Feast of the Sacred Heart

This week we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and we mark this special time with a whole school Mass. The Feast of the Sacred Heart is an occasion when we contemplate who we are as a community, and who we are called to be. More than being the name of our school, the Sacred Heart is an image that speaks deeply to us about who Jesus is, and the nature of our relationship with him.

In many contexts, hearts are commonly used as a symbol of love. This is also the case with the image of the Sacred Heart. As a key symbol of our living faith, the Sacred Heart offers a representation of Jesus’ love for us, and his new commandment that we must love one another.

As we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart, we are reminded of our calling to love each other as Jesus loves us.

The image of the Sacred Heart is also a reminder that Jesus lived life among us in a manner that was fully human. He walked on earth, like us. He had joys, hopes, griefs and anxieties, like us. He enjoyed telling stories, and hearing about the lives of others, like us. And he experienced suffering like us, and was deeply moved by the suffering of others.

When we contemplate the Sacred Heart, we remember that Jesus lived his early life on the margins of society. That he was born into vulnerability and fragility. That his parents were internally displaced, and experienced forced migration. That, with his family, he left his homeland, fleeing persecution and violence, to live as a refugee in a foreign land. That his adult life was reliant on the hospitality of others, and that he had nowhere to lay his head. Partly for these reasons, our celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart is a time when we think of our brothers and sisters who flee their own homelands to seek safety on our shores. The image of the Sacred Heart reminds us that Jesus experienced life as a refugee, and that in every refugee story we encounter a reflection of the Holy Family.

As we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart, we are all invited to contemplate what it means to believe in a God who chose to experience a life of great vulnerability, and to remember that this special day is intended to nourish our desire to serve as instruments of God’s love for those on the margins of our own society.