HOMILY
SEPTEMBER
18, 1984
"My
soul, give thanks to the Lord, all
my being, bless his holy name" (Ps 103 (102):1)
With
these words of today's liturgy, dear
brothers and sisters, I wish to
address
myself, together with all of you, to the God of Love. And I
wish
to do so through the mystery of the
Heart of Christ.
I
choose these words because they speak of our human heart
- what the Psalm refers to as
"all my
being". It is precisely this that we have in mind when we speak of the
"heart":
our whole being, all that is within each one of us. All that
forms us from within, in the depths of our being. All that
makes up our
entire humanity, our whole person in its spiritual and physical dimension. All that
expresses itself as a unique and unrepeatable
person in its "inner self" and at the same time in its "transcendence".
The
words of the Psalm - "My soul give
thanks to the Lord, all my being bless his holy name" - say that our
human "heart" addresses God in all
the unimaginable majesty of his divinity and his holiness and, at the same time, in his wonderful "openness"
to mankind: in his "condescension".
In
this way "heart" meets "Heart"; "heart"
speaks to the "Heart".
In
this spirit I wish also to greet all
those taking part in our Eucharistic
assembly - in
this Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart - as well as all those who have
come to
express their good will and their respectful solidarity with this
praying
community.
I
am deeply pleased that my visit to Canada has taken me to the
City of Vancouver and this
gathering place of
God's people. The city is indeed marvellously located between
the
mountains and the ocean, being the largest city
of your Province, all of which is truly a land of splendour without diminishment: Splendor sine occasu!
The
importance of your Province is certainly
reflected in its forests, minerals,
water, fruit and fishing, and in the beauty which attracts so many
tourists. Of greater importance still
are you, the people of this region.
It is here that you live and work, striving to build a suitable
human habitat and a just society. It is here that you struggle to solve
the
social problems that have become so much
a part of the fabric of life in
these
parts. It is here that you continue your search for God and for the
full meaning of human life, amid the
struggle between good and evil. And to all of you today I offer
the
expression of my deep respect and fraternal
love.
In
particular I wish to greet all
the Catholic faithful of the Archdiocese
of
Vancouver, under the leadership of Archbishop Carney. I am likewise
deeply grateful for all who
have made
great efforts to come from other
dioceses of
British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. In the unity of the
Eucharist I express my deep affection for all my brother Bishops and for all the clergy, religious and
laity of the
Catholic Church.
In
the charity
of
Christ I embrace all my fellow Christians who honour me by their presence today. I
recall with sincere appreciation and respect the zealous efforts made last
year in this city by the World Council of Churches to proclaim Jesus
Christ to the world.
With
fraternal esteem I also offer my warm greetings to the
members of non-Christian
religions and to all
the citizens of this land who have no
religious
affiliation. Before all
of you I attest to the Catholic
Church's deep interest
and concern
for the incomparable human dignity of every man, woman and child on
this earth.
I
am deeply grateful for the hospitality extended to me and for
the invitation to celebrate this
Eucharist. And it is in this context of public worship that I have come to you
to
proclaim Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God; to proclaim the
invisible
God whom he reveals; and to
proclaim the divine love that he communicates to the world in the mystery
of his Sacred Heart.
When
we say "Heart of Jesus Christ",
we address ourselves in faith to the
whole Christological mystery: the mystery of the God-Man.
This
mystery is expressed in a rich and
profound way by the texts of today's
liturgy. These are the words of the Apostle Paul in his Letter to the
Colossians:
"Christ
Jesus is the image of the unseen
God and
the first-born of all creation,
for in him were created all
things in heaven and on
earth:
everything visible and
everything
invisible,
Thrones, Dominations,
Sovereignties,
Powers" (Col 1:15-16).
These
last words refer precisely to the
"invisible" beings: the creatures
that have a purely spiritual nature.
"All
things were created through him and
for him.
Before
anything was created, he existed,
and
he holds all
things
in unity" (Col 1:16-17).
These
marvellous sentences from Saint Paul's
Letter come together with what
is proclaimed to us
today in the Prologue of Saint John's Gospel:
"In
the beginning was the Word:
the
Word was with God
and
the Word was God.
He
was with God in the beginning.
Through
him all things came to be,
not
one thing had its being but through him.
And the world
was made
through him" (Jn 1:1-3,10).
