The Beat Goes On...Sacred Love

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."

Today is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. How do you explain to a Protestant why we worship and love a body part of Jesus?  I think you have to have the mindset of a poet to fully understand why it is we do what we do.  People who are forced to rely on just the Bible for their beliefs have no room for poetry in their religion.  Oh, they might love poetry and read it and are transported to places of utter beauty by the written word but that does not transfer easily for them into religious thought.  I am not saying this makes them bad people, just unfortunate ones.  

The words of Jesus contain great beauty and all of the truth one needs to come to know Him, but Jesus rarely displays his poetic side.  In today's Gospel reading he opens His heart and the beauty of His words fill the air with great beauty.  His Sacred Heart is a shelter for all of us.  It is through His Sacred Heart that Jesus dispenses mercy.  He calls all of us to Himself for in His Most Sacred Heart we will find rest.  In Matthew, he tells us:

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am meek and humble of heart;

and you will find rest for yourselves. 

For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

This is the invitation of the Sacred Heart to His beloved sons and daughters.  He wants nothing more than to bestow on us, rest from our labors and knowledge of the great goodness and love of us that burns so brightly in the Heart of God.  All the striving and work we do on earth for the Kingdom of God will bring us to a sublime place of peace where we will be loved and honored forever and where we will sing praise to God and recount to one another the great deeds He has done for us. 

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O most holy heart of Jesus, the fountain of every blessing, I adore you, I love you, and with lively sorrow for my sins I offer you this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to your will. Grant, Good Jesus, that I may live in you and for you. Protect me in the midst of danger. Comfort me in my afflictions. Give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. Amen.