Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS (Cycle A)
Readings:
Deuteronomy 7:6-11
Psalm 103:1-4, 6-8, 10
1 John 4:7-16
Matthew 11:25-30
Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and that is the reason we read and relive the events of salvation history contained in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
In the Middle Ages, Roman Catholics began observing this Solemnity on the third Friday after Pentecost to remember and venerate the precious wounds of Christ. It became an echo of Good Friday as a day of devotion to the Passion of Christ in which the faithful remembered Jesus' suffering to help them come to terms with their struggles. St. Gertrude the Great, who lived in the 13th century, had a vision of Jesus appearing to her the same way He had revealed Himself to St. Thomas the Apostle (Jn 20:24-29). Jesus showed St. Gertrude His wounds, and He taught her about His love, which she said was pouring forth from His Sacred Heart. In the 17th century, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque testified that in a vision, Christ chose her to spread the devotion to His Sacred Heart. St. John Eudes preached about the loving heart of Jesus and composed a liturgy for the Feast of the Sacred Heart. In 1765, Pope Clement XIII approved this devotion and set the date of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Church's calendar. See St. Bonaventure's reflections on this Solemnity.
The Theme of the Readings: The Lord Has Set His Heart on You
In the First Reading, Moses tells the children of Israel that
Yahweh divinely selected them from among all the nations of the earth to be a
people dedicated to Him. Moses emphasizes that God did not choose Israel for
political reasons. God's purpose in revealing Himself to Israel and choosing
them to be His holy people was because of His promise to Abraham and because of
love. The bond that tied Israel to God was a covenant based upon God's faithful
covenant love, a more profound love than a father's love for his child, or a
husband's love for his wife. It is a love that began with the oath God swore
to Abraham, and his descendants are the fruit of that passionate love. But
this is to be a reciprocal love affair, and Moses emphasizes the covenant
partner's obligation to return God's love by living in obedience to His commandments.
Christians also are divinely elected to be dedicated to Christ as His New Covenant people. Through the Sacrament of Christian baptism, Christians die to sin and the world. They are resurrection with Christ, becoming sanctified and reborn into the family of God as adopted children of the divine Father. In our divine election, we become joint-heirs with Christ and willing partners in His mission, sharing His suffering in the conquest against sin so that we may also share in His glory in receiving the eternal blessings of Heaven and the promise of a bodily resurrection
The superscription of the Responsorial Psalm identifies it as a psalm "of David," referring to the shepherd-boy God anointed as the King of Israel. The psalm begins with the psalmist praising God for blessings in his life. Then, he praises God for the mercy He has shown the people in pardoning their sins, healing their physical ills and redeeming them from destruction. The psalmist writes that Yahweh is merciful to His covenant people and patient. Even when they abuse their covenant bonds, He retains His covenant love for them and does not deal with them as their sins deserve but with mercy and compassion.
The Second Reading is from the First Letter of St. John in which he defines God by one powerful word: "Love." St. John assures us if we fulfill what Jesus identified as the two greatest commandments to love God and love one another, then the essence of the Most Holy Trinity abides in us. We will demonstrate evidence of that sanctification by how we live our lives through our love for God and our brothers and sisters in the Church and the human family.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus offers a vocal prayer to the Father and reveals a great theological truth not made known previously. He is the revelation of the Father; He and the Father are One. Jesus makes a promise to those who accept His invitation to "Come to me" and to take up His "yoke" of obedience. He promises that His "yoke" will not cause distress, and everyone who comes to acknowledge Him as their Master and submit to allowing Him to guide them by His yoke/commandments on the path to salvation will find "rest" in Him. After Jesus' invitation to "come" to Him, He promises that those who come and obediently "wear His yoke" (follow the commandments of Jesus "the Master") will have eternal "rest"/fellowship with God the Son.
"Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us: 'The Son of God ... loved me and gave himself or me.' He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, is 'is rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that...love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings' without exception" (CCC 478 quoting from Galatians 2:20, Pius XII encyclical, Haurietis aquas, and referencing Jn 19:34).
