Today is June 3, Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs
We read at today’s Mass, “I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine” (Jn 17:9).
For many years in my office, I kept a large print of the Sacred Heart. It was based on a French holy card — one of those vintage, dramatic depictions that might seem a bit gory to modern eyes. The heart is pierced by the lance of the centurion, blood flows visibly and the heart blazes with fire. But what drew me most was the verse printed beneath it, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”
At first, the connection between that verse and the Sacred Heart might seem unclear. But if we keep reading, we discover the link: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.” This is the only place in all of Scripture where Jesus directly describes his heart. And what does he say? That it is meek and humble.
A promise of peace
These are the defining features of the Sacred Heart. And what does this heart offer? Rest.
That promise of rest and peace is not just poetic. It’s personal. It’s the very consolation that St. Augustine clung to when he wrote, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” It’s the peace shared eternally between the Father and the Son, now extended to us.
So when life batters us about like ships in a storm, we are invited into the refuge of the Sacred Heart — a safe harbor. There, we find not distress, but hope. Not exhaustion, but peace.
Let our prayer today be that we, too, may enter into the rest Jesus promises — and that the peace of his meek and humble heart might reign in ours.
Let us pray,
O God, who have made the blood of Martyrs the seed of Christians, mercifully grant that the field which is your Church, watered by the blood shed by Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions, may be fertile and always yield you an abundant harvest. 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.
