Tag: Emily Jaminet

Jesus’ Most Sacred Heart is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

“The designs of his heart shall endure from age to age, to rescue our souls from death and nourish us in our hunger.”- Entrance Antiphon (Ps 32: 11,19)

The Feast of the Sacred Heart is a beautiful opportunity to seek out new graces and renew our love for Christ. Jesus continuously offers us His eternal love that is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This great Feast of the Sacred Heart is celebrated the Friday after the Second Sunday of Pentecost or 19 days after Pentecost. 

This feast day is a personal favorite of mine as it is a sweet reminder of what the authentic love of Jesus looks like. We learn in Holy Scripture, the attributes of faithful love are patience, kindness, forgiveness and slowness to anger, and that “it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13). This holy love is perfectly displayed in the Heart of Jesus. For Jesus is love, and He is offering us His Heart as a reminder of this love.

The Gospels tell us that the Good Shepherd is willing to leave the fold to find the lost sheep and rejoices over finding it. We read, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.” Let us turn to the Heart of Jesus asking for new graces so that we can return to His Most Sacred Heart and invite others to do so as well. When we encounter this loving Heart we can not help but be filled with gratitude and want to spread His Kingdom of love to others. 

One of the greatest blessings of being a Catholic is understanding that we can honor the Heart of Christ and seek out His graces to perform loving acts of reparation for those who have offended the Lord. These acts of reparation serve as a way to show Christ that we love Him through our willingness to offer our sacrifices to make up for the transgressions of others. A powerful way to do this is to say the Daily Offering. When we pray this prayer we offer up the daily “thoughts, works, joys, and sorrows” of our lives to Jesus.  

The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus reminds us of how Christ loves us, renews our love for Him and re-commits us to practicing this Devotion. 

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“Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”

“Blessed are you who are poor,

for the kingdom of God is yours.

Blessed are you who are now hungry,

for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who are now weeping,

for you will laugh.

Blessed are you when people hate you,

and when they exclude and insult you,

and denounce your name as evil

on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!

Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”

The Beatitudes are an invitation to place Christ first in our life and follow His ways so as to better experience the joy of the Gospel and use the things of this world for His glory, such as using wealth, power, popularity, influence, or success to build up what is good, beautiful and holy. 

The Lord invites us to encounter Him and experience Heaven here on Earth. Jesus reminds us that God’s ways are not the ways of this world, so we are not called to be troubled or discouraged when others mock us or persecute us, but instead, we are invited to rejoice in our trials and difficulties, for we know God can use all things to His greater glory. When we experience difficult times, Jesus wants us to not grow hard-hearted during these trials but rather serve as a witness to Christ and love them.

“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in Heaven.”The word “blessed” means truly happy, filled with joy, and knowing God blesses you. The Sermon on the Mount is a path to not only growing closer to Christ but living out our Catholic faith and experiencing Christian joy despite what is going on around us.

The Beatitudes remind us that we live for Heaven and Heaven’s reward, not an earthly reward. In an age where we want “instant success and reward,” it is essential to cling to the Beatitudes and make sure that we seek to encounter the Lord and follow His ways.

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As the disciples’ boat arrives at Gerasa a man with an “unclean spirit” comes from the tombs towards them. It is much like a modern-day horror film that would cause fright and fear. The man had supernatural strength and was uncontrollable. He would howl and gash himself with stones, so his appearance must have been terrifying. 

At the sight of Jesus, this man ran to Him, fell to the ground and worshiped Him, and shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” The man seemed to sense that Jesus could free him from a horrible oppression, and the evil spirits knew that Jesus had divine power over them. 

At the end of this Gospel reading, we learn that the man was freed from the demon named Legion when Jesus sent the demons into a herd of pigs. The pigs then jumped off the cliff and died. Instead of the townspeople rejoicing that this man was saved from his affliction by the demonic spirit, they were more worried about the loss of the pig herd and were afraid of our Lord. 

Not only did they not thank Jesus for freeing the community from this demonic and frightful man, they, in return, asked Jesus to leave. Just think of their missed opportunity by not inviting Jesus to heal and help their families from their sickness and afflictions. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; He sets us free from sin, and yet, we must be open to this personal transformation. We must invite the Lord into our life. 

However, all was not lost. The man set free from a life of demonic possession was now free to proclaim the Gospel. Even though the townspeople were afraid of Jesus and asked Him to depart, Christ left them a messenger of the Good News who had a powerful testimony. Jesus asked the cured demoniac to “Go home to your people and tell them all that the Lord in His mercy has done for you.” Words for all of us to reflect on. Our personal testimony is a most powerful witness for the Holy Spirit to reach other hearts through us.

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“The Son of Man has Come to seek and save what is lost.”

The Gospel today shares the powerful story of Zacchaeus and how Jesus touched his own heart and his whole family, as Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.”

Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector in the city of Jericho was willing to look ridiculous, to seek Christ out in a dramatic way, by climbing a tree and allowing his curiosity to get the best of him. The tax collector wanted to “see” Jesus with his own eyes, as if he was inviting Jesus to notice him. When we go out of our way to discover the Lord, Jesus notices each action; as David proclaimed in the Psalms “Lord, you have probed me, you know me: you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar” (Ps 139:1,2).