First Reading Deuteronomy 7:6-11 ~ God's Love Was the
Reason for Israel's Divine Election
6Moses said to the people: "You
are a people sacred to the LORD [Yahweh], your God; he has chosen you from all
the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own. 7It
was not because you are the largest of all nations that the LORD [Yahweh] set
his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations.
8It was because the LORD loved you and because of his
fidelity to the oath he had sworn your fathers, that he brought you out
with his strong hand from the place of slavery, and ransomed you from the hand
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 9Understand, then, that the LORD [Yahweh], your
God, is God indeed, the faithful God who keeps his merciful covenant down to
the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments,
10but who repays with destruction a person who hates him; he does not dally with
such a one, but makes them personally pay for it. 11You
shall therefore carefully observe the commandments [mitsvot],
the statutes [mishpatim = laws], and the decrees [hukkim = customs] that I enjoin on you today."
[...] = literal
translation, Interlinear Bible: Hebrew-English, vol. I, page 479).
6 For you are a people consecrated to the LORD [Yahweh]
your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on
the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own.
Moses declares Israel's divine election as a sacred people dedicated
as the personal possession of Yahweh, their God, and dearer to Him than all
other people. It was a divine election Yahweh Himself announced to Moses in
Exodus 19:4-6 and which Moses mentions again in this passage and also in Deuteronomy 14:2. Throughout salvation history, the prophets will continue to repeat the
history of Israel's divine election (i.e., Is 62:12; Am 3:2 and Jer 2:3). St.
Paul, in his letter to the Romans, will list Israel's eight privileges of
divine election and also identify the Israelites as the people from whom the
Messiah came to redeem humanity.
Christians also are divinely elected and dedicated to Jesus Christ. Christians die to sin as they pass through the waters in the Sacrament of Christian Baptism, and they are brought forth as sanctified in Christ and reborn into the family of God as adopted children of the divine Father. As Christians, in our divine election, we become joint-heirs with Christ. We become willing partners in His mission, sharing His suffering in the conquest against sin so that we may also share in His glory by receiving the eternal blessings of Heaven and the promise of a bodily resurrection (Rom 8:14-16).
8 It was because the LORD loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn your fathers
Verses 7-11 state the reason for Israel's Divine Election. God's
reasons for revealing Himself to Israel and choosing them to be His holy people
was because of His promise to their ancestors and because of love. Despite
their many failures in the course of their history, God never abandoned them,
nor did He abandon His plan that the promised Redeemer-Messiah and His mother
should come from the people of Israel.
See Dt 4:37; 7:8; 10:15 and
CCC 218.
Moses emphasizes that God did not choose Israel out of all the other nations of the earth for political reasons (also see Dt 4:37). The bond that tied Israel to God was a covenant based upon God's faithful covenant love (hesed in Hebrew), more profound than a father's love for his child, or a husband's love for his wife (Dt 10:12-15; CCC 219-220). It is a love that began with the oath God swore to Abraham (Gen 22:16). Israel is the fruit of that passionate love, but this is to be a reciprocal love; it is a covenant partner's obligation to return God's love by living in obedience to His commandments (Jn 14:14; 15:10; 1 Jn 2:3-5; 5:3).
9 Understand, then, that the
LORD, your God, is God indeed, the faithful God who keeps his merciful covenant
down to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments
In the Exodus liberation, Yahweh worked wonders on Israel's
behalf, defeating the Egyptian Pharaoh, the most powerful king in the region,
and a man worshiped as a god. Yahweh also defeated the Pharaoh's pantheon of
gods, who had no power to stop His might works. God also spoke truthfully to
the Israelites and kept His promises despite their continuous grumblings and
rebellions against His agent, Moses. He brought the twelve tribes of Israel
out of Egyptian slavery. An after the ratification of the covenant at Mount
Sinai, He began fulfilling the promises He made to the Patriarchs to make their
descendants a mighty nation who would possess the land of Canaan if they
remained obedient to His commandments (Gen 15:18-21;
Ex 34:10-11,
Dt 4:20, 34,
and CCC 215).
10 but who repays with destruction a person who hates him; he does not dally with such a one but makes them personally pay for it.
11 You shall therefore carefully observe the commandments [mitsvot], the statutes [mishpatim = laws], and the decrees [hukkim = customs] that I enjoin on you today."
