Yesterday we reflected on the greatest commandment of love, and today we celebrate the feast of God's love, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. God Himself is love. God is relationship.
We are created in God's image. If God is love itself (relationship), then we too are love (we too are relationships). We really were made for love, and outside of it we die very quickly. We can live only in relationship, otherwise we die (if not physically, we die psychologically).
When we look at the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we see his heart is out in front. Maybe it's terrible art, but it's great theology. Jesus' heart is given to us, his love is out in front. He wants to connect to us in love... his heart burning and yearning for us always. We humans need to be connected, and even wear our hearts on the sleeves.
Not just us humans, all things in the universe are interrelated beyond comparison. "The universe is a continuous web. Touch it at any point and the whole web quivers." Everything is radically interconnected to everything else. To tell the story of anything you need to tell the story of everything. We humans are nothing but earth that is aware. We are universe that is conscious. So we are not merely DUST, but we are also STAR DUST. We came not just from the monkeys or the fish, but from the STARS.
If we are so intimately connected to each other in the universe, each and every part is important. Everything has its place. We need each other, and every being in the universe. We need all the parts: both good and bad, beautiful and ugly, talented and not-so-talented, positive and negative. In God's reign everything belongs, even the broken and poor parts. The cross becomes a beautiful symbol of reconciling and uniting all things, even the opposites. Jesus takes our sinfulness; he gives himself completely. Blood and water flow out of his heart for our salvation (John 19:31-37). Jesus thus becomes the Sacrament of God's unfailing and unconditional love. Out of his broken side, Jesus the New Adam gives birth to the New Eve, the Church and all of us.
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