Both
in the text of John and in the text of Paul is contained the revealed doctrine on the Son -
the Word of God
- who is of the same divine substance
as the Father. This is
the faith
we profess as we say the Creed - that profession of faith which
comes
from the two most ancient Councils of the
universal Church, at Nicea and Constantinople:
"We
believe in one God, the
Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven
and earth, of
all that is,
seen and unseen. We
believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the
only Son of God, eternally
begotten of the
Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made".
The
Son
is one in substance with the Father. He is God
from God.
At
the same time, everything that is created has its divine
beginning in him, as the Eternal
Word. In
him all things were made and in him they have their
existence.
This
is our faith. This is the teaching of the
Church about the Divinity
of the Son.
This Eternal
Son, true God, the Word of the Father, became man. These are
the words
of the Gospel: "The Word was made flesh, he
lived among us" (Jn 1:14).
In
the Creed we profess: "For us men and
for our salvation he came down
from
heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the
Virgin Mary, and was made man".
Here
we more directly touch upon the reality of the Heart of
Jesus. For the heart is a human
organ,
belonging to the body, belonging to the whole structure, to the spiritual and
physical make-up of man: "And
the Word was made flesh".
In
this make-up the heart has its place as an
organ. At the same time it has a meaning as the symbolic centre of the
inner
self, and this inner self
is,
by nature, spiritual.
The
Heart of Jesus was conceived
beneath the heart of the Virgin Mother,
and its
earthly life
ceased at the
moment Jesus died on the Cross. This
is testified to by the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with
a lance.
During
the whole of Jesus' earthly life, this
Heart was the centre in which
was
manifested, in a human way, the love of God: the love of God
the Son,
and, through the Son, the love of God
the Father.
What
constitutes the greatest fruit of this
love
in creation?
We
read it in the Gospel: "He came to
his own domain and his own people
did not accept him. But to all who did accept him he gave power to
become
children of God ..."(Jn
1:11-12).
Here
is the most magnificent, the most profound gift of the
Heart of Jesus that we find in creation: man born of
God, man
adopted as a son in the Eternal Son, humanity given the power to become
children of God.
And
therefore our human heart
"transformed" in this way can say and does say
to the Divine Heart what we hear in
today's liturgy:
"My
soul, give thanks to the Lord,
and
never forget all his blessings.
It
is he who forgives all your guilt,
who
heals
every one of your ills,
who
redeems
your 1ife from the grave,
who
crowns you with love and compassion.
The
Lord is compassion and love,
slow
to anger and rich in mercy" (Ps
103(102):2-4,8).
These
are the words of the Psalm in which the
Old Testament speaks of the
mystery
of God's love. How much more do the Gospels tell us of the divine
Heart of the Son - and indirectly of
the Heart of the Father:
Heart
of Jesus, abode of justice and love!
Heart
of Jesus, patient and most merciful!
Heart
of Jesus, fountain of life
and holiness!
Finally
we can repeat with Isaiah that those
who hope in the divine Heart
"renew their strength,
they put out wings like eagles. They run and do not grow weary, walk
and
never tire" (Is
40:31).
The
Heart of Jesus Christ is a great and unceasing
call from God, addressed
to humanity,
to each human
heart! Let us listen once more to the words
of Saint Paul in today's liturgy:
"Now
the Church is his body,
he
is its head.
As
he is the Beginning,
he
was the first to be born from the dead,
so
that he should be first in every way;
because
God wanted all perfection
to
be found in him
and
all things to be reconciled through him
and for him,
everything
in heaven and everything on earth,
when
he made peace by his death on the
cross" (Col 1:18-20).
This
is
the
definitive perspective that is opened up before us by our faith
in the Heart of Jesus Christ. He
is the Beginning and the End of everything
created in God himself. He is the Fullness.
Towards
this Fullness in him goes all
visible and invisible creation. Towards
this Fullness in him goes all
humanity,
reconciled with God by the blood
of
Jesus shed on the Cross.
Lord
Jesus Christ,
Eternal
Son of the Eternal Father,
Born
of the Virgin Mary.
We
ask you to continue to reveal to us the
mystery of God: so that we may
recognize in you "the image of the invisible God"; that we may
find him in
you,
in your divine Person, in the warmth of your
humanity, in the love of
your
Heart.
Heart
of Jesus in whom dwells the fullness of Divinity!
Heart
of Jesus, of whose fullness we have all
received!
Heart
of Jesus, King and centre of all
hearts, for ever and ever.
Amen!
Conférence
des évêques
catholiques du Canada