Homily 12th Sunday Year A (Christ’s Obedient Heart)
Fr. Dwight P. Campbell, S.T.D.
Through the disobedience of one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death.
This is what St. Paul teaches us in his Letter to the Romans, our second reading today.
St. Paul goes on to contrast the disobedience of the first man, Adam, with the obedience of God who became man, Jesus Christ, who is called the “New Adam,” because he is the new head of the human race, and the head of the Church of which we, the baptized, are members.
St. Paul also says that as the result of Adam’s Original Sin we are all sinners. Why is this? Because we have inherited a fallen nature as a result of being born in Original Sin, and this remains even after Baptism and Original Sin is washed away.
Because of our fallen nature, we are all prone to sin, to disobedience, to do our own will rather than God’s will. This is seen in little children: One of the first things that little children learn to say is “No!”
But St. Paul says that the obedience of Jesus, the New Adam, has won for us an abundance of grace that overflows to all men.
Jesus redeemed us by His obedience. In what did that obedience consist? The Scriptures tell us: Jesus was mocked, humiliated, scourged, crowned with thorns, and made to carry the cross on which He was crucified.
The Old Testament prophets were all types of Christ: the mistreatment and persecution they endured for obediently preaching the truth foreshadowed what would happen to Jesus Christ.
We see this in our first reading, with the prophet Jeremiah, who complained that his enemies were “on the watch for any misstep” of his; they tried to trap him by the words he preached – just as the enemies of Jesus did.
Elsewhere St. Paul sums up in concise words the obedience of Jesus, saying: “He was obedient even unto death, to death on a cross.”
Through the obedience of Jesus and the grace He merited for us by His crucifixion, we are able to be made just – by being born again in Baptism, and by growing in grace through the Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist.
And what motivated the obedience of our Lord? Here we can contrast Jesus, the new Adam, with the first Adam. Adam’s disobedience was motivated by self-love.
The obedience of Jesus was motivated solely by self-less love; the same love that motivated God the Father to send His Son as our Redeemer: “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son as an offering for our sins.”
In fact, the whole economy of salvation, that is, God’s plan to reconcile the human race to Himself, to bring us back into friendship with Him, was motivated by His infinite love for us.
“God is love,” as St. John tells us; therefore Jesus, the Son of God made man, is the love of God enfleshed.
In Jesus Christ, who is both God and man, there is a magnificent symbol of His divine and human love for us: His Sacred Heart. This is precisely why God willed that after Jesus died, and while He was still hanging on the cross, the centurion pierced His side and heart with a lance and blood and water flowed forth – to show us that Jesus loved us to the very end; that He could give no more for our salvation.
Just think about this: Right now, and for all eternity, within the Most Holy Trinity, there dwells a human heart – the living, beating Heart of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, so full of love for us.
Last week we celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Our Lord. The Holy Eucharist is the Sacrament of Divine Love, because in the Eucharist we have the entire Jesus who is the love of God enfleshed: His complete humanity – His human Body, Blood and Soul; and His divinity, as God.
And because the complete humanity of Jesus is present in the Eucharist, His Sacred Heart is present as well. This is precisely why the Friday after the Feast of Corpus Christi the Church celebrates the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus present in the Eucharist: what I like to call the “Eucharistic Heart” of Jesus.
In fact, in a number of the Eucharistic miracles that have occurred over the centuries, where consecrated Hosts have actually turned to flesh, and when the flesh has been scientifically examined, and the results have shown that it is flesh from the heart of a man – living flesh, as if cut out of a living human being. One is the Eucharistic miracle of San Lanciano, Italy that occurred in the 9th century; another is the Eucharistic miracle that took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina about 20 years ago. You can look these up on the Internet and see photographs of these miraculous Hosts turned to flesh.
Fr. Jean Croiset, S.J., who was spiritual director to St. Margaret Mary, to whom Jesus revealed His Sacred Heart, wrote what I consider to be the best book on this topic, “Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” He says, “The essence of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus consists in the perfect love for Jesus Christ, particularly in the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist.”
Here I’ll quote another author, Fr. Ben Reese, from an article he wrote some years back:
“If the sacrifice of Calvary and the sacrifice of the Mass are one and the same sacrifice, differing only in the manner of offering [at Mass the sacrifice is unbloody, offered under the form of bread and wine], then the Sacred Heart of Christ, pierced for our salvation on Calvary, is also present in the sacrifice of the Mass. Hence, when we gaze upon the crucifix during the Mass, we should also focus on our Lord’s pierced Heart as a symbol of the depths of his love.”
Yes, let us strive to focus, at this Mass and at every Mass, on Our Lord’s pierced Heart in the Eucharist, His Heart that was “obedient unto death” and that is the great Symbol par excellence of His love for us; and let us ask that by receiving His Most Precious Body and Blood in Holy Communion, we may have obedient hearts like unto His, in order to love God and neighbor as He commands us, so that Jesus will acknowledge us before His heavenly Father.
I’ll end with a beautiful poem which asks that Jesus exchange our hearts with His:
O Jesus mine, / O Lord Divine, / What will you have me give? / Unless you show, /
I cannot know, / Nor ever peaceful live.
I give my heart, / And for my part / Beg your Heart in return. / This noble prize / Before my eyes, /All other gifts I spurn.
Do not, O love, / Deprive me of / This prize, my God, but deign / Your Heart and mine / As one may shine, / Afire with love’s pure flame.