A Matter of Heart

The Roman Catholic Lectionary for today contains texts for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The texts for this feast which originated in a series of 4 mystical apparitions of Jesus and the love and suffering related to his heart. Western Christians are shy about the “whole body” experience of spirituality. The texts today use the whole body figure of the shepherd as representing the relationship of the Divine to humans. This imagery allows us to see, feel, smell and even taste the Divine. We know people of whom it can be described “he has heart”. This is the attribution that this feast associates with God as a Divine characteristic but even more importantly as a living gift to humanity of the “heart of God” so that our “having heart” may be a transcendent and transformative experience for the “sheep” in our care.