10th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) - 9 June

9th June 2024
“It is in the adorable Heart of Jesus that we find every weapon proper to our defence, every remedy for the cure of our ills, the most powerful assistance against the assaults of our enemies, the sweetest consolation to relieve our sufferings, the purest delight to crown our souls with joy.” - St Peter Damian
 
The Gospel reading of today ties in beautifully with the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus celebrated on Friday 7 June. This wonderful reflection by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen helps bring this link to our attention:
 
"The messenger from the Father was impaled with the message of love written on His Own Heart. The thrust of the lance was the last profanation of God’s Good Shepherd. Though He was spared the brutality that was arbitrary, such as the breaking of His legs, nevertheless, there was some mysterious Divine purpose in the opening of the Sacred Heart of God. John, who leaned on His breast the night of the Last Supper, fittingly recorded the opening of the Heart. At the Deluge Noah made a door in the side of the ark, by which the animals entered, that they might escape the flood; now a new door is opened into the heart of God into which men might escape the flood of sin. When Adam slept, Eve was taken from his side and was called the mother of all living. Now as the second Adam inclined His head and slept on the Cross under the figure of Blood and water there came from His side His bride, the Church. The open heart fulfilled His words: ‘I am the door; a man will find salvation if he makes his way in through Me.’ (John 10:9)
 
"St. Augustine and other early Christian writers wrote that Longinus, the soldier who opened the treasures of His Sacred Heart, was cured of an affliction of blindness; later Longinus died as a bishop and a martyr of the Church, his feast being kept on the fifteenth of March. When John saw the action, his mind went back to the prophecy of Zacharias, six centuries before: ‘They will look upon the Man Whom they have pierced.’ (John 19:37)
 
"There is an intrinsic connection between the soldier piercing the Heart of Christ on the Cross, which drew forth Blood and water, and the rending of the veil of the temple. Two veils were rent: one, the purple veil of the temple which did away with the Old Law; the other, the veil of His Flesh which opened the Holy of Holies of Divine love tabernacled among us. In both instances, what was holy was made manifest; one, the Holy of Holies, which had been only a figure; the other, the true Holy of Holies, His Sacred Heart, which opened to the guilty access to God. The veil in the ancient temple signified that heaven was closed to all until the High Priest sent by the Father would rend the veil and open its gates to all. St. Paul told how the high priest of old, only once a year, and then not without an offering of blood for his own faults and those of the people, was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies. The Epistle to the Hebrews explains this mystery: ‘The Holy Spirit meant us to see that no way of access to the true sanctuary lay open to us, as long as the former Tabernacle maintained its standing… Meanwhile, Christ has taken His place as our High Priest…, a more complete tabernacle, which human Hands never fashioned; it does not belong to this order of creation at all. It is His own Blood, not the blood of goats and calves, that has enabled Him to enter, once for all, into the sanctuary; the ransom He has won lasts for ever.’ (Hebrews 9:1–1)
 
"Then, comparing the veil of the flesh and the veil of the temple, the Epistle adds: ‘We can enter the sanctuary with confidence through the Blood of Christ. He has opened up for us a new, a living approach, by way of the veil, I mean, His mortality.’ (Hebrews 10:19, 20)
 
"A thousand years before, David, looking forward to the Messiah, wrote: ‘No sacrifice, no offering was Thy demand; Enough that Thou hast given me an ear ready to listen. Thou hast not found any pleasure in burnt-sacrifices in sacrifices for sin. See then, I said, I am coming to fulfil what is written of Me, where the book lies unrolled; To do Thy will, O my God, is all my desire, to carry out that law of Thine which is written in My heart.’ (Psalm 39:7–7)
 
"As the Psalmist looked back on the sacrifices of slain beasts, the burnt offerings to attain Divine favour, and the sin offerings to make reparation for wrong, his mind dwelt upon them only to cast them aside. For he well knew that these slaughtered bulls, goats, and sheep could not really affect man’s relationship with God. He saw in a future day God having His Divinity enshrined in a human Body as in a temple, and coming with only one purpose, namely, to surrender His life in accordance with the Divine will. David proclaimed that the Divine Incarnation would be the perfection of the sacrifices and the priesthood of the Jewish Law. Now the figure was fulfilled as the spotless Lamb of God offered Himself to His Heavenly Father. The old promise made to Israel in Egypt still held good and could be claimed, in a higher sense, by all who invoked the Blood poured out on the Cross: ‘At sight of the blood, I will pass you by, and there shall be no scourge of calamity for you when I smite the land of Egypt.’ (Exodus 12:13)
 
"Levi’s House of priesthood was now dismissed. The Order of Melchisedech became the law in the House of Levi. The “no admittance” sign before the Holy of Holies of the earthly temple was removed. When Christ came into the world to be the fulfillment of the order of Melchisedech, the House of Levi denied Him welcome. In fact, Levi had exacted tithes of Him just a few weeks before His death in demanding temple taxes. But, as the veil of the temple was torn, the priesthood of Melchisedech came into its own, and with it the true Holy of Holies, the true Ark of the New Covenant, the true Bread of Life —the Christ, the Son of the Living God."
(Life of Christ)
 
Prayer to the Sacred Heart by St Margaret Mary Alcoque
 
Lord Jesus, let my heart never rest until it finds You, Who are its centre, its love, and its happiness. By the wound in Your heart pardon the sins that I have committed whether out of malice or out of evil desires. Place my weak heart in Your Own Divine Heart, continually under Your protection and guidance, so that I may persevere in doing good and in fleeing evil until my last breath. Amen. 💐💖🙏