Table of Contents

Remain in my love

(Jn 15:9)

           Filipinos celebrate Valentine’s Day with great enthusiasm. I remember many years ago when I failed to make a reservation in advance, Jean and I could not find a vacant table in any restaurant in Manila to have dinner on Valentine’s Day. After going through the traffic congestion around a number of restaurants and hotels, we ended up having our dinner at almost eleven in the evening at the lobby of the Manila Peninsula Hotel. Indeed lovers in the Philippines, young and old alike, consider the 14^th of February a very special day. This day is the “day of hearts” (“araw ng mga puso” – the essence is better captured in the Filipino language).

            My brothers and sisters, this Valentine’s Day I should like to direct your attention to the one heart, which has been longing for your love and companionship – the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It has been over three hundred years since Jesus appeared to a young nun, Margaret Mary Alacoque, and said: Behold this heart which notwithstanding the burning love for men with which it is consumed and exhausted, meets with no other return from most Christians than sacrilege, contempt, indifference and ingratitude, even in the sacrament of my love. But what pierces my heart most deeply is that I am subjected to these insults by persons especially consecrated to my service. Three centuries after this message, the Sacred Heart is still suffering from our indifference. And still waiting!

            Margaret Mary was born in 1647, the fifth of seven children, at Janots, a small town in Burgundy (France). Her father died when she was about eight and was sent to school at the convent of the Poor Clares. When she was eleven, Margaret was afflicted by a painful rheumatic condition, which kept her to bed until she was fifteen. She left the boarding school and returned home to find that her uncle had moved into their house and taken control of all her father’s property. She found that her mother, brothers and sisters were being treated almost like servants in her own father’s house. When she was twenty pressure was put on her to marry, but, fortified by a vision of our Lord, she firmly refused. By June 1671, she finally overcame the opposition of her family and entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial.

            On December 27, 1673 while Margaret was kneeling alone before the exposed Blessed Sacrament, Jesus appeared to her and invited her to rest her head on his heart, just as St. John had done at the Last Supper. During a period of eighteen months Jesus appeared to her and told her about the pain he suffered because people hardly seemed to know that he was waiting for them in every tabernacle all over the world. His beloved people hardly talked with him or told him they loved him. They hardly ever gave him even a piece of their hearts although he had given them his whole heart.

            Jesus asked Margaret to have a special feast day established to honor his Sacred Heart. He asked that on the first Thursday of each month, people devote a holy hour, meditating on his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Then, they were to receive Holy Communion at Mass on the first Friday of the month.

            Through Margaret Jesus gave a great promise: I promise you in the unfathomable mercy of my heart that my omnipotent love will procure the grace of final penitence for all those who take communion on nine consecutive first Fridays of the month; they will not die in my disfavor, or without having received the sacraments, since my divine heart will be their sure refuge in the last moments of their life.

            When Margaret Mary informed her superior, Mother de Saumaise, about her visions of Jesus, she “mortified and humiliated her with all her might, and allowed her to do none of the things that our Lord had asked of her, treating contemptuously all that the poor sister had said.” Margaret was distressed. Her health deteriorated and she became seriously ill. Mother de Saumaise who was looking for a sign to guide her in dealing with Margaret said to her, “If God cures you, I shall take it as proof that all you experience comes from him, and I will allow you to do what our Lord wishes in honor of his Sacred Heart.” Margaret prayed accordingly and at once she recovered, and Mother de Saumaise fulfilled her promise.

            But there were still some members of the community who remained hostile to Margaret and thought that she was making up all her stories. It was only after many years, and with the help of a good priest, Father Claude de la Columbiere, that they came to believe her. In June 1686 the sisters of the Visitation convent celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart for the first time.

            Eventually, news of the visions and promises of Jesus became known throughout France and Sister Margaret Mary became known as the Apostle of the Sacred Heart. But she did not live long enough to see the devotion spread. She became ill and died on October 17, 1690. She asked for the last sacraments saying, “I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus.” St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was canonized on 16 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

    The Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Sacred Heart on the Friday following Corpus Christi. This year it falls on the 6^th of June.

     For those who have a devotion to the Sacred Heart, the Lord made the following promises in addition to the great promise of final repentance:

•  I will give them all the grace necessary in their state of life.

• I will establish peace in their homes.

• I will comfort them in all their afflictions.

• I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all in death.

• I will bestow abundant blessings upon all their undertakings.

• Sinners shall find in my heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy.

• Tepid souls shall become fervent.

• Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.

• I will bless every place in which an image of my heart shall be exposed and honored.

• I will give priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.

• Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in my heart, never to be effaced.

            The great promise of the Sacred Heart is most consoling. He promised us the grace of final perseverance and the joy of having his heart as our refuge during our last hour. To gain this grace we should: receive Holy Communion on nine consecutive first Fridays without any break; have the intention of honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of reaching final perseverance; and offer each Holy Communion as an act of atonement for offenses against the Blessed Sacrament.

     My brothers and sisters, our community has a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Every first Friday of the month, starting at 7:45 in the evening at St. Stephen’s Church in Cilandak, we say the Holy Rosary meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries. This is followed by Holy Mass during which we can receive the Holy Eucharist. Immediately after the Mass, we have the Benediction and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during which we sing O Salutaris Hostia and Tantum Ergo and recite the novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We end at around 9:15 in the evening – a mere hour and a half spent with Jesus.

     I urge all members of Couples for Christ to come to St. Stephen’s Church every first Friday of the month to join in this wonderful devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I also enjoin you to invite your friends who are not CFC members. What Jesus told St. Margaret Mary is addressed to all of us: My divine heart is so on fire with love for people that it cannot hold the flames of love inside any longer. It must spread to them by means of you! Jesus is waiting for you! Jesus wants you to receive his body and blood every first Friday of the month. Jesus is calling you to spread the devotion of his most Sacred Heart. Jesus wants to give you eternal life.

     In return for a mere hour and a half with him every first Friday of the month, our Lord makes a great promise: You will not die in the state of mortal sin! Your salvation is assured! You will receive eternity in exchange for a few hours of your time! Such is the generosity of our Lord. Such is the prodigality of his love. Such is the mercy of his Sacred Heart.

      On this day of hearts then, let us resolve firmly to come to the one heart that truly loves us, with a love that no human can ever give or offer. Jesus’ love for us is as perfect as the Father’s love for him. Jesus himself told us: As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love (Jn 15:9).

      We can remain in the love of Jesus by honoring the image of his most Sacred Heart in our homes. We can remain in his love by an hour’s vigil every first Thursday of the month in memory of his agony in Gethsemane; but most of all by receiving the Holy Eucharist on the first Friday of each month.

      Join us then at St. Stephen’s Church every first Friday of the month at 7:45 p.m. Jesus has given you a way to remain in his love and have eternal life. Jesus is waiting for you. Come to St. Stephen’s and tell Jesus: Lord, I want to remain in your love, and like St. Margaret Mary, I want to lose myself in your heart at the hour of my death. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

     Table of Contents