We will draw love from the fountain. Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (A)

Today we celebrate the last of the great feasts that the liturgy offers us after the Easter Season: the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Tomorrow we will celebrate the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Together with the feasts of the Most Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi, today's solemnity brings together all that we have experienced during the forty days of Lent and the fifty days of Easter into a coherent whole. And that whole is this: God's love for us. In celebrating the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we come to the very center of this mystery: to the heart of divine love.

The Church does not invite us today to venerate a physical organ separate from Christ, as if we were looking at a part of his body in isolation. Rather, the Heart of Jesus is the living symbol and total expression of his love for humanity. One might ask: why not celebrate the sacred head crowned with thorns, or the hands pierced for our salvation? The answer is that, in the heart, more than anywhere else, we recognize a “heart of Jesus" as a symbol of his love for humanity.“natural sign or symbol of his immense charity”. The Sacred Heart, therefore, is not simply an image, but the reality of Christ's love poured out for us.

In the collect prayer of the Mass, we recognize that God the Father has granted us “....“infinite treasures of love”in the Heart of her Son. In the face of such a gift, the words of the prophet Isaiah come to life: “you will draw water with joy from the fountains of salvation" (Encyclical Haurietis aquas).

The Gospel deepens this invitation. Jesus says: “learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart”. There are many things we can learn from Christ, but at the center of them all is love: a meek, humble and self-giving love. From the pierced Heart of Christ on the cross flows life for the world. What was pierced becomes a source.

For many in our world, especially in places where water has to be drawn every day, the image of a fountain is very real. When the water level is low, the effort becomes exhausting. One can resort to a pulley or even a pump, but no human effort can produce water if the fountain is dry. The real joy is not in the mechanism, but in the abundance of the fountain.

So it is with the love of Christ. Techniques, efforts and structures in our life are not enough if the source is missing. But the Heart of Jesus is never exhausted. It is inexhaustible. It is always full and overflowing.

The first reading reminds us that this love is a gift. Israel was chosen not because of its strength or greatness, but simply because God loved it. As Scripture says: “If the Lord fell in love with you and chose you, it was not because you were more numerous than the others, for you are the smallest people, but out of pure love for you and to keep the oath that he had sworn to your fathers.".

The liturgy invites us to approach this pierced Heart with trust. To drink from it. To remain close to it. And, having received so much, to become ourselves sources of love for others. As we heard in the second reading, we are called to love one another. Whoever drinks from the Heart of Christ is called to be an oasis of love in the family and in society.