The Catholic Church sets aside the different months of the year for different saints and devotions. For example, March is the Month of St. Joseph, May is the Month of Mary, October is the Month of the Rosary, and November is the Month of the Souls in Purgatory. The month of June is no different, and the Church dedicates this month to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart has a long history. During the twelfth century, devotion to the Holy Wounds, and especially the wounded side of Christ grew with Ss. Bernard of Clairvaux and Francis of Assisi, as well as among Crusaders in the Holy Land. From this grew the particular devotion to the pierced Heart of our Saviour, which represented the love He poured out for us on Calvary. The devotion developed further in the seventeenth century when St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received a vision of Our Lord, who told her that He wished to be adored under the image of His pierced Heart, especially through frequent reception of Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month. Along with this devotion, there is attached several promises of increases in grace and mercy.
St. Margaret Mary's vision would later receive public approval by the Church, being reaffirmed as worthy of belief by Pope Pius XI's encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor, which declared the Feast of the Sacred Heart as a day of reparation and atonement. It is from St. Margaret Mary's visions that we received the now-popular First Fridays devotion and the widespread practice of making a Holy Hour. The Sacred Heart is now one of the most iconic depictions of Our Lord, and can be found in Catholic and non-Catholic depictions of Christ. In fact, if you Google the terms "Jesus" or "Christ," one of the first images that comes up is of Our Lord and His Sacred Heart.
It is important for Catholics (and all Christians) to be devoted to the Sacred Heart, especially during this month. Starting June 1, every major cultural institution begins celebrating June as the month of homosexual activism and pride. There is here a twofold issue: on the face of it, celebrating homosexual acts is contrary to Christianity (Lev. 18:22-24, Rom. 1:27, 1 Cor. 6:9-11, etc.) and the teachings of the Church (CCC 2357-2359, On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons), but at a deeper level what is being celebrated is the sin of pride. Pride is the Queen of the Cardinal Sins, the sin which caused Lucifer to fall, and the main sin which pervades our culture. In today's culture, we are told that all of our natural appetites are good and should be fed, and we look down upon penitential acts such as delayed gratification, fasting, bodily mortifications, and any sort of self-denial as backwards, unhealthy, and wrong. We live for ourselves and for our own comfort.
The Heart of Christ represents the love of the Suffering Servant, pierced for us that we may live with God in the bliss of the beatific vision for endless ages. Christ was humbled for our sakes in order to take on that Heart, and it is contrary to the viciousness of pride and the lusts of the human flesh. This June, we need to combat the excesses of modernity, not by shouting and belittling others, but by taking up our crosses, doing penance, going to prayer, dwelling in the love of Christ, and showing that love to others.
The Gospel reading for the Feast of the Sacred Heart is taken from St. John 19, 31-37:
Then the Jews, (because it was the parasceve,) that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath day, (for that was a great sabbath day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came; and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him. But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he that saw it, hath given testimony, and his testimony is true. And he knoweth that he saith true; that you also may believe. For these things were done, that the scripture might be fulfilled: You shall not break a bone of him. And again another scripture saith: They shall look on him whom they pierced.
Let us gaze upon the Heart which hath so loved man, which was pierced for our transgressions, and that gushes forth love and mercy for us and for the whole world. Let us also return the love of Him who gave His Heart for us by making to Him the daily offering of our own hearts.
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