Today is the feast of the Sacred Heart, in both the old and new calendars. Tomorrow is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the new calendar. These Hearts are so inseparable, Holy Church celebrates them together in this month of June.

The beautiful depiction above, of Our Lord holding out His Heart to us, was painted in the 18th century by Pompeo Batoni. I’m actually looking at it right now in my dining room (which is also my office, much to the chagrin of my family), since our church has been giving out large prints of this painting. When searching for an image, I thought to myself, “I wish I could find that one,” and it’s the first thing that popped up!

"Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine.”

We are all familiar with this pious prayer, but have we really thought about the implications of it? Look again at His Heart above. It is encircled by the Crown of Thorns and has been pierced, droplets of blood falling from it. If we are to conform our hearts to His, we must accept the consequences. We must accept that we will at the very least, become dry martyrs in this life. We will be insulted, lied about and misjudged. We will be hurt by those we love. We will need to raise the “sword to divide,” and be called “abusers” for speaking the truth. We will be persecuted in all kinds of ways by those around us and by the world. We must don also, this Crown of Thorns and our own hearts will be pierced and bloodied. This is what that cross and that flame atop our own hearts will require. But there is no greater gift than that of the Theological Virtue of Charity and it is worth any suffering that may result. We will have a clear conscience at death and win our eternal reward in Heaven. We will also be happier.

“And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.”

1 Corinthians 13:13