Having heart

The Roman Catholic Lectionary presents texts today to commemorate the Most SacredHeart of Jesus. This feast is routed in devotions among Franciscans and Dominicans in the 11^th and 12^th century which contemplated the depth of the Love of Jesus through the physical presentation of His five wounds. The passage from the Prophet Ezekiel was written in exile in Babylon according to FriarJude Winkler. The Jewish Diaspora is beginning and God is understood as the Good Shepherd, who can continue to love and care for His people even when they are separated by time and space from Jerusalem. The passage expresses the promise of return to being fed by God in the mountains of Israel. The 23^rd psalm is used today as the image of the Love which is personal and protective to the sheep of the Good Shepherd. In modern culture the understanding of “having heart” for the dispossessed and the distraught is an appropriate sense of the feast day. Paul tells the Romans that the compassion and Love of Jesus is directed to people who are still sinners. It is not sensible that God should seek out those who are turning away from Him. We are so oriented to think that they must do their part. The “heart” of Jesus is for the lost sinner. The Gospel from Luke makes the ridiculous assertion that we would leave the 99 sheep to search for the one who is lost. This is not practical. It does not make rational sense. Yet, as Friar Jude notes, in families the “black sheep”, with social and behavioural problems, receives much parental attention in a loving attempt to restore the wayward to the path of fullness of life. We know this is the action of the Good Shepherd for us. We are to incarnate this Life and “have heart” for those who we are asked to seek out and return to love.