We are still in the Octave of the Feast of the Sacred Heart and I want to attempt to capture something of my thoughts and feelings on receiving Holy Communion last Friday, on the Feast itself.
Since receiving Holy Communion on that Feast, I have been focussed on the meaning of the words, Our Lord the Sacred Heart of Jesus, said to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque on that Grand Revelation in the Octave of Corpus Christi, June 1675:
Behold this Heart, Which has so loved men, that It has spared nothing … in order to testify to them Its love.
And:
Therefore, I ask of thee that the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi be set apart for a special Feast to honour My Heart, by communicating on that day and making reparation to It by a solemn act, in order to make amends for the indignities which It has received during the time It has been exposed on the altars.
There is so much here, where do I begin?
I spent much of that Feast day in a prayerful state, trying through my business (for it was a busy day) to keep an awareness of Our Lord’s request.
As I knelt before Holy Mass that evening, gazing upon the Sacred Heart altar and the Tabernacle, I intensified my prayer. I offered my Communion and all the prayers of the Mass, in reparation for all the sacrileges and wrongs committed by us, poor sinners that we are, towards our Lord’s Heart, particularly in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
I kept this intensity of intention throughout the Mass. Then on receiving Holy Communion, I experienced something that seemed to give me a morsel of understanding of that which Our Lord meant in His words, quoted above, as well as in these following words:
I promise thee that My Heart shall expand Itself to shed in abundance the influence of Its divine love upon all those who shall thus honour It, and cause It to be honoured.
As I consumed this Most Holy nourishment of His Body and Blood, I felt a sweetness, a joy, as though He was bestowing His love upon me. And of course this is exactly what Holy Communion is. It is a gift of love, beyond measure. The greatest gift, the greatest love we can ever know.
And it is our responsibility to receive this greatest of gifts with the gratitude and reverence It deserves.
The all-encompassing sweetness of His love … The importance of right respect towards Him in His Sacrament … The necessity of prayer for reparation.
These are the things of which He spoke all those years ago and His words are just as relevant today. These are the things which we particularly honour on this Holy Feast.
And these are the things for which I found some minute understanding in my poor little heart, as I received and consumed the greatest of gifts, His Body and Blood.
For I was consuming that very Heart that had so loved men. I was consuming in His Sacrament of love, that Heart that so requested the honouring and respect so rightly due It. That Heart, that through honour and reparation, would bestow, “in abundance the influence of Its divine love upon all those who shall thus honour It, and cause It to be honoured.”
And as we depart from the Octave of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us not forget these things, these words from Our Lord. Let us go to each and every Mass, remembering the generosity and love given to us daily in Holy Communion this greatest of gifts.
And let us act accordingly, that Our Lord will be pleased that we have returned love for love.
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