The covenant ratified at Mount Sinai was a Covenant Treaty
between Yahweh, the Great King, and the children of Israel as His vassal
people. Covenant obligations were corporate (for a unified people) and
individual (verse 10), stretching beyond every generation (Ex 20:5-6). Members
of the community were responsible for obedience to the covenant and for teaching
the next generation about their covenant obligations, the greatest of which was
to love Yahweh, the Great God who loved them. These verses and
Deuteronomy 24:16 emphasize the individual Israelite's responsibility to love and
serve/worship Yahweh (also see
Jer 31:29-30 and
Ez 14:12-20; 18:10-20).
Disloyalty to the covenant was treason, but God, in His mercy, always provided
a way back to forgiveness and restoration in the Old Covenant and the New.
Responsorial Psalm 103:1-4, 6-8, 10 ~ The Merciful Love of God
Response: The Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul; all my being, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
Response
3 He pardons all your iniquities, heals all your ills.
4 He redeems your life from destruction, crowns you with kindness and compassion.
Response:
6 The LORD does righteous deeds, brings justice to all the oppressed.
7 His ways were revealed to Moses, mighty deeds to the people of Israel.
Response:
8 Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
[...]
10 Not according to our sins, does he deal with us, nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
Response:
The superscription for this psalm identifies it as a psalm "of David," referring to the shepherd-boy God anointed as the King of Israel (1 Sam 16:12-13). Of the 150 Psalms, the superscriptions (inscriptions at the top of a psalm) specifically name David as the author of 73 psalms. However, considering those attributed to him without a superscription, the number totals 75. Those superscriptions that name David as the author include Psalms 3-9; 11-32; 34-41; 51-65; 68-70; 86; 101; 103; 108-110; 122; 124; 131; 133 and 138-145.
The psalm begins with the psalmist praising God for benefits/rewards in his life (verses 1-5). Then, he praises God for the mercy He has shown the people in pardoning their sins, healing their physical ills, and redeeming them from destruction (verses 3-4). In verse 8, he says: Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness [hesed]. English translations of the Bible often render the Hebrew word hesed as "mercy," "kindness," or "loving-kindness." However, hesed refers to a particular kind of love defined in the bond of a covenant relationship. The psalmist writes that Yahweh is merciful to His covenant people and patient. Even when they abuse their covenant bonds, He retains His covenant love for them and does not deal with them as their sins deserve but with mercy and compassion (verses 8 and 10).
David, in his many failures, appreciated God's mercy and compassion. However, no matter how many times David erred, he never broke the bonds of his covenant love for Yahweh but accepted God's corrections and submitted himself to God's judgments out an abundance of trust, faith, and love. In St. Paul's address in Acts 13:22, he spoke about God's feelings for King David: Then he [God] removed him [Saul] and raised up David as their king; of him, he testified, "I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish." From this man's descendants, God, according to his promise, has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus. We hope when the day comes that we meet God face to face, that He will also say of us that He has found us to be "after His own heart" in demonstrating our faithful covenant love and obedience to the commandments of God the Son.
Second Reading 1 John 4:7-16 ~ God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
8 Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
9 In this way, the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.
10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.
13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit.
14 Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.
15 Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God.
16 We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Our acts of love as commanded by Jesus to love God and
others (Mt 22:37-40; Mk 12:30-31; Lk 10:25-28; Jn 15:17) define us as no longer
creatures created by God in the family of Adam, but children "begotten" by God
the Father in the Sacrament of rebirth that is Christian baptism.
1 John 4:7-12 repeats Jesus' teaching on "love" in the Gospel of John 15:9-17. In His Last Supper Discourse, Jesus told His disciples: 9 As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that your joy might be complete. 12 This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. [...] 16 It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. 17 This I command you: love one another. Notice the progression of "to love" that developed from the Gospel of John 15:9 and then expands in verses 12 and 17:
In John 15:10, Jesus told the Apostles that they would remain in His love IF they kept His commandments, a theme the Letter of 1 John repeated in 3:21-24. In the Gospel of John 15:16-17, Jesus told them that He chose them and commissioned them to change the world by their deeds. The heart of that commissioning concerns obedience to the command to love one another, as John repeated in this passage. Then, in the Gospel of John 15:17, for the third time, Jesus gave them the fundamental commandment to love (Jn 13:34; 15:12, 17). It is the greatest of the commandments from which all other commandments originate (Mt 22:34-40). It is a love commanded to produce more love.
