From the Pastor's Pen:  Daily Meditations
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Pastor’s Pen

30 May 2008 – Sacred Heart of Jesus

 

          It’s amazing how many things we learn from our children.  For example, every year as we celebrate 1st Holy Communion, I tell parents it’s very easy to remember our own 1st Holy Communion; it’s a day we never forget.  As we look at those precious little boys and girls, we recall how we, too, were once that innocent and full of simple joy.  Life was uncomplicated back then.  These children teach us to want to be like that again. Or take another example.  Two days ago I was visiting my nieces and nephews and they invited me to play touch football with them and their neighbors in the front yard.  Now, to be honest, I can’t remember the last time I played touch football, and it’s a small miracle that I didn’t pull a muscle or sprain an ankle!  But children teach us adults to play again, to laugh and have fun.  And most especially children teach us to love, and they teach us to love everyone.  You see, God made children with an openness to others, regardless of race or religion or language.  Their first instinct is to respect other and love others.  But we adults teach them racism and prejudice.  It breaks my heart to see young children in the streets of the Middle East chanting slogans hating the Jews, or hating the Palestinians, or hating the Americans.  Some adult taught them that, but they were born knowing only to love.

 

          The first Friday after Corpus Christi – that is, today – is always the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Today we rejoice in how much Jesus loves us.  But did you notice the gospel reading for today?  It says God has revealed this love to children but has hidden it from adults.  In other words, little children grasp Jesus’ love faster than we grown ups do, and what children know instinctively is that Jesus’ love is for everyone.  Jesus doesn’t just love us only if we are smart or handsome or clever or athletic – thank goodness! – or because we’re Catholic or Pentecostal or Americans or Iranians or Indians.  He loves us because He created us; He made us in His image and likeness.  There is no prejudice in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and children know this better than adults.

 

          Today, pay attention to little children you might see, at church or in the store or at home.  See what they can teach you; what we, too, once knew when we were little children, but have forgotten or perhaps ignored.  Maybe you’ll learn innocence and simplicity, maybe you’ll learn to play and laugh.  And maybe you’ll learn to love others, all others, like the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

 

          Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

 

 

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