Today is June 26, Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
We read at today’s Mass, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Who can tell the mighty deeds of the LORD, or proclaim all his praises?” (Ps 106:1b-2).
This verse from the Psalms gets me every time. Who, indeed, can recount all the mighty deeds of the Lord? Who can name all his mercies, past and present? We see only fragments — glimpses of grace. But Christ sees the whole.
Father Pedro Arrupe, the saintly former superior general of the Jesuits, once wrote that Christ’s coming, the Incarnation, is the Father’s ultimate gift, the one that completely transforms our relationship with God.
In a beautiful reflection on the Sacred Heart, Fr. Arrupe says, “The great power which affects this revolution, the great novelty of the new alliance, is the love of his heart, the love which he comes to kindle in each one of us.”
Fulfillment in the New Covenant
The Sacred Heart is not a sentimental image. It’s the very power of salvation. It is the living fire of divine love — offered, broken and glorified for us. That Heart, pierced on the cross, is the bridge between the Old and New Covenants. It’s in the love of Christ, flowing from his Sacred Heart, that all the promises of the Old Testament find their fulfillment. Every mighty deed of God, every word of praise, culminates in him.
As Fr. Arrupe reminds us, the new covenant was sealed by the sacrifice of Christ and gloriously raised up in the Resurrection. And now, in every Eucharistic celebration, that same covenant is renewed, made present in love.
Friends, let us never grow weary of contemplating the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In it we find the fullness of God’s mercy, the mystery of salvation and the love that binds all things together.
Let us pray,
Grant, O Lord, that we may always revere and love your holy name, for you never deprive of your guidance those you set firm on the foundation of your love. 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.