St. John revisits Jesus' theme of love in 1 John 4:11-12: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. If we fulfill what Jesus identified as the two greatest commandments to love God and love one another, then the essence of the Most Holy Trinity abides/remains in us and evidence of that sanctification is demonstrated in our lives (Mt 22:34-40; Mk 12:28-34; Lk 10:25-28).
14 Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world. 15 Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. 16 We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
This passage is a summary of John's teaching on the love of God in his letter. It returns to the incompatibility between claiming to love God and refusing to love others and the necessity of remaining in God's love. In His Last Supper Discourse in John's Gospel, Jesus repeatedly spoke of remaining/abiding in Him and in His love. In John chapter 15, Jesus used the Greek word mene/meno repeatedly (i.e., twelve times in 15:4 four times, 5, 6, 7 twice, 9, 10 twice, 16). John uses the same Greek word in his letters (twenty-four times in 1 Jn 2:6, 10, 14, 17, 24 three times, 27 twice, 28; 3:6, 9, 14, 15, 17, 24 twice, 4:12, 13, 15, 16 twice and 2 Jn 9 twice). Now John has taken up the theme of "remaining/abiding" in Christ again in 4:12-16.
Verse 16 is the key to the passage:
16 We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and
whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
Take John's advice
and perfect your life by taking up the challenge to love as Christ loved! It
is a command that has everlasting benefits.
The Gospel of Matthew 11:25-30 ~ Jesus' Invitation to Salvation
25 At that time Jesus exclaimed: "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones.
26 Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.
28 Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."
After St. John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod Antipas, he sent his disciples to hear Jesus' testimony as to His identity. After praising John and reproaching the unrepentant towns that heard His message and saw His miracles, Jesus began to give praise to the Father (Mt 11:25). Those of childlike faith ("little ones") for whom Jesus gives thanks are those who have accepted St. John's baptism of repentance. They are the ones who have, by the grace of God the Holy Spirit, experienced the conversion of heart that is necessary to open their minds and hearts to welcomed as Savior and Lord.
The Catechism teaches that what moves us to believe or have faith is not just being convinced of revealed truths that are intelligible in the light of our natural reason. We believe "because the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived" has moved us to have faith. Moved by the Holy Spirit, our faith is more certain than our human intellect because of its foundation on the Word of God who does not lie and is Himself "Truth" (see CCC 154-157).
Jesus reveals a profound theological truth in this prayer that He had not previously made known in verse 27. He reveals that He is the revelation of the Father; He and the Father are One (see CCC 73, 221, 238-42, 279*). Notice that Jesus offers the Father vocal prayer. We often focus on meditation and silent prayer and forget the power of vocal prayer. Vocal prayer was not only an essential element of liturgical life in the Synagogue and the Temple liturgy for the Old Covenant people of God, but it remains an essential part of the New Covenant Christian life in the Church (CCC 2701). This passage is not the first time Jesus has prayed aloud to the Father. Jesus taught His disciples the vocal prayer that unites was as children in the family of God: the Lord's Prayer (see Mt 6:9-13). Jesus also offered a vocal prayer at the Last Supper. It is usually called Jesus' "High Priestly Prayer" (Jn 14-17; CCC 2604). He would also speak aloud His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane in His time of agony when His soul cried out to the Father.
28 "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves."
