bag, and sometimes we can only love from afar. But love, as with God who is Love, is a good in itself.
It can be hard to love when a heart has been broken. It may seem easier to close ourselves off to love when our love has been betrayed. But the Sacred Heart of Jesus invites us to love even when it hurts, even when our hearts are broken, even when our hearts are pierced. May our hearts always be open to receive and share the transformative love of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.