Today’s Solemnity is a favorite in the Liturgical Calendar. Often, on this Solemnity, we remember our priests, and we pray for the sanctification of priests. Last week when our priests were on retreat, I remember sharing with them at the beginning of one of our Masses that the renewal of the Church is intimately hinged to the holiness of our priests.
I am also remembering today that on this Solemnity last year, we dedicated the Diocese of Cheyenne to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I hope the Lord sees growth in holiness and our efforts to renew the faith or our local Church.
As I flew from Atlanta to Louisville last night, I was silently praying a rosary. As I meditated upon the first Luminous Mystery, a new thought came to mind of Jesus’ Baptism. I found it interesting that as Moses began to lead the people of Israel out of slavery, he (with God’s power) parted the Red Sea. Also, as Joshua prepared to lead the people of Israel across the River Jordan into the promised land, he (with God’s power) stopped the flow of the Jordan.
Jesus at the beginning of His ministry returned ‘to the water’ for another sign of God’s power and glory. His Baptism by John sanctified the waters of the earth. His Person is for the first time revealed by the Father as the Spring of Salvation. (Isaiah 12)
John’s Gospel today recalls the moment on the cross when Jesus’ ‘lifeless’ body is pierced by the lance of a soldier, only to unleash the ‘Spring of Salvation”; the water and blood that flow eternally now through the Church in Baptism and Eucharist.
This moment also recalls the encounter of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman, as He reveals to her that He alone is the font and source of the Water that eternally quenches the thirst of the human heart.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is indeed our Spring of Salvation. As we ponder this mysterious love of God, that required the passion and death of His Son, it is an invitation to us to allow God to be God for us today.
How often do the suffering and sacrifices of our lives make us question God’s love? Indeed, we are better off allowing God to be God, and not limit God by asking Him to be a god that meets our limited view of things.
Let us make a full act of faith today in the Providence of God, as revealed to us in and through the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May our hearts always be open to receive what God wishes to give us, as God wishes to give it.
Peace,
+pde
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