Jesus' invitation recalls one of the reoccurring images of the Old Testament prophets for the people in covenant union with God: domesticated animals obediently following the commands of their master (see the complete chart "Symbolic Images of the Old Testament Prophets").
| Image |
Part I Covenant relationship |
Part II Rebellion |
Part III Redemptive Judgment |
Part IV Restoration Fulfilled |
| Animals | Domesticated animals obedient to the Master's yoke | Resist the yoke; run away and become wild | Ravaged by wild beasts/birds of prey |
Rescued by their Master |
| Examples in Scripture |
Mic 4:13; Is 40:10-11; 65:25; Ez 34:15-16 |
Ex 32:9; 33:3, 5; 34:9; Dt 9:6, 13; Is 50:6; 53:6; Jer 5:5d-6; 8:6b-7; 23:1-2; Ez 19:1-9 |
Is 50:7; Jer 8:15-17; 50:6-7; Ho 8:1-14; 13:6-8 |
Mt 11:28-30; Jn 1:29, 36; 10:1-18; Heb 3:20; Rev 5:6, 13; 7:9-17; 14:1-10; 19:2-9; 21:9-23; 22:1-3 |
In the Old Testament, God and His prophets often accused the rebellious Israelites of being "stiff-necked." Keeping in mind the symbolism of domesticated animals in the covenant imagery, notice what comparison Jesus is making and what exactly does it mean to be "stiff-necked." Domesticated cattle wear a yoke when being directed by their master/owner. Obedient oxen do not strain against the yoke but follow the direction of their master. Disobedient animals are "stiff-necked" when they stubbornly resist yielding to guidance by the master's yoke, like the Israelites who refused to be obedient to God their divine Master (see Ex 32:9; 33:3, 5; 34:9; Dt 9:6, 13; 10:16; 2 Chron 30:8; Acts 7:51).
Jesus makes a promise to those who accept His invitation to "Come to me" and to take up His yoke of obedience. He promises that His yoke will not cause us distress, and we will find "rest" in Him. Jesus' promise of "rest" recalls an event and a command on the seventh day of Creation (see Gen 2:1-3). The command concerned the Sabbath obligation for the members of the Sinai Covenant (Ex 20:8-11; 34:21; 35:1-3; Dt 5:12-15), reminds us of the significance of the Sabbath that is a link to Jesus' invitation and promise in 11:28-30. On the seventh day of Creation, God "rested" because He completed His work. In commemoration of that event in salvation history, the Sabbath became a day of "rest." The purpose of the Sabbath was for members of God's covenant family to enter into His "rest" and have fellowship with Him. Jesus follows His invitation to "come" to Him by a promise for those who "come" and obediently "wear His yoke" (follow the commandments of Jesus "the Master"). They will have "rest"/fellowship with God the Son.
Jesus' promise is an allusion to the New Covenant Sabbath. The Hebrew word for the seventh day of the week is the noun sabbat, from the Hebrew root sbt [sabat], the verb which means "to rest" or "to cease." The combination sabbat sabbaton, meaning "Sabbath of complete rest," appears for the seventh day in Exodus 32:5 and Leviticus 23:3, for the feast of Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement] in Leviticus 16:31-2; 23:32, for the feast of Trumpets in Leviticus 23:24, and for the Sabbath year in Leviticus 25:4 (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 5, "Sabbath," page 849). Jesus' promise looked forward to a New Covenant Sabbath called "the Lord's Day" that will commemorate His Resurrection from death and the promise of eternal rest with Him when our days on earth come to an end.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Jesus promises that obedience to His commandments is not
too great a burden for His covenant people to bear. The purpose of His "yoke"
is to keep us on the "narrow path" to eternal salvation while guiding us to the
Promised Land of Heaven, where we will find "rest" for our souls. Such a
"yoke" should be a delight and not a burden because the Master guiding us along
the way is our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
Catechism references for this lesson (*indicates
Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
Deuteronomy 7:6 (CCC 762*);
7:8 (CCC 218*);
(CCC 215*)
1 John 4:8 (CCC 214, 221, 733, 1604*); 4:9 (CCC 458, 1560); 4:10 (CCC 457, 604, 614*, 620, 1428*); 4:11-12 (CCC 735*); 4:14 (CCC 457); 4:16 (CCC 221, 733, 1604*)
Matthew 11:25-27 (CCC 2603*, 2779); 11:25-26 (CCC 2701*); 11:25 (CCC 153*, 544*, 2785); 11:27 (CCC 151*, 240, 443*, 473*); 11:28 (CCC 1658); 11:29-30 (CCC 1615*); 11:29 (CCC 459)
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