Jesus didn’t care what others said about Him or Zacchaeus. One of the amazing qualities of Jesus is that He was not influenced by popular opinion polls or the local town gossip. He can read hearts and know where to disperse and cultivate the seeds of faith.

Many in the town were upset by Jesus and grumbled about how Jesus was going to stay at the house of Zacchaeus. They thought it was scandalous based on how this wealthy man had treated the local people. Instead of Zacchaeus justifying himself in front of the community about his past behaviors, he had a change of heart. The once hard-hearted tax collector now proclaims to all, “ Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” Imagine the shock and overall joy in hearing these words! Think about how much this one conversion benefitted all the people who lived there. This one conversion of heart impacted the whole region of Jericho! Zacchaeus was willing to right his wrongs and be generous to the poor.  We too are invited to encounter Jesus, to respond to that invitation and to be generous with others. Jesus wants to come into our lives, our hearts, our home, and be present while we work. 

Do we pray for the conversion of those who make our lives difficult? Do we pray for those who persecute Christians that God will transform their hearts and receive His mercy? Do we invite Jesus into our life to set our hearts on fire with the love of Christ, and love of others?

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“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Jesus is the Bread of Life as He feeds us with his body and blood through the Sacrament of Holy Communion. He provides for what we truly need, and He desires to transform us and make us holy. 

In this Gospel story, many seek Jesus for what He can give them, such as miracles, signs, wonders, and even food. Jesus says, “Amen, amen, I say to you,you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 
Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him the Father, God, has set his seal.” 

This aspect of the Gospel is a calling to live for the eternal, seek what is above, and seek to do the will of God in all things. Jesus offers us our daily food and what we need, but He also reminds us that we were made for so much more! St. Augustine once said, “My heart is restless until it rests in You.” Seeking the will of God is the source of our greatest fulfillment. Peace with God can be ours by cultivating a personal relationship with the Lord through prayer, living a life rooted in the Sacraments, and replacing our sins and vices with virtue. 

It is easy to get caught up in the world that surrounds us and forget that the Lord is the source of all our blessings. Even the Israelites lost sight of that face while wandering in the desert.  They gave Moses credit for the bread that came down from Heaven, while it was from God the Father, as we read below:

“Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from Heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from Heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.”

This Gospel is a beautiful reminder of how we are called to seek Christ and discover the means to follow Him. Jesus is the Bread of Life and when our eyes are set on Christ we come to know what it means to be fully alive. 

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“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”  Mt 9:32-38

My grandfather’s humble service to the Church was awe inspiring to me.  During his retirement years, he spent hours upon hours serving the Lord by promoting a devotion to the Sacred Heart through his work with the Men of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Cincinnati, OH, making rosaries, serving his family especially his wife or volunteering at his local Catholic church.  When asked why he was so dedicated to it all, he used to chuckle and say with a wink, “the pay is out of this world”.  Through his example, I learned that sowing eternal seeds is far more rewarding than earthly ones. 

When one lives a life devoted to the Lord, one can begin to identify the fellow workers in the field and appreciate the work they are inspired to do to serve the King of Kings. Some of the workers are priests and religious, while others are lay men and women seeking to do the most rewarding and meaningful work of spreading and living the faith. 

When we witness such examples of selfless service, we might be tempted to be discouraged by our own lacking or even become jealous of the work they do, the commitment they have, or the “tools” they have at their disposal.  Instead, we ought to focus on the work to which we are called, thank God for their example, and be inspired to better love God as they do. 

We are called to pray for more workers in the harvest.  The Lord wants us to ask for more holy men and women to serve the Church, and when they do appear, to have a heart full of gratitude for their “yes” to God.

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Jesus invites us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world to others. We can impact all aspects of society by living out our faith and sharing the Gospel message as His representatives. As faithful followers of Jesus, we can go forth in the power of the Holy Spirit to be the salt which seasons the earth with the virtues of Christ, and the light which shows God’s truth. Jesus reminds the disciples that the Kingdom of Heaven is for all walks of life and meant to be shared throughout the world. 

The light that we shine comes from the transformation which Christ has begun in our hearts and is in fact Christ Himself. As St. Paul tells us “For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure … that you may be blameless and innocent children of God … whom you shine as Lights to the world (Phil 2:13-15)”.  If we live out our faith, by both words and deeds, we will be the city on the hill whose light cannot be hidden.  Jesus invites us to live out a faith that is sincere and genuine to others. Notice this passage follows the eight beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12) where Jesus highlights the principles of living out the New Covenant He is establishing.

During the month of June, we are invited to come to know Jesus and His most Sacred Heart. This devotion deepens our intimacy with Christ by inviting the Heart of Jesus in our homes and honoring His Heart through our prayers, words, and deeds. This devotion calls us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world through living out our faith by creating a covenant of love with Him. I have witnessed firsthand how the Sacred Heart has renewed families and restored faith through this beautiful devotion. 

May we choose to be faithful followers of Christ and seek to live out the Kingdom of Heaven each day here on earth. May we accept his invitation for friendship and work to be kingdom builders here on earth. 

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