Homily for Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: full
text
(Vatican Radio) On Friday 3
June, Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass with priests in St Peter's Square as
part of a special Jubilee of Mercy for Priests.
Please find below the
prepared text for the Holy Father's Homily:
This celebration of the Jubilee for Priests on the
Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus invites us all to turn to the heart, the
deepest root and foundation of every person, the focus of our affective life
and, in a word, his or her very core. Today we contemplate two hearts: the Heart
of the Good Shepherd and our own heart as priests.
The Heart of the Good Shepherd is not only the Heart that shows us mercy, but isitself
mercy. There the Father’s love shines forth; there I know I am welcomed and
understood as I am; there, with all my sins and limitations, I know the
certainty that I am chosen and loved. Contemplating that heart, I renew my
first love: the memory of that time when the Lord touched my soul and called me
to follow him, the memory of the joy of having cast the nets of our life upon
the sea of his word (cf. Lk 5:5).
The Heart of the Good Shepherd tells us that his love is limitless; it is never
exhausted and it never gives up. There we see his infinite and boundless
self-giving; there we find the source of that faithful and meek love which sets
free and makes others free; there we constantly discover anew that Jesus loves
us “even to the end” (Jn 13:1), without ever being imposing.
The Heart of the Good Shepherd reaches out to us, above all to those who are
most distant. There the needle of his compass inevitably points, there we see a
particular “weakness” of his love, which desires to embrace all and lose none.
Contemplating the Heart of Christ, we are faced with the fundamental question
of our priestly life: Where is my heart directed? Our ministry
is often full of plans, projects and activities: from catechesis to liturgy, to
works of charity, to pastoral and administrative commitments. Amid all these,
we must still ask ourselves: What is my heart set on, where is it directed,
what is the treasure that it seeks? For as Jesus says: “Where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:21).
The great riches of the Heart of Jesus are two: the Father and ourselves. His
days were divided between prayer to the Father and encountering people. So too
the heart of Christ’s priests knows only two directions: the Lord and
his people. The heart of the priest is a heart pierced by the love of the
Lord. For this reason, he no longer looks to himself, but is turned towards God
and his brothers and sisters. It is no longer “a fluttering heart”, allured by
momentary whims, shunning disagreements and seeking petty satisfactions.
Rather, it is a heart rooted firmly in the Lord, warmed by the Holy Spirit,
open and available to our brothers and sisters.
To help our hearts burn with the charity of Jesus the Good Shepherd, we can
train ourselves to do three things suggested to us by today’s readings: seek
out, include andrejoice.
Seek
out. The prophet Ezekiel reminds us that God himself goes out in search of
his sheep (Ez 34:11, 16). As the Gospel says, he “goes out in search
of the one who is lost” (Lk15:4), without fear of the risks. Without
delaying, he leaves the pasture and his regular workday. He does not put off
the search. He does not think: “I have done enough for today; I’ll worry about
it tomorrow”. Instead, he immediately sets to it; his heart is anxious until he
finds that one lost sheep. Having found it, he forgets his weariness and puts
the sheep on his shoulders, fully content.
Such is a heart that seeks out – a heart that does not set aside times and
spaces as private, a heart that is not jealous of its legitimate quiet time and
never demands that it be left alone. A shepherd after the heart of God does not
protect his own comfort zone; he is not worried about protecting his good name,
but rather, without fearing criticism, he is disposed to take risks in seeking
to imitate his Lord.
A shepherd after the heart of God has a heart sufficiently free to set aside
his own concerns. He does not live by calculating his gains or how long he has worked:
he is not an accountant of the Spirit, but a Good Samaritan who seeks out those
in need. For the flock he is a shepherd, not an inspector, and he devotes
himself to the mission not fifty or sixty percent, but with all he has. In
seeking, he finds, and he finds because he takes risks. He does not stop when
disappointed and he does not yield to weariness. Indeed, he isstubborn in
doing good, anointed with the divine obstinacy that loses sight of no one.
Not only does he keep his doors open, but he also goes to seek out those who no
longer wish to enter them. Like every good Christian, and as an example for
every Christian, he constantly goes out of himself. The epicentre
of his heart is outside of himself. He is not drawn by his own “I”, but by the
“Thou” of God and by the “we” of other men and women.
Include.
Christ loves and knows his sheep. He gives his life for them, and no one is a
stranger to him (cf. Jn 10:11-14). His flock is his
family and his life. He is not a boss to feared by his flock, but a shepherd
who walks alongside them and calls them by name (cf.Jn 10:3-4). He
wants to gather the sheep that are not yet of his fold (cf. Jn 10:16).
So it is also with the priest of Christ. He is anointed for his people, not to
choose his own projects but to be close to the real men and women whom God has
entrusted to him. No one is excluded from his heart, his prayers or his smile.
With a father’s loving gaze and heart, he welcomes and includes everyone, and
if at times he has to correct, it is to draw people closer. He stands apart
from no one, but is always ready to dirty his hands. As a minister of the
communion that he celebrates and lives, he does not await greetings and
compliments from others, but is the first to reach out, rejecting gossip,
judgements and malice. He listens patiently to the problems of his people and
accompanies them, sowing God’s forgiveness with generous compassion. He does
not scold those who wander off or lose their way, but is always ready to bring
them back and to resolve difficulties and disagreements.
Rejoice.
God is “full of joy” (cf. Lk 15:5). His joy is born of
forgiveness, of life risen and renewed, of prodigal children who breathe once
more the sweet air of home. The joy of Jesus the Good Shepherd is not a joy for
himself alone, but a joy for others and with others, the
true joy of love. This is also the joy of the priest. He is changed by the mercy
that he freely gives. In prayer he discovers God’s consolation
and realizes that nothing is more powerful than his love. He thus experiences
inner peace, and is happy to be a channel of mercy, to bring men and women
closer to the Heart of God. Sadness for him is not the norm, but only a step
along the way; harshness is foreign to him, because he is a shepherd after the
meek Heart of God.
Dear priests, in the Eucharistic celebration we rediscover each day our
identity as shepherds. In every Mass, may we truly make our own the words of
Christ: “This is my body, which is given up for you.” This is the meaning
of our life; with these words, in a real way we can daily renew the promises we
made at our priestly ordination. I thank all of you for saying “yes” to giving
your life in union with Jesus: for in this is found the pure source of our
joy.
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