Today is June 8, the Solemnity of Pentecost.
In the readings at Mass for the feast of Pentecost, “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always. Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him'” (Jn 14:15-21).
Today, I want to ask a simple question: What is the relationship between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the feast of Pentecost?
The Sacred Heart is the human heart of Jesus Christ — the incarnate Word. It is a heart of real flesh, a heart that beat in his chest, that ached with compassion, that was pierced on Calvary. It is a sign of divine love expressed in a fully human way — a love we can relate to, one that we see, touch and contemplate.
A burning love
The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is uncreated love — the eternal bond of love between the Father and the Son. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the proper name of the Holy Spirit is Love. Not just “loving” or “lovable” — but Love himself. If the Son is the Word and the Father is the unoriginated Source, the Spirit is the gift of Love flowing from their union.
So how do these two — the Sacred Heart and the Holy Spirit — relate?
We might say this: The Holy Spirit is the love of the Sacred Heart poured into the world. What Christ reveals in his pierced Heart is made present and powerful in our lives by the Spirit. The human heart of Jesus, aflame with divine charity, becomes the vessel through which the Spirit is shared with us.
That means the fire that fell on the apostles at Pentecost is the same fire burning in the Sacred Heart. The wind that swept through the Upper Room echoes the Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation. And the love that empowers the Church today flows from the side of Christ, opened for us on the cross.
Let us pray,
O God, who by the mystery of today’s great feast sanctify your whole Church in every people and nation, pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit across the face of the earth and, with the divine grace that was at work when the Gospel was first proclaimed, fill now once more the hearts of believers. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
