Heart to heart with Jesus

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

ON the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, what we are reminded of is the invitation to give our whole heart to Jesus so as to transform it and unite it with the very heart of Jesus. It should remind us of God’s appeal to us as mentioned in the Book of Proverbs: “My child, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.” (23,26)

On this Solemnity, we should have a personal and most intimate encounter with Jesus himself—especially his pierced love—and respond with trust, love in action and a life shaped by the Gospel. We need to spend time in some quiet and secluded place—better still, before the Blessed Sacrament in a church or chapel—so that we can have a heart-to-heart interaction and experience with him.

This is always possible if we would only activate our faith and piety. Perhaps what can be helpful is to take a break from our usual daily activities so we can have a devotional communion with him who is everything to us.

If we want our heart to be in its best and ideal condition, it should be conformed after Christ’s Sacred Heart. It should not be allowed to throb for anything else, something that we should train our heart to avoid. Instead, we have to do everything for it be raised to God all the time, whether we are in our good or bad times, in our successes or failures, in our joys and sorrows, etc.

Our heart, which is the very core of our being, the most intimate part of our life, the place where things start and end, where we meet God and hear his voice,…this heart of ours comes from God, is actually shaped after the most sacred heart of Jesus who is the pattern of our humanity, and belongs to God. We should be clear about this fundamental truth of our faith.

That could be the reason why Christ, when asked what the greatest commandment was, said that it is to love God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Mt 22,37) God is not asking too much from us with that commandment. He is not asking something unreasonable. In fact, he is offering what would be the best deal for us.

We need to broaden and deepen our understanding of the true nature and character of our life here on earth, and of the role of our heart in it, always guided by our Christian faith and not just by any purely human estimation, no matter how brilliant it is, if only to realize that we need to conform our heart to Christ’s Sacred Heart.

We need to constantly ask ourselves as we go through the many affairs of our day, “Where is my heart? Is it with God? Is it throbbing in synch with Christ’s Sacred Heart? Do we really know what is in that Sacred Heart of Christ?, etc.”

That way we would get some ideas of what to do to conform our heart to Christ’s Sacred Heart. Yes, there will be some difficulties, awkwardness, even mistakes, but if we persist, for sure the way to see and imitate what is inside Christ’s Sacred Heart would open to us.

If we become more and more familiar with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we would know why we always have to be patient, understanding, compassionate, magnanimous, etc. The very image of Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, would be formed in us.

We can echo the same words of St. Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me!” (Gal 2,20)

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com