Corpus Christi 2024

June is the month of the Sacred Heart--it is absolutely no shock that the Enemy wants to claim it so ravenously.  Rather than acknowledging the assertions of the demonic and attending to the demonstrations of depravity, let us instead acknowledge the Heart which so loves men and attend to the eternal sacrifice on which the world spits its contempt.  We were all of us “born this way,” and so the Master calls us to be reborn.  Allow me to offer a prayer of devotion to the Sacred Heart, and each week this month will have a meditation on a line of the prayer.

_____

O Sacred Heart, burning with love, consume me with Thy flame.  Test all my deeds and burn up whatever is unworthy of Thee.  My Jesus, leave nothing but what is precious to Thee.

O Sacred Heart, encircled by thorns, bind me fast to Thee.  Make me slave to Thy Passion, but with Thy thorns rather than chains-that, mercifully, to leave Thee might prick deeper than to remain.

O Sacred Heart, pierced with a lance, pierce me through with Thee.  Rend my own heart as Thine--that all grace Thou givest may, by this broken vessel, pour freely into all the world.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in Thee. (x3)

_____

O Sacred Heart, burning with love. Fire is an oft-used image in Scripture to refer to God. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. (Zech 13:9) But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap. (Mal 3:2) If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Cor 3:15)

The presence of God is depicted with such intense holiness that the attendants of His throne, the Seraphim, are called quite literally, the Burning Ones. Into this fire we are cast as we shed our mortality and enter eternity. The fire cleanses and purifies us, as St. Paul says, so that all that is unworthy is burned up, and what is built on the solid foundation of the work of Christ is preserved. The love of Christ burns with this same intensity, this Heart which so loves men, bearing the eternal flame of love beyond all telling.

What are we if we refuse to surrender to His consuming love? Who are we to eschew the new birth of this unyielding eternal light? Knowing by His revelation what the future holds, let us surrender now, of free volition, to that tender intensity and receive that white-hot purity with open arms. Let us pray, consume me with Thy flame. Test all my deeds and burn up whatever is unworthy of Thee. My Jesus, leave nothing but what is precious to Thee, for what is precious at all save that which is precious to Love